Thread by @ChristopherJM

It's Friday, folks. This morning in Charlottesville, the first witnesses for the plaintiffs will take the stand in Sines v Kessler, the civil case filed against the "Unite the Right" organizers.

Here's how opening statements went yesterday: buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…

For background: buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…

And for more, threads from...
Day 1 of jury selection:

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1452600228620685317

Day 2 of jury selection:

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1452972141608148993

Day 3 of jury selection:

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1453363693941518336?s=20

Day 4, opening statements:

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1453700513086775316?s=20

Witnesses, including the plaintiffs themselves, who were injured in the "Unite the Right" violence will testify and be questioned by the plaintiffs' legal team. But they'll also be cross-examined by the defendants' legal team, and Richard Spencer and Chris Cantwell themselves.

Overnight, plaintiffs filed a letter asking for curative jury instructions. 'We write to express concern that statements about the law made by Defendants in opening statements were in error, contradicting Court’s instructions, and to ask that they be corrected by the Court.'

Plaintiffs have 3 points:
1. Defendants Confused the Law Governing Conspiracy Liability
2. Defendants Misstated Longstanding Principles of First Amendment Law
3. Defendants Repeatedly Made Arguments in Contravention of the Court’s Rulings
So we might hear on this first today.

The first witness up today is plaintiff Natalie Romero, 24, from Houston. She went to UVA and graduated in August 2020. She lives in New York now. She's talking about her accomplishments and work with civil society orgs since then.

Attorney Karen Dunn asks Romero what she was doing summer of 2017, before Unite the Right. She was working on environmental issues as an intern and working at a Greek restaurant. She talks about what she and her friends were doing, hikes, "social stuff" that students would do.

She returned to Charlottesville after a trip on August 11, 2017.
She now recalls that day... She returned from Houston. Put down the windows down in the car... "I was like a dog," she says, recalling the freshness of the air as she made her way to UVA.

Romero says, "I took my last selfie there with my face, well, you know, without what it looks like now," referring to her scars from Unite the Right.

She's now talking about being with friends and demonstrators and the group of them linking arms around the statue of Jefferson on UVA's campus.

Dunn asks Romero if she had weapons. No, Romero says. No mace. Nothing that could have been used as a weapon. "I don't think I even had my phone," she says.

Dunn: When you were ast the statue, you heard something. Explain that.

Romero: I heard something. Loudness. Like thunder. The earth was growling, essentially.

Dunn: Did you hear words? Eventually, Romero says.

"Blood and soil... White power were others."

There's another chant Romero says she doesn't like to repeat because it's terrifying.

The "You will not replace us was very...that one was just so terrifying."

Romero says in that moment she looked around. She put her head down and prayed a little bit. She says she wishes she could have covered her face. She says "I was terrified." She's talking of course about the white supremacists marching toward her and others.

Romero says "It wasn’t how I expected the night to go. I expected to see some friends and go home."

She heard monkey noises shouted at her by the neo-nazis and other white supremacists surrounding her and others, & things like “Go back to where you’re from” and “Stupid bitch.”

Dunn is showing Romero photos of the night of Aug 11. She IDs herself in the group of peaceful demonstrators and notes the torch-wielding mob of white supremacists surrounding them.

Did Romero consider leaving? Absolutely. But "there was literally no way. No way" to escape, she recalls. She says, "I tried to keep my head down. Like a mouse." She says it "felt like the Salem witch trials, like I was about to be burned at the stake."

Romero says the white supremacists began swinging torches at her group. She said she was terrified. "For reference, I'm 4'10" and a half. I'm tiny. And everyone was just screaming." She said a torch was thrown at them and landed at her feet.

She saw the Unite the Right people attack people, she says. She says it felt like forever before she was able to escape. She points to a sign in a photo and says she ran toward it and tried to exit the crowd somewhere beyond it.

Romero managed to get out eventually. But she had already been maced, she says. She saw a student in a wheelchair who was getting their eyes washed out. She did the same.

She says the neo-nazis were "really excited" about what was happening.

When Romero got home, she says, "I got in the shower to cry. I just kind of sat there reliving it all again." She says the shower reactivated the mace and it burned her eyes and skin as it washed down her body.

Dunn asks, why after the events of Friday night, Aug 11, would you want to go to events on Saturday, Aug 12? Romero says she felt because it was under cover of night that the neo-nazis felt they could get away with what they did. She wanted to be there for the community, she says

Romero says she was wearing a pink UVA hat, a green shirt, black pants, black shoes, purple raincoat when she left home. She had a Colombian satchel to hold her phone she said. She had no weapons. Nothing to use as a weapon. No sign or banner or flag. No bottles with her.

Dunn is trying to show the jury that Romero had nothing she could have used as a weapon and ad no intention of using violence against the neo-nazis. Dunn's showing a map to court now of where Emancipation Park is and showing where Romero arrived there.

Romero said nobody at the park was blocking the road nearby or carrying any weapons. But she saw the neo-nazis and white nationalists with hammers, poles, flags that she has since come to recognize, "unfortunately."

