Author: Brielle Entzminger

Categories
News

Beauty for all

India Sims is raising money to make her lifelong dream of owning her own business come true. Photo: Tristan Williams.

At 10 months old, India Sims was sent to the hospital for a chronic ear infection. A doctor decided to give Sims a spinal tap to help diagnose the infection—but inserted the needle into the wrong part of her back. She soon became partially paralyzed, and suffered from constant fevers and seizures. 

Over the next decade, Sims, who was born and raised in Crozet, had over 30 surgeries. Though doctors tried to restore the use of the lower half of her body, her legs and feet were permanently paralyzed. Her family tried to sue the doctor, but were unable to find a lawyer to take their case.

“While I was having surgeries, I dreamed [of] two things: becoming a singer because I used to sing a lot, and I always wanted to own my own shop,” says Sims, a 37-year-old mother of two. “I wanted to be a hairstylist, a massage therapist, an esthetician.” 

Now, Sims, a licensed cosmetologist, is working to bring her dream to fruition. By next year, she wants to open her own Charlottesville spa, called NrUnique-Brokenimagination, for disabled people who “want to enjoy a luxury life and not have to worry about certain accommodations,” she says. Sims plans to hire other disabled cosmetologists, and offer a variety of services, including hair, nails, massages, and waxing.

Sims says she faced numerous challenges on her path to becoming a cosmetologist. While a high school student, she says teachers tried to prevent her from enrolling in the cosmetology program at Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center. However, with help from her mother and an advocate, Simms was eventually able to graduate from the program. She then worked to gain more experience in her field, but often faced difficulties getting hired, or was fired shortly after starting a job—because she was in a wheelchair, she says.

“I would go work for someone. They would love my work and what I can do, but after a while when customers started rolling in, I would come in and they would set my stuff outside and [say], ‘We no longer want your services here. It takes too much space for your chair,’” says Sims. 

“I’m tired [of] people telling me I have the job, and I’m sitting around waiting on them, and they’re telling me, ‘Oh, we decided to go with another candidate,’ after they’ve told me they’ve hired me,” she adds. 

Sims was inspired to fully pursue her lifelong dream after meeting award-winning artist Mary J. Blige in February. Sims had posted a TikTok video, which included Blige’s song “Good Morning, Gorgeous.” Sims’ account, @1uniquechairgirl, has over 300,000 followers, and features videos about Sims’ life as a disabled person—and that video caught Blige’s attention. Soon, she was invited to have a virtual conversation with the singer on “Good Morning America.” 

“[Blige] was the one that was like, ‘India, you are important. I see you [and] what you’re trying to do—do it,’” says Sims.

Sims is currently working to raise $100,000 on GoFundMe for her spa. On October 8, she will also host a pajama party fundraiser at Vault Virginia. Tickets ($20) can be purchased by contacting Sims at iadbuttercup85@gmail.com.

After opening her spa, Sims hopes to franchise the business, allowing other disabled people to own additional locations. 

“I just want people to wake up and [know], ‘We are normal. We’re not a liability. We have dreams. We have a life. We have to work just like everybody else,” says Sims.

Categories
News

(Not) reaching out

The City of Charlottesville has begun searching for a replacement for former CPD chief RaShall Brackney. Photo: Eze Amos.

After firing former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney last year, the City of Charlottesville has finally begun looking for her replacement. In July, it paid D.C. executive search firm POLIHIRE $35,000 to assist interim City Manager Michael Rogers with recruitment, interviews, and other aspects of the selection process. The firm launched an online survey August 2 asking community members what they would like to see in the next chief, and the survey’s results will be used to create a recruitment profile. 

However, some community members are concerned that certain populations—those that lack access to adequate internet, or a computer—were unable to take the online survey or didn’t know about it at all, particularly people experiencing homelessness, elderly folks, youth, illiterate people, and low-income residents.

“You got a lot of the elders that are asking what’s going on with the search for the new police chief, and I’m like, ‘They want it online,’ and they’re like, ‘Online? I can’t do it online!’” says local activist Rosia Parker. “I don’t have Wi-Fi where I can take my computer out in the community and sit and ask them these questions.”

Echoing concerns she’s heard from other Black residents, Parker is increasingly worried that the outreach process will leave out Black and brown residents, when the city should be seeking the most input from communities who’ve been disproportionately harmed by police. 

The survey, which closed on August 22, first asked respondents if they were a Charlottesville resident, student, city business owner, employed within the city, or living in a neighboring jurisdiction, requiring city residents to specify which neighborhood they live in.

Respondents selected what they consider the most important public safety issues in the city: not enough police presence, trust of the police, improved police response times, more personal connections with police officers in their neighborhood, access to crime data, drugs, vandalism, burglaries/theft, violent crime, or other. They then chose what the top focuses should be for the next chief: more police presence, accountability for actions, agency that is professional, foster awareness and respect for cultural differences, or other.

Respondents also identified what leadership qualities—including diversity, community concern, integrity, and communication—and what type of experience they think the next chief should have—including a track record of building and maintaining community relationships, and anti-racist policing policies—as well as shared how satisfied they were with the relationship between Charlottesville police and the community. Lastly, the survey asked respondents to give “one piece of advice” to the future police chief.

Reading the first few questions upset local activist Katrina Turner, deterring her from completing the survey. “These are things that the community has been asking for for a long time. They’re paying someone to ask the questions that we’ve been asking,” she says.

Sarah Burke, who served on the initial Police Civilian Review Board, also thinks the questions did not feel tailored to Charlottesville’s needs, and were “skewed towards the assumption that more policing improves public safety.” 

Besides an improved online survey, Parker, Turner, and Burke think POLIHIRE should have created a paper survey, in addition to sending outreach workers into the city’s neighborhoods. The city also could have sent the surveys along with utility bills in the mail, and installed drop-off boxes in different neighborhoods, suggests Parker. 

As the police chief search continues, the activists urge POLIHIRE to host multiple in-person engagement events with community leaders. “They need to be out in the community talking to the people, because they will never know what we truly want unless they talk to us,” says Turner.

When asked about the accessibility concerns surrounding the online survey and community outreach, Mayor Lloyd Snook said in an email that although he has not personally been involved in the police chief search, he has “confidence that the process will include lots of community input at the outset, application of that input to the winnowing process, an opportunity for a diverse set of viewpoints during that winnowing process, and an opportunity for the finalists to be presented to the public before the decision is made.” 

City Councilor Michael Payne said in an email that the outreach process will specifically include one-on-one meetings “with stakeholders and leaders from across the community,” as well as potentially “a focus group of stakeholders who could help vet finalist candidates. … Some of these meetings have already occurred, but they’re still being scheduled. If anyone has in mind a specific community group/individual they believe should be included, they can let City Council/the city manager’s office know [and] a meeting can be set up.” 

Though the city hopes to select a new chief by November, “we’ll make the decision when we’re ready. … I don’t intend to rush the decision,” said Snook.

Categories
2022 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Intergenerational ties

Supplied photo.

In 2011, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging—a nonprofit serving older adults, disabled individuals, and caregivers in the Charlottesville area—was inspired to create its own preschool, after a Montessori school that had been using some of its space moved to a new location. Located just down the hall from its Adult Care Center, JABA’s Shining Star Preschool allows students to regularly engage with seniors through a variety of activities, forging intergenerational friendships.

“Sometimes our kids don’t have grandparents who are close by. And what we see when the kids and the seniors are together is that they may be sharing information or sharing stories,” says JABA Operations Director Donna Baker. “You can’t not talk about the joy when you see our kids and our seniors get together…it’s just magical sometimes.”

At JABA’s Adult Care Center and Mary Williams Community Senior Center, preschoolers and seniors eat lunch, make crafts, play music, and do other interactive activities together. When the pandemic started, the preschool switched to offering safer interactions, like outdoor concerts, but it is now working to return to normal activities.

Through a partnership with United Way of Greater Charlottesville, the full-day preschool has grown significantly over the past few years, serving families from a variety of backgrounds and income levels. It currently has 40 students, in addition to the 38 seniors enrolled in the program.

“We don’t force any interactions,” adds Baker. “Some of our older folks, they’ve done their time with kids and are fine not participating—but some don’t see their grandkids enough, and [the preschool] is the most wonderful thing in the world. It’s a lot of fun.”

Categories
2022 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Take a whack

Supplied photo.

While ax throwing has grown increasingly popular in recent years, it has long been part of the world of lumbersports. In April, Devils Backbone brought lumbersports back to the Charlottesville area with its second Lumberjack Classic, during which 24 lumberjacks and 12 lumberjills from across the country used razor-sharp axes and saws to compete for cash prizes in nearly a dozen events, including standing chop, hot saw, and springboard. The free family-friendly event also featured chainsaw demos, food stands, and—of course—plenty of beer on tap.

Categories
2022 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Peer support

Photo: Eze Amos

After having multiple traumatic experiences with the local mental health care system, activist Myra Anderson founded Brave Souls on Fire in 2015, creating a supportive and affirming space for Black individuals with mental health conditions. In addition to discussing the impact that systemic racism, cultural stigma, and other issues have on Black mental health, the grassroots organization provides free one-on-one and group peer support, as well as advocates for funding for Black-led organizations and spaces dedicated to Black wellness.

Categories
2022 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Gardens galore

File photo.

In honor of her late husband Ray “Junior” Arroyo, who loved to garden, local resident Terri Arroyo teamed up with her daughters to open Plant Studio last fall. The Downtown Mall shop offers walk-in build-your-own terrariums—miniature gardens inside a glass container—workshops, wine and craft nights, and other creative activities, as well as hosts private events and parties, catering to kids and grown-ups alike.

Categories
2022 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Work it

Photo: Eze Amos

After her husband, Damien Banks, founded the Banks Collage Basketball Association, a men’s summer basketball league, in Charlottesville in 2010, Shawna Banks was inspired to create an all-women hip-hop team to perform during halftime at the league’s games in 2014. Receiving an overwhelming amount of interest, Banks also started a BCBA hip-hop team for young girls. By the following year, the growing dance program had transformed into an all-girls team, featuring dancers ages 9 through 18.

In 2018, the newly renamed Elite Empire team transitioned to performing hip-hop majorette, a high-energy and unique dance style combining lyrical, West African, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop choreography. Since the 1960s, hip-hop majorette troupes have performed alongside marching bands at historically Black colleges and universities.

Elite Empire performs original choreography at hip-hop majorette competitions across the region, and has brought home over 20 awards. Dancers also put on community performances and participate in team-building activities, strengthening their self-confidence and leadership.

“We want the dancers to know how important it is to love themselves as they are, as well as everyone around them,” says Banks. “We encourage them to uplift and motivate one another and to be good role models to anyone who may be watching them.”

Elite Empire currently has six coaches and around two dozen members, and expects to grow significantly within the next year at its new dance studio—before the pandemic, it had as many as 40 members. Starting in August, the team will hold auditions for new members, open to children of all backgrounds.

Categories
News

Union woes

Charlottesville bus drivers are disappointed in the city’s proposed collective bargaining ordinance, and are pushing for a range of changes. Staff photo.

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly overturned the state’s decades-long ban on collective bargaining in the public sector, allowing municipal employees to unionize. Since then, some Charlottesville employees have urged City Council to pass a collective bargaining ordinance.

Frustrated with the city’s slow response, the Charlottesville Professional Firefighters Association and Amalgamated Transit Union (representing Charlottesville Area Transit employees) proposed their own ordinances last year. But in June, the city agreed to pay D.C.-based law firm Venable LLP $685,000 to draft a new ordinance in collaboration with city leadership, citing the city’s lack of research and preparation on the topic.

During last week’s council work session, interim City Manager Michael Rogers, joined by Venable LLP representatives, presented the long-awaited proposed ordinance, which includes numerous restrictions—and may not allow collective bargaining agreements to take effect for nearly two years, sparking pushback from the ATU, CAT employees, and other union supporters.

Under the proposed ordinance, collective bargaining would be initially limited to three units: sworn uniformed Charlottesville Police Department employees, sworn uniformed Charlottesville Fire Department employees, and full- and part-time Charlottesville Area Transit employees.

Within these groups, seasonal and temporary employees; confidential employees, who have authorized access to confidential personnel management, fiscal, or labor policy information; management employees, who are involved in the determination of labor relations or personnel policy; supervisors, which include personnel at the rank of battalion chief or above in the CFD, and at the rank of sergeant or above in the CPD; volunteers; and probationary employees would not be allowed in the unit. The positions not eligible for bargaining will be more clearly defined in the city’s personnel rules, which Venable is currently drafting, said Rogers.

However, supervisors would have the right to meet and confer with city administration. And after the first two years of engaging in collective bargaining, the city would be able to review the ordinance, and add more units.  

The ordinance limits the number of units to ensure “the personnel and system necessary for collective bargaining gets up and running in the city,” said Robin Burroughs, an attorney with Venable, stressing the city’s smaller size and budget compared to other localities that have adopted collective bargaining. And though only CAT employees and firefighters—not CPD officers—have publicly supported collective bargaining, “police is also like fire, a public safety unit, and like transit, a group of employees that is having direct contact with the public on the frontlines, [so] it seemed like these were the three good places to start.” 

All units would be able to bargain over wages and salaries; working conditions, such as work hours; and non-health and non-welfare benefits, such as leave and holidays. But they would not be able to bargain over health and welfare benefits; core personnel rules and decisions, like hirings and terminations; and budget matters, and they would be prohibited from striking. Issues not subject to bargaining could still be discussed between units and city leadership.

“As soon as employees start negotiating [benefits], it puts at risk the ability to retain the same level of benefit at the same cost for all employees,” Burroughs said.

If the city and a unit cannot come to a collective bargaining agreement, they would engage in mediation. If mediation fails, a neutral fact-finder would make a recommendation resolving the dispute. The city manager would consider the mediation results and the fact-finder’s recommendations, and submit their recommendations to council through the city budget or other legislation—however, council “retains the ultimate legislative discretion,” said Burroughs. 

If the ordinance goes into effect January 1, 2023, unions could be certified as early as March. In case the city and units must engage in mediation or fact-finding, Venable proposes any collective bargaining agreement go into effect on July 1, 2024, at the start of the new fiscal year.

CAT union supporters are disappointed in the ordinance’s restrictions, and are pushing for a range of improvements. They want all city employees to be able to unionize, and bargain over more subjects, including disciplinary procedures and benefits. Bargaining would not take away the city’s right to discipline employees, but ensure discipline is justified, says John Ertl of the ATU.

The bus drivers also support using final binding arbitration—during which a neutral arbitrator makes a decision that must be honored—to resolve certain grievances and negotiation impasse. Under the proposed ordinance, “there’s no incentive to compromise,” since the city manager or council can reject a fact-finder’s recommendations, claims Ertl.

In response to the concerns Venable had with allowing more employees to bargain and increasing bargaining subjects, Ertl suggests the city stagger the dates that each bargaining unit takes effect, and stresses that union supporters are not trying to get out of the city’s current benefits plans—but protect the ones they currently have. “We just don’t want the city to, if we bargain for a raise, [turn] around and say, ‘you’re going to pay for your raise by paying higher health care premiums,’” he says. 

“At transit, we need collective bargaining so we can have a grievance process,” adds Matthew Ray, who has driven for CAT for over eight years. “The reason we don’t have school bus operators is because of poor management.”

Additionally, the bus drivers are frustrated with the ordinance’s long timeline. CAT, which needs 120 to 130 drivers to be fully staffed, is currently down to 55 drivers—if it takes years for changes to come, even more CAT drivers will quit or retire, claims Ray. 

“It’s by far the weakest [ordinance] that’s been passed in Virginia,” says Ertl. In several other Virginia localities that have passed collective bargaining ordinances, employees can bargain over benefits, and contract negotiations over non-fiscal issues can be resolved through binding arbitration.

During last week’s meeting, City Councilor Jaundiego Wade and Vice-Mayor Sena Magill also expressed concern over so many employees not being able to unionize right away. Councilor Michael Payne argued that benefits should be able to be bargained over, and disagreed with giving police a chance to bargain before other city employees when “they have not come forward requesting unionization.” Payne proposed allowing binding arbitration over non-fiscal issues, and creating a third bargaining unit for general employees. 

“When you have a general employee unit … that’s more difficult to administer because not all of the interests are aligned,” replied Rogers.  

City Council will hold a public hearing on the collective bargaining ordinance during its September 6 meeting.

Categories
News

Looking back

Former UVA students who protested against white supremacists on August 11, 2017, have created a new exhibit sharing their personal narratives of the deadly Unite the Right rally. Photo: Hannah Russell-Hunter.

During the now-infamous tiki torch rally at the University of Virginia, hundreds of white supremacists marched across Grounds on the evening of August 11, 2017. Shouting racist and anti-Semitic chants like “White lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us,” the group later surrounded and attacked student counterprotesters at the Thomas Jefferson statue in front of the Rotunda, throwing lit torches, spraying pepper spray, and hurling threats and slurs. 

Five years later, students who took a stand against these white supremacists are sharing their personal narratives from the deadly Unite the Right rally in a new UVA library exhibit entitled “No Unity Without Justice: Student and Community Organizing During the 2017 Summer of Hate.” Last week, the 37-item exhibit opened to the public at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. 

“It was really healing to be able to articulate a lot of things that I had been journaling about, [and] processing on my own and with fellow survivors and students over the past couple of years,” says co-curator and UVA alumna Hannah Russell-Hunter, who was a student counterprotester at the August 11 rally.

Kendall King, a fellow UVA alumna and community organizer, first approached Russell-Hunter about creating the exhibit in 2019, but the pandemic forced them to put the project on hold until this year. In partnership with Jalane Schmidt, the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project director, King worked with guest alumni curators Russell-Hunter and Natalie Romero, as well as Memory Project postdoctoral fellow Gillet Rosenblith, to collect personal artifacts from student and community counterprotesters, including: a shoulder bag used by an activist as a shield on August 11, a tear gas canister launched at counterprotesters during the August 12 rally, and activist Emily Gorcenski’s dossier—which she provided to Charlottesville leadership before the rallies—detailing violent threats made online by Unite the Right organizers and attendees. Throughout the curation process, the alumni consulted with and gathered input from community members. 

Particularly moving to Russell-Hunter is a photo of student counterprotesters holding a banner that says “VA Students Act Against White Supremacy,” while they’re surrounded by white supremacists during the torch-lit rally. On the first anniversary of the rally, she created a collage of flowers and placed them over the white supremacists in the photo, symbolizing activists’ efforts to deplatform white supremacy. 

“Not only are we resisting neo-Nazis and white supremacists … [but] we’re trying to build a world where there are no neo-Nazis and white supremacists,” she says. “[And] where there is going to be no future Unite the Right rally 2.0.”

Other Summer of Hate artifacts on display include Russell-Hunter’s original draft of UVA Students United’s demands to the