BELHAVEN — The state NAACP announced Saturday it is filing a complaint with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday regarding the Belhaven hospital.

The Rev. William Barber, president of North Carolina NAACP, announced the decision at a press conference in front of the hospital property, with about 50 town officials, NAACP representatives and residents present.

Barber said the complaint asks for an investigation into what he said is Vidant Health’s failure to honor a 2014 agreement to help turn the hospital over to a nonprofit entity, and asks the civil rights division to look into the removal of Superior Court Judge Milton Fitch Jr. from the case, allegedly without any notice.

The hospital closed July 1, 2014.

“This is a serious issue,” Barber said. “What kind of shenanigans were pulled behind the scenes?”

The state NAACP has filed multiple complaints regarding the Belhaven hospital, alleging that Vidant’s closure of it was discriminatory against a poor and minority population. The complaints have complemented a lawsuit brought by the Town of Belhaven and the N.C. NAACP, against Vidant and Pantego Creek LLC, which owns the hospital property, alleging breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair trade practices. Most recently, the lawsuit was sent to the appellate court after Superior Court Judge Stuart Albright threw out the case in October.

“Although the law provided that Judge Fitch resumed jurisdiction of the case and he was ‘to proceed as though no removal had been attempted,’ Judge Fitch himself was, without notice, removed from the case,” the official complaint reads. “Please look into the removal of one of a handful of African-American judges in the Black Belt of North Carolina from our case, just after the case had been remanded to him.”

Despite the complaints and lawsuit, Vidant has maintained that it has done nothing wrong. Officials have repeatedly stated that Vidant is still dedicated to healthcare in Belhaven, even though the hospital was not profitable, and have instead elected to build a 24-hour, multispecialty clinic in Belhaven, scheduled to open in June.

“Vidant continues to invest in eastern North Carolina through grants and other community health care initiatives. In Beaufort and Hyde counties alone, Vidant has invested more than $1.3 million to upgrade emergency services and to address issues related to access to care, chronic disease prevention and management, nutrition and physical activity,” a press release stated last year.

Since the hospital’s closure in 2014, some residents and town officials have fought to reopen it, working to secure a $6 million United States Department of Agriculture loan to help cover the costs. However, the loan cannot be secured unless the property is obtained, and Mayor Adam O’Neal has continued to call on the four managers of Pantego Creek to turn it over.

Barber said Saturday there were plans in the works to march near the home properties of the managers.

But other residents disagree with the resources spent to reopen the facility and think the fight to reopen the facility has instead given Belhaven a bad reputation, pushing potential residents and businesses away.

“They just keep telling the same story,” resident Bill Iler said. “I feel like somebody’s got to tell the truth.”