A Boston Municipal Court judge ordered a not guilty verdict Wednesday for a leader of a neo-Nazi group who was arrested last summer after an altercation outside a drag queen story hour in Jamaica Plain.
Christopher Hood, 24, a leader of the National Socialist Club 131 (NSC-131), was charged with public fighting, an offense formally known as affray, after he was involved in an altercation with a counter-protester representing the LGBTQ+ community, who was also arrested.
Judge Maureen Flaherty ordered the ‘not guilty’ finding after ruling that prosecutors did not provide enough evidence for the jury to make a fair decision on the charge without speculating or guesswork.
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To find Hood guilty, Flaherty said prosecutors would have needed to prove that fighting or threats of violence caused fear or terror among members of the public.
“There is no evidence that at least one lawfully present person was put in fear,” Flaherty told attorneys. “Even looking at everything in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, I don’t think it would be appropriate to give [this case] to the jury. I think it would be surmise, conjecture, or guesswork.”
Outside the courthouse after the decision, Hood’s lawyer, William E. Gens, said he felt “satisfied” with the outcome.
“I felt confident that if the case had been put to a jury, we would’ve gotten the same verdict, but I’ll take the win any way I can get it,” he said.
Hood, of Pepperell, stood outside the courthouse in West Roxbury with supporters Wednesday. He declined to comment on the case.
A spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office said that, despite the verdict, the office will continue to “pursue hate crime prosecutions whenever the facts and evidence support moving forward.”
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The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have classified NSC-131 as a neo-Nazi organization. Hood’s case marks the second time in as many weeks a leader of the group has faced a judge.
Last week, a New Hampshire superior court judge dismissed a civil rights case against NSC-131 taken up by the state’s attorney general, according to WBUR. The judge found that New Hampshire prosecutors used an overly broad interpretation of state law to stifle protected speech after the group hung a banner that read “Keep New England White.”
In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Laura Drohan gave a detailed account of the protest outside the drag queen story hour, but was barred from describing the motives or affiliation of the group. Police and witness accounts, however, depict demonstrators with covered faces chanting “NSC-131″ and displaying a banner that read, “PEDO SCUM OFF OUR STREETS.”
Drohan instead focused on the faceoff between the demonstrators and a group of LGBTQ+ counter-protesters, telling jurors about Hood’s alleged “retaliation against counter-protesters inches from Boston police... at an otherwise peaceful protest.”
“All these people exercised their First Amendment rights, as they are entitled to, and should be able to do,” Drohan said. “What they are not entitled to do is resort to violence.”
Gens argued that Hood’s behavior constituted self-defense, after allegedly witnessing a counter-protester “hurtle his body” toward another member of NSC-131. . Gens told jurors that when police failed to assume their responsibility to separate the two groups, Hood felt as though he has no choice but to respond.
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“In an act of clear assault and battery... the police do nothing,” Gens said. “There’s no line of retreat... [so Hood] wraps him up. He’s restrains [the counter-protester], he holds him at bay.”
Video footage played by prosecutors showed Hood respond to the counter-protester smacking his hat by gripping the counter-protester around the neck with his arm, holding it there as the two fall to the ground.
Boston police officer Matthew Walsh, who was responsible for crowd control at the protest, testified that he was already in the process of escorting the counter-protester away when “Mr. Hood also grabbed on... in like a hold, almost near his neck, like a body hold.”
Walsh testified that he and other officers gave Hood repeated verbal commands to “get off of him, and were also trying to force his arm off” before handcuffing both men.
On cross examination, however, Walsh conceded that he and other officers were not actively intervening at every moment of the demonstration, insisting that the group of demonstrators outnumbered police.
Ivy Scott can be reached at ivy.scott@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @itsivyscott.