Springfield, Ohio, sues neo-Nazi group that it says led Haitian intimidation

DAYTON, Ohio — An Ohio city that was racked with chaos and threats last year related to an influx of Haitian immigrants filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a neo-Nazi group that it alleges was at the heart of the onslaught.

The city of Springfield, Mayor Rob Rue and several others sued the Blood Tribe, leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz and seven unnamed followers in U.S. District Court in Dayton.

They accuse the group of ''engaging in, and inciting, a campaign of harassment and intimidation, motivated by ethnic and racial hatred, against those who supported Springfield's Haitian community in the face of Defendants' racist attacks."

With legal help from the Anti-Defamation League, the plaintiffs are asking the court for a jury trial seeking to block the group from making further threats and to impose damages.

The court file did not list an attorney for the Blood Tribe. Messages were left at phone numbers listed under Pohlhaus' and Berentz's names.

Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 west of Columbus, has seen its Haitian population grow to about 10,000 people in recent years, as Haitians have fled violence in their home country in search of stability and employment. Their growing numbers caused friction with local residents, as schools, roads, hospitals and social programs were taxed by the large population — and, particularly, after a child was killed in 2023 when a Haitian immigrant driver hit a school bus.

As a candidate, Republican President Donald Trump honed worldwide attention on the city during a September presidential debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris, when he amplified false claims that Springfield's Haitians were abducting and eating people's cats and dogs.

Thursday's complaint alleges that the Blood Tribe first coordinated a ''hit'' against the city before that, in July, casting the influx of Haitians as an ''invasion'' that was threatening Springfield's ''good White residents.''

''Members of the Blood Tribe heeded the call,'' the complaint said. ''Over the next few months, the Blood Tribe and its members and associates unleashed a torrent of hateful conduct, including acts of harassment, bomb threats, and death threats, against Springfield residents who spoke out in support of the Haitian community.''

The Blood Tribe showed up at the city's jazz and blues festival in August, according to the court document, displaying guns, waving swastika flags and wearing matching red shirts, black pants and ski masks. They made their way to City Hall, where Berentz delivered a ''racist and antisemitic rant,'' to which followers responded with chants of ''Seig Heil'' and Nazi salutes.

Additional actions the lawsuit alleges against the group include harassing voicemails, hateful emails and social media posts demeaning the plaintiffs and their families. The complaint says that group members also used dating apps to send men looking for drugs and sex to the residents' homes late at night and publicized their personal information with the intent of getting others to join in the harassment.

The lawsuit makes no direct reference to Trump's remarks, but notes that Pohlhaus ''gleefully took credit for the growing notoriety'' the false claims gained as they spread around the world after the debate.

The leader of a national advocacy group for Haitians sought to invoke a private-citizen right to file criminal charges against Trump and his then-running mate, Vice President JD Vance, shortly after the debate, alleging they played a role in the chaos and threats Springfield experienced.

A panel of local judges decided in October to refer the matter to the county prosecutor for further investigation, rejecting the Haitian Bridge Alliance's call to issue arrest warrants or misdemeanor summonses to both men.

The alliance awaits a decision on an appeal it has filed in the Ohio Supreme Court. That lawsuit alleges that Clark County Municipal Court Judges Valerie Wilt, Daniel Carey and Stephen Schumaker ''patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction'' to meet as a group as they did when making the referral to the prosecutor.