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Trademark Law

DC church controls Proud Boys trademark as result of judge’s decision

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 4, 2025, 1:59 pm CST

A Washington, D.C., judge has transferred interest in a trademark owned by Proud Boys International, a far-right group, to a church that its members vandalized in December 2020.

The judge’s injunction also banned Proud Boys International from selling or licensing its trademark without court approval or the consent of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, which had sued over the attack.

Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the District of Columbia Superior Court entered the injunction Feb. 3 after the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., sued to enforce a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys.

The New York Times, the Independent, the Guardian and the Hill are among the publications with coverage.

Bosier’s ruling “effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church,” the New York Times reports. “The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise, like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.”

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., had obtained the default judgment in a June 2023 decision by Judge Neal E. Kravitz of the District of Columbia Superior Court. He ruled after the church alleged that the Proud Boys trespassed on church property during a march and destroyed its large Black Lives Matter sign.

The church was represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

One of the defendants in the lawsuits was Enrique Tarrio, a former Proud Boys leader who had been sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes for helping to plan the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. Tarrio was not at the Capitol during the attack, however, because he was banned from the city after he was arrested on vandalism charges, the New York Times explains.

Last month, Tarrio received a full pardon of his Capitol attack convictions from President Donald Trump.

Tarrio commented on the trademark injunction in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He accused the church of engaging “in a campaign of harassment and falsehoods.” The judge’s conduct, he said, “necessitates impeachment and investigation.”

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A California pastor received an unwelcomed guest for Thanksgiving in the form of an ax-wielding burglar.

The Antioch Police Department said in a Facebook post that the pastor of First Family Church went to check on an alarm early Thursday. As he arrived, he came across a burglary in progress.

More coverage from Law&Crime: Woman attacked dad with ice ax, said she ‘felt better’ after he ‘went limp’: Cops

“When the burglar saw his wicked deeds had been discovered he decided to fight with the pastor instead of repent,” cops wrote. “What he did not know was the pastor would win this battle of good and evil and he held down the perp until APD arrived and placed the man in custody.”

Pastor Nick Neves told NBC News when he saw the burglar, he ordered him to stop and said the cops were coming.

“I grabbed a hold of him and we ended up wrestling in the parking lot of the church,” he said.

Neves, 46, has a mixed martial arts background with some training in jujitsu and kickboxing. That MMA experience helped as he was able to control the suspect without hurting him, the pastor said. After about 15 minutes of wrestling, the burglar ran out of gas and police arrived soon after.

Texas authorities say that a woman opened fire at Lakewood Church, the church of pastor and televangelist Joel Osteen.

Wearing a trench coat, armed with a long rifle, and accompanied by a child aged 4 or 5, she arrived at the property at about 1:53 p.m., and opened fire after entering the building, said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.

This was in between services.

At one point, the woman, approximately aged 30 to 35 years old, allegedly claimed to have a bomb. She also sprayed a substance on the ground, the chief told reporters.

An off-duty agent for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and off-duty officer for Houston police were there, and they confronted her, shooting and killing her, Finner said.

“Unfortunately, the five-year-old kid was hit, and is in critical condition at our local hospital,” he told reporters.

A 57-year-old man, who apparently had nothing to do with the incident, was shot in the leg, Finner said. He is also receiving treatment.

In light of the woman’s bomb threat, authorities searched her backpack and vehicle but found no explosives, he said.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Finner said.

A church youth group leader said he did not intend on “hurting anybody” when touching a little girl’s private parts, but later told investigators that he “gave in to temptation,” according to a press statement and an affidavit viewed by Law&Crime.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida announced on Wednesday that Richard Scott Shaw, 69, was charged with lewd molestation and awaits extradition from Wyoming.

Deputies said that law enforcement counterparts in the defendant’s home state are investigating whether he might have abused other kids. He had access to them as a worship and church youth group leader for “Under Command Ministries” in Freemont County.