RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal lawsuit accuses two white men of attacking a black teenager near his Virginia home as part of a campaign to run his interracial family out of their neighborhood.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after the men were convicted of assault and battery of 18-year-old Mister Frazier. However, they were cleared of hate crime charges after a judge said it appeared to be just a neighborhood fight.
During their trial, attorneys for the men argued Frazier was the aggressor and strongly rejected the idea that the fight was racially motivated.
The lawsuit claims the attack was part of a "campaign of race-based hostility, harassment, and violence" aimed at driving the interracial family from their all-white block.
