The New Hampshire Attorney General’s lawsuits have the potential to become a template for community members to use as a cudgel against hate acts that begin with vandalism, trespassing, and more. 

Innocent Bystander

PORTSMOUTH, NH– In a series of rather forward-looking lawsuits, Chris Hood, Leo Anthony Cullinan, and ten or more members of the unincorporated NSC-131, aka, “Nationalist Social Club-131” were sued in Superior Court by the New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella in legal actions announced on January 17, 2023. 

According to the New Hampshire Department of Justice, the lawsuits allege that Hood, Cullinan, NSC-131, and related actors trespassed and violated local, state, and federal law by hanging a banner on highway property over an overpass and thus subjected state residents, visitors, and taxpayers to illegal conduct, and, unlawful discriminatory acts under the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act. A temporary and/or permanent injunction against such future type of conduct for three years is sought as well as a $10,000 fine to be paid by each defendant party. The attorney general, based on state law, also requested that the lawsuit hearing be expedited due to the civil rights claims. 

Since these suits are civil, there is no constitutional right to an attorney. The defendants will have to defend themselves, secure counsel on their own or through other support, or risk a binding default judgment. Moreover, since the lawsuits are separate, defendants would have to go through various procedural efforts to more cohesively defend themselves which would probably be an uphill climb for them, especially NSC-131, since the group is unincorporated and members seeking to act in its defense would likely have to identify themselves one way or another. 

Hood, currently of Newportbury, MA, is no stranger to controversy. In October of last year, he sought a public defender to represent him in a hearing where he would pay a $200 fee.  He had previously sought to represent himself in the criminal matter after being assigned a legal defender. Hood had been with NSC-131 and others while protesting a drag show reading hour this past July and became involved in a group street fight with counterprotesters. Cullinan, currently of Manchester, NH has an established state and federal criminal profile. In April of 2009 Cullinan was indicted for conspiracy and armed robbery of a handgun that was later used in a murder by another party. Following that, he was arrested and plead guilty in federal court to the charges of conspiracy to distribute, and distributing, the opioid OxyContin™️ (oxycodone HCl) as a result of a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) sting. Cullinan has a listed Gmail account prefix of “l.cullinan88” — which includes a common alphanumeric code for “Heil Hitler,” H being the eighth letter of of the English alphabet. On Telegram, his handle is “purepower_88” according to the Twitter account, Antifa Garfield. 

NSC-131 is a documented Neo-Nazi group that is principally active in several New England states, participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt, and participated in the 2019 Super Happy Fun America Straight Pride Parade in Boston, although the latter claimed to disavow them despite many parallel or intertwining connections. 

More recently, NSC-131 has been involved in activities involving St. Patrick’s Day in Boston, a Providence, RI bookstore and a Drag Queen Reading Hour in Taunton, MA. In addition to New Hampshire actions, its Massachusetts neighbor is also building up steam in a related fashion.

Massachusetts and its local subparts have been actively working on improving anti-hate laws for the last two years due to the surge in hate crime acts.  Second, and also notable, is that Mass. officials as well as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts are also expanding their capacities and functions. 

But while mostly all applauded, activists and anti-fascists should be keenly studying the New Hampshire lawsuits here. Anti-discrimination/hate/civil rights laws do not necessarily have to go through state actors in order to directly prosecute. Many times legal complaints are free and so are the state supplied fill-in-blank forms. Private complaints are thus objectively possible. Moreover, if acts in the vein of NSC conduct as here and more are documented and perpetrators are identified, then public or private prosecutions become far more readily available since many states have relevant laws here, particularly on the East and West Coast and many other multi-heritage locations.