Nearly one month after his arrest for forcible sodomy, Albemarle County Supervisor Chris Dumler filed motions in Albemarle County General District Court claiming that he’s the victim of a conspiracy to thwart his career and ruin his reputation.
The motions, filed Tuesday, say that on or about October 23, Dumler provided law enforcement with a number of printed electronic documents detailing communications between himself and his accuser, as well as between another female sexual partner (P1), that support his claim that his sexual encounter with the accuser was consensual. According to the motion, the communications indicate the accuser consulted with P1, who had “other motivations for harming Defendant,” and that P1 consulted with the accuser the day after the alleged act, then told Dumler, “We have a stake in you going down in flames.”
According to the motions, P1 “has directly contacted the press to solicit publicity of the story against [Dumler] in an effort to destroy his career.”
When Dumler was arrested on October 18, the police took possession of his laptop and county-issued iPad, and according to the motion, Detective Terry Wells obtained a search warrant for both items in early November. But Dumler is fighting to have the iPad and laptop struck from the search warrant.
All the communications police need can be accessed via Google Voice, Facebook, or Dumler’s cell phone, according to one of the motions. Dumler has offered his passwords as long as the searches do not disclose private or secret information, say Dumler and his attorney, Andrew Sneathern, and searching the laptop and iPad would be “purely…a fishing expedition” for electronic data, the search for which should be considered an illegal “general warrant.” The final motion is for the return of the computer and iPad.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for December 13.