In June, former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney held a fiery press conference outside the federal courthouse in downtown Charlottesville announcing a gender and race discrimination lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville and 10 individual defendants over her September 2021 termination. Seven months later, a federal judge dismissed all of her claims.
“The plaintiff must plead enough factual content to nudge a claim across the border from mere possibility to plausibility,” wrote Judge Norman K. Moon, whose ruling to dismiss was filed on January 20.
C-VILLE legal analyst Scott Goodman says he’s not surprised by Moon’s ruling.
“I don’t think there was anything to the lawsuit,” he says. “And Judge Moon confirmed that by basically saying there was no evidence, there was no proof that anything that happened to the chief was related to race or gender or anything else other than just subjective decisions made by city administrators that she was not up to the job.”
Through a spokesperson, the city declined to comment. Other defendants, however, expressed relief.
“When city employees, city leaders, are meeting to discuss the performance of the chief of police, we’re allowed to discuss the performance of the chief of police and to conclude that for whatever reason, we don’t want to continue with the chief of police in office as long as the reason is not something that’s racially improper,” said Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook, who is also an attorney. “And the judge found there is no evidence that there was any racial [or gender] aspect to this decision.”
Bellamy Brown, the former chair of the Police Civilian Oversight Board, noted that his role as a defendant stemmed from a single public statement he made.
“The only thing that I did within my role as the chair … was to alert the community as to how things were within the police department,” he says. “The court looked at the law and the facts and … I think the court came to a correct result.”
In his statement following the dismissal, Brackney’s attorney Charles Tucker says the suit met the legal standard and should have advanced to trial.
“When we embarked on this case with Dr. RaShall Brackney, we understood that the process would be equal to a 15-round heavyweight title fight,” the statement reads. “We did not come into this lawsuit with any delusions regarding Charlottesville’s atmosphere of entitlement or its institutions of cultural supremacy.”
Tucker has promised to continue the fight, but Goodman says he expects Moon’s ruling to be upheld on appeal.
“Of course, Mr. Tucker is going to complain that Judge Moon never really heard testimony from witnesses in court, that he based his decision before there was even a trial,” Goodman says. “But Judge Moon was able to look at what the filings were and the supporting documents in the filings and say, even with what you have, there’s not enough here.”
In addition to naming the city, Snook, and Bellamy as defendants, Brackney’s lawsuit also named former interim city manager Chip Boyles, former assistant Charlottesville police chiefs Jim Mooney and LaTroy “Tito” Durrette, and former city councilors Heather Hill and Sena Magill. Also named was Michael Wells, president of the local Police Benevolent Association.
The suit described policies and procedures Brackney implemented as chief to increase transparency and reduce racial discrimination in policing and her firing of three officers who were captured on video engaging in what the suit describes as “unlawful, criminal, departmentally inappropriate, misogynistic, harassing and racist” behavior. After an investigation, the suit alleged, Brackney also disbanded the SWAT unit prompting the defendants to retaliate against her.
Brackney’s suit alleged that defendant Wells and the Police Benevolent Association administered an internal police survey designed to reflect badly on her. It also cited public statements made by other defendants.
“While great strides were made with the department in areas of racial equity and addressing officer conduct, many of these changes came about at the expense of leadership mistrust among many of the officers we depend on to protect and serve our city,” Boyles said publicly in the weeks after her filing, according to the suit.
“Even Black women officers were leaving,” Snook told CBS19 News on October 4, 2021, the suit notes. “These were her handpicked people.”
The suit claims that no Caucasian or male department leads faced similar treatment during a period of pending departure.
Judge Moon rejected each of the suit’s claims, noting that Brackney had not established a relationship between Wells and the city and ruling that other defendants, as city employees, “cannot interfere with the City’s contract with Plaintiff.”
Courteney Stuart is host of “Charlottesville Right Now” on WINA. You can hear her interviews with Lloyd Snook, Bellamy Brown, and Scott Goodman at wina.com.