Cities Church member sues protesters who stormed worship service, cites fear and distress

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Friday, February 27, 2026

A woman from a Minnesota church whose Sunday service was disrupted by a protest last month has filed a lawsuit against the protesters, who also face federal charges, including former CNN anchor Dom Lemon. 

Ann Doucette, a member of Cities Church of St. Paul, where the protest against a pastor who also serves as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent took place on Jan. 18, filed a complaint on Monday in U.S. District Court for Minnesota.

Defendants named in the lawsuit include Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort and several others who entered Cities Church as part of the protest and have been federally charged.

The complaint accuses the protesters of civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, aiding and abetting, trespassing and interference with religious exercise.

“For Mrs. Doucette, the church was the one place she felt safe from the divisions of the world,” the filing reads, according to the Minneapolis Times, adding that Doucette now suffers from insomnia and anxiety. “That sense of security was shattered when defendants transformed a solemn service into a chaotic scene of intimidation.”

The complaint states that protesters called the congregants Nazis and told children their parents would "burn in hell." A similar allegation was found in a Jan. 20 federal affidavit.

Activist Trahern Crews, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, told NBC News that he denied the allegations in the complaint “with empathy and compassion.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged the protesters with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which has a provision protecting houses of worship from physical intimidation.

The official indictment, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, claimed that the protesters performed “a coordinated take-over style attack” on the church, engaging in “acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.”

Protesters reportedly interrupted the sermon with “loud declarations,” including chants such as “ICE Out!” and “Stand up, fight back!,” as well as yells and whistles.

Fort and Lemon have argued that they were only doing their job as journalists by covering the protest. But prosecutors contend that they met with protest leaders “for a pre-op briefing” at a shopping center led by defendants Nekima Levy-Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, which included “instruction on how the operation would be conducted once they arrived at the Church.”

In a guest essay published in The New York Times earlier this month, Fort defended her actions, claiming that she was exercising her right as a journalist to cover an event.

Fort believes the indictment against her is part of a “pattern of intimidating the press, physically harming reporters who are covering protests and, now, taking legal action against members of the media.”

“Charges against journalists for doing their jobs must be dropped,” she wrote. “Physical harm and intimidation against reporters must carry consequences.”

“If we as a nation fail to defend that principle now, clearly and without compromise, we may soon find that there is nothing left to defend.”

A legal analyst who supports Doucette's case maintains that coverage from someone with a platform like Lemon worked to "incentivize” the protesters' actions.

“There is a line between reporting the news and participating in the creation of a hostile environment,” a legal analyst familiar with the case told the Minneapolis Times. “The plaintiff’s argument is that the presence of high-profile cameras encouraged the protesters to be more aggressive, further violating the sanctity of the worship service.”