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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Trump Sued for Inciting |Supporters to Violence

(CN) - A trio of protesters sued Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump over injuries they claim to have suffered at the hands of his supporters at a Louisville, Ky. campaign rally.

In a complaint filed in the Jefferson County Circuit Court, plaintiffs Kashiya Nwanguma, Molly Shah and Henry Brousseau claim they were peacefully protesting during a March 1 Trump rally at the Kentucky International Convention Center when they were set upon by the candidate's supporters and forcibly removed from the venue.

The plaintiff say Trump instigated the rough treatment by telling the crowd to "get 'em out of here," according to the complaint.

Nwanguma, 21, a black college student, says that at during the rally, she held up a sign depicting Trump's face with the body of a pig.

"Supporters of Defendant Trump called Nwanguma a 'nigger' and a 'cunt' during the Rally," the complaint says, and she was "thereafter violently assaulted by numerous protesters."

Nwanguma says at no time did a police officer or member of Trump's campaign staff come to her aid.

She also singles out two defendants, Matthew John Heimbach and Alvin Bamberger, as being particularly aggressive in their alleged assault of her.

"Heimbach, who is nearly twice Nwanguma's size, repeatedly shoved Nwanguma and shouted 'leftist scum' at her," the complaint says.

Shah, a 36-year-old mother, activist, and former public-interest attorney says she witnessed an unknown defendant punch plaintiff Brousseau, a seventeen-year-old high school student, in the stomach.

"Donald J. Trump has decided to break with American tradition and the rule of law by inciting his supporters to physically attack protesters at his rallies and campaign appearances," the complaint says.

The plaintiffs also say that Trump invokes racism, misogyny, and religious intolerance.

They seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages on claims of assault and battery, incitement, vicarious liability, negligence and recklessness.

The plaintiffs are represented by Daniel Canon of Clay Daniel Walton & Adams in Louisville.

Representatives of the parties did not respond to requests for comment from Courthouse News.

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