Romero saw white shields and neo-nazis with camcorders in people's faces, which she believes were meant to be used to dox counterprotesters.

Romero is recounting how neo-nazis attacked the crowd, hit women with bats and poles. She again brings up seeing the white nationalist crowd carrying hammers.

Romero says the neo-nazis were saying rude, ugly things about women..."these bitches are in the road, things like that." She says she didn't think they'd be violent to women who were doing nothing, especially white women she was with...

She's a "light-skinned Latina," she says, adding that she hoped the neo-nazis didn't notice her. But they did. They pushed her against a cop car and spit at her and told her to go back to where she came from. "I was born here," she said.

"I was spit on! I was spit on! They made me think I shouldn't be alive. I'm just trying to go to school man. I'm just trying to get out of poverty."

Romero says the neo-nazis "were so happy" that they ran through a group of women "for no fucking reason."

"I was in shock."

Dunn asks Romero to recall some of the things said to her.

"Go back where you came from was a big one I heard multiple times. At some point someone called me a sp*c."

The court is taking a 20-minute recess.

And we're back. Dunn is asking to go back and clarify with Romero the violence she saw. Was it in or out of Emancipation Park? Both, she answers.

Romero says she ended up at 4th and Water streets when someone "started to let people know the white nationalists were at Friendship Court...and harassing people. So we started walking toward Friendship Court."

Romero says there were counterprotesters there with instruments who were "happy to see each other." She says "everything was fine" then.

Dunn: What happened when you turned up 4th street?

Romero says it happened very quickly... "I think I was taking a snapchat video..."

"Do you want me to describe essentially...?" she asks Dunn, who nods yes. ...

Romero says she heard "the commotion."

(We're getting to the car attack and Romero is recalling what's clearly a horrific memory.)

"It all happened so quick..."

"Then I get hit and the next thing I know is darkness..."

She likens the moment to a movie scene. "You know when it's like flashing. ... I couldn't see much."

"I couldn't feel much, but I felt dripping on my face. I wanted to call my mom."

Romero continues: "I thought that I was about to die. These are my last seconds of breath. I need to call my mom right now."

"The flashes. The noise... A lot of people are trying to talk to me, a lot of people are trying to keep me awake."

"I don't know what's happening to me."

Romero says she just wanted to lay down but if she did she "might not wake up."

She describes a chaotic scene in the immediate aftermath of neo-nazi James Fields ramming his car into the crowd of counterprotesters.

Dunn shows the court and Romero a shocking photo of Romero with blood streaming down her face. A group of people around her are wishing her head with water and checking her body for injuries.

This is the image we're seeing in court.

There's another image now of Romero with a bandage around her head and being tended to by another young woman. "They're wiping my face. I'm holding onto that pole. My face hurt so much," Romero tells the court.

In the first photo, Romero says her mother didn't even recognize her. Her mother thought, "That's not my kid." But in the bandage image she knew it was her.

Romero says two friends walked her to an ambulance. Inside, she lost consciousness. She woke up at the hospital. When she woke up... "My neck is casted. There's white around me. Parts of my legs were casted up."

Romero on what else she noticed in the hospital: "There was all kinds of stuff on my arms... My entire bag looked like Freddy Krueger," she adds, making a shredding noise and gesture.

She was terrified, says she asked if she was paralyzed.

She cries.

She says she found out she had "MRIs and other things" done while she was unconscious. She had a skull fracture and docs worked on her and stitched her up while she was out. She said she has a dead tooth now from being hit.

Romero is showing the court her scars, pointing them out on her arms and other parts of her body, "here, and here, and here..."

Romero is describing a selfie she took and we're seeing it in court. It shows her in a hospital gown. Her head is bandaged, she's cut and bruised all over her face, head, neck.

Dunn shows the court two more photos of Romero from the hospital. One of them Romero took herself.

Dunn: How does it feel to look at these photos today?
Romero:"I haven't seen these photos in so long... It's hard."

"I can feel the tumor in my mouth."

Romero says she had just moved into her new place and hadn't settled in. Remember, she returned from Houston just a day before she was hit. So she moved into a friend's place, got a bed. She says recovery was painful and Dunn shows the court another photo of Romero.

Romero says the skull fracture meant she is now sensitive to light and brightness. She experiences dizziness like the "world just moves around me." She's had trouble focusing. Dunn shows court a message from Aug 14, 2017 that Romero sent that just says, "I can't talk it hurts."

Romero is discussing her headaches after the attack. The never went away, just got a "little less severe and less constant." She says she can't really read anymore. Working on her laptop is tough. She had to ask to have class materials and books printed out.

Romero talks about getting out of a wheelchair finally and getting a cane to help her walk after the attack. "At least I had a nice cane," she says. "The doctors gave me a rose gold cane because it was in style."

Romero says she now lacks confidence. She's self-conscious about her appearance. She says she's one of the few Latina women on campus and worked hard to fit in. "I'm already hated enough... I'm a brown woman in this school." People ask if she was born with a cleft lip.

Romero is going through all the major changes in her life as a result of the attack. She says she doesn't even feel safe in her own bed anymore.

Romero says she was diagnosed with acute anxiety and PTSD. Sometimes it feels like her heart is pounding outside of her chest. She got a rescue dog, an emotional support animal, so she felt comfortable leaving the house and going outside.

Dunn asks why she testified today...

Romero begins to cry.

"I spent a lot of time hiding and isolating myself from the world. I'm just here to tell the truth. I want closure, I want to move on. I want to be normal."

Now Romero must face cross from the defendants' side...

James Kolenich, attorney for Jason Kessler, Nathan Damigo, and Identity Evropa is questioning Romero now. He's asking how she knows about Kessler and about "the evidence" against him.
She says she knows "The planning...other things that led to it."

Romero says she didn't learn about Kessler's organization of "Unite the Right" from her attorneys; she heard it from public sources.

Kolenich: What do you know yourself about the planning Jason Kessler did? Romero struggles to answer and says she doesn't completely understand the question.

Kolenich wraps up. Richard Spencer steps up. He's defending himself and is now questioning Romero. He thanks her for her testimony and begins by asking "Did you know about Richard Spencer, that is myself, before?" She says she confused him with others but knew his face.

Spencer asks if Romero saw him during the torchlight "activities." She doesn't recall whether she did or not. Seems a strategy of defendants and their attorneys is to try to show that the plaintiffs might not have known who they were or didn't see them personally on Aug 11-12.

Spencer asks why Romero wanted to go out that weekend in 2017. Romero says she wanted to go to speeches, events, etc., which is why she chose to come to UVA, to be close to the White House and other historical places.

Spencer asks why she was holding a banner that said 'UVA students against white supremacy,' but she wasn't, Romero says. Oh, Spencer says, you were near the banner. He asks her if it was an organization; she says it wasn't.

Spencer doesn't dispute her injuries and suffering, he says. "What makes you think I was involved in the car attack or car incident...?" Plaintiffs object. Judge Moon says he can ask what Romero knows... can cross-examine about what she observed.

Spencer keeps asking if Romero remembers seeing him in Charlottesville...

"I would also remind you," Romero tells Spencer, that due to her injuries her memories are fuzzy.

Spencer has no further questions.

After a lunch break, we're back in court and will hear more cross-examination of plaintiff Natalie Romero by the defendants.

William Edward "Eddie" ReBrook is the next attorney for the defendants to come up for cross-examination of Romero, says Judge Moon.

ReBrook is not in the courtroom and is appearing by phone, it seems. He was hospitalized earlier in the week. He says he has just two questions for Romero. First, do you recall seeing his client, Jeff Schoeps, at the "Unite the Right" rally? She asks to see a photo of him...

She doesn't recognize Schoep.

His next question, can she differentiate between all the logos of the various groups involved in the case. She says some yes.

Chris Cantwell is up. He's jumping right in with a sharp tone and asking one short question after another to Romero. Do you follow @EmilyGorcenski on Twitter? He asks. Romero says she's a trans woman from the community and she never met her.

Cantwell asking about whether she knows websites, various counterprotesters, did she notice anybody wearing "all black" and "sunglasses at night?"

"Do you know who X is?" is Cantwell's line of questioning right now. He asks if Romero knows a list of neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Did you see people wearing helmets? Romero says she saw Unite the Right people wearing helmets. Cantwell trying to get her to say counterprotesters were wearing helmets.

Cantwell asks: Did you see any counterprotesters wearing goggles on Aug 12? Did you see any carrying flag poles?

Romero: No.

Cantwell: Did you see any counterprotesters carrying signs? Any stand out in your memory?

Romero can't recall.

Cantwell asks if she saw a flag with a raised red fist on it (antifa is what he's getting at). Romero says no.

Cantwell asks Romero about monuments now. How do you feel about Lee monument? The Jefferson monument? Romero answering thoughtfully says she thinks slavery is horrible and if monuments symbolize hatred that can be removed. People oppressed by people like Lee should be respected..

Cantwell: "How do you feel about fascism?"

Romero: "It's something that literally hates me and my existence."

Cantwell asks if because she's a Hispanic woman.

"I'm also a queer woman," Romero says.

Cantwell asks are you an antifacist, do you know anyone associated with antifa?

Romero says No.

Cantwell pushes a couple times to say whether she made "new friends" at the counterprotest.

Cantwell just made Romero and the court zoom in on a hat a counterprotester wore to demonstrate against neo-nazis that read on the front "Virginia is for lovers" and that pretty much sums up this confusing cross-examination.

Cantwell is drawing circles around figures in a photo of counterprotesters at the Jefferson statue on Aug. 11 and just asking Romero if she knows who they are.

I actually think Cantwell might be trying to dox people he thinks are antifa by having Romero try to name them in court.

Cantwell is over. I just couldn't keep tweeting his bizarre questioning.

Bryan Jones, attorney for League of the South, cross-examined Romero quickly. He asked just a few questions and pulled up an email from Romero to a friend that says "James Fields destroyed my life."