Delegate Danielle Walker has refiled a lawsuit against West Virginians for Life Inc. (WVFL) and the former president of its Berkeley County Chapter, Richard Demoske, in Monongalia County Circuit Court after a Kanawha County judge dismissed an original suit filed there in February due to improper venue.
The lawsuit is in response to “a violent, racist, hateful, and intimidating email and Facebook post, authored and posted by the West Virginians for Life,” the suit’s prefatory comment read.
Walker, a pro-choice democrat, elected to represent the 51st District in Monongalia County, said she was the only delegate of any party to receive this email and be tagged in a Facebook post, both of which used a picture of “a Ku Klux Klansman in full KKK hood and robe throwing a Nazi salute to harass and intimidate West Virginia’s only black female lawmaker from supporting a pro-choice bill.”
The day after Walker received the messages, Demoske claimed responsibility and apologized for the electronic harassment by a letter addressed not to Walker, but “To Whom it May Concern,” in which he admitted the email and post were racist.
Demoske resigned from his position with WVFL, as his conduct violated the by-laws of the organization.
According to the Mon County lawsuit, Walker has been a regular target of WVFL and its supporters while serving as a political figure in the state.
Walker said she has shared personal experiences with abortion as a means to inform the public of her unique situation and has disclosed she has had three abortions in her life. She said the pro-life group has used this disclosure to “further intimidate and harass” her.
The delegate said she also arrived at her state legislative office one day to find three small baby dolls left on her desk, “clearly done to harass and intimidate her because she herself had three abortions.”
“I acknowledge that my position as an elected official can subject me to public criticism,” Walker said in a comment to The Dominion Post. “I have accepted a reasonable amount of criticism regarding my political views and policies and will continue to do so. But not every subject is fair game in life or even politics.
“Richard Demoske and West Virginians for Life specifically targeted me with harassment because I am a black woman who is pro-choice. Their specific attacks on me were threatening and intended to intimidate me so that I would change the way I vote to agree with their anti-woman and anti-abortion patient policies,” Walker continued. “Those policies strip women and abortion patients of control of their own bodies and gives it to the government. I will not stand idly by for the harassment and bullying or for the reduction of women and abortion patients as full autonomous citizens.”
Walker is asking the court to grant injunctive relief in the case, including a restraining order and a cease-and-desist order.
The suit’s petition for relief states the conduct of WVFL and Demoske has caused Walker to suffer emotional distress, fear for her life and the lives of her family, and fear of future racist attacks and without this restraining order, the defendants will likely continue their harassment.
Walker’s attorney, Teresa C. Toriseva, said, “No one should be harassed because of their color, race, gender, religion, sexuality, disability, or political view. Certainly, no political official should be harassed or bullied to change their political vote.”
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