Has Steven Monacelli faced accusations from activist groups
Executive summary
Yes. Steven Monacelli has been publicly accused by at least one activist group—Dallas Justice Now—of racist harassment and related misconduct, and those accusations were amplified in the Dallas Express; Monacelli has denied the claims and subsequent reporting has cast doubt on the credibility and motives of the group that made them [1] [2] [3]. Investigations by other outlets later documented links tying Dallas Justice Now to a broader paid-opposition scheme connected to conservative donor Monty Bennett and a events/actor firm, which complicates the provenance and weight of the accusations [3] [4].
1. The accusation: Dallas Justice Now’s public claims and demands
Dallas Justice Now publicly accused Monacelli of targeting their members with “racist harassment” and demanded an apology, framing him alongside other local journalists as “racist white vigilantes” in statements published and reported by the Dallas Express and the group itself [1] [2]. The group’s co-president, Ndure Cain, is quoted attacking Monacelli’s reporting and questioning his conduct toward Black activists, language that elevated the dispute from a reporting quarrel to an allegation of racially motivated behavior [2].
2. Amplification and media reproduction: Dallas Express and the contested narrative
Those accusations were reproduced and amplified by the Dallas Express in multiple pieces that characterized Monacelli as engaging in racist harassment and conspiratorial targeting, giving the activist-group allegations a wider audience and more permanence in the local press record [1] [2]. The same publisher, Monty Bennett, later used the Dallas Express to publish those allegations while also becoming legally entangled with Monacelli via a defamation suit that Monacelli won or which was unsuccessful against him, per Monacelli’s site and reporting [3] [5].
3. The counterclaim: Monacelli’s denials and legal context
Monacelli has publicly denied the domestic-abuse and racist-harassment allegations, noting there were no criminal charges or court findings against him related to domestic abuse and characterizing the claims as defamatory; he has also pointed to his record as an investigative journalist and the protections afforded by anti-SLAPP law in Texas [3] [5] [6]. Additionally, Monacelli’s reporting on local political influence and disinformation has itself prompted pushback from actors aligned with those he investigated, a dynamic he asserts explains some of the attacks [3] [5].
4. The deeper reporting: Dallas Justice Now’s origins and possible agenda
Subsequent investigative reporting—summarized on Monacelli’s site and in other local coverage—has documented that Dallas Justice Now was, according to the Texas Observer and other reporting cited by Monacelli, linked to a paid campaign: it was reportedly a project tied to Crowds on Demand and to Monty Bennett, a Republican donor who funded the Dallas Express and other pro-police or civic groups, raising the prospect that the group’s claims were part of a manufactured disinformation campaign rather than grassroots activist oversight [3] [4]. That reporting frames the accusations against Monacelli within a broader pattern of fabricated actors and messaging designed to discredit critics of Bennett-supported causes [3].
5. Competing interpretations and unresolved questions
There are two competing accounts in the record: activist statements that present Monacelli as a journalist targeting Black activists and Monacelli’s account (and follow-on investigative reporting) that portrays Dallas Justice Now as a contrived vehicle for conservative opposition that made false allegations; both sides have been amplified in local media, and reporting indicates the provenance of the activist group was not straightforward, leaving room to question motive and authenticity [2] [3] [4]. Publicly available sources note Monacelli’s denials and lack of criminal charges, and they document the later findings about the group’s links to paid-opposition actors, but they do not, in the items provided here, include a final judicial finding that adjudicated the truth of the harassment claims themselves [3] [5].
6. What can be concluded from the record provided
Based on available reporting, Steven Monacelli has indeed faced accusations from an activist group (Dallas Justice Now), those accusations were widely published in the Dallas Express, Monacelli denies them, and subsequent investigative work has tied the accusing group to paid political activity and a disinformation playbook that undermines its credibility; however, the sources supplied do not produce a judicial finding proving or disproving the harassment allegations against Monacelli, so the public record remains contested [1] [2] [3] [5] [4].