In a civil trial that began today in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, a group of black tenants from a Virginia Beach apartment complex is claiming that White harassed them in May 2007 after learning of a discrimination lawsuit they had filed against their white landlord.
As the leader of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, White sent the tenants letters adorned with swastikas and addressed to "Whiney Section 8 N-----."
Following a rant about blacks on welfare, White concluded: "You may get one over on your landlord this time, and you may not. But know that the white community has noticed you, and we know that you are and never will be anything more than a dirty parasite — and that our patience with you and the government that coddles you runs thin."
After hearing testimony about White’s actions in December, a federal jury convicted him of threatening several residents with the intent of intimidating them into dropping their lawsuit.
White, 33, is serving a 2½-year prison term for that and two other threats. He also faces charges in Chicago of encouraging violence against the foreman of a jury the convicted a fellow white supremacist, a charge that was dismissed on free-speech grounds and later reinstated on appeal.
The civil trial that began today is scheduled to last three days. The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
Roanoke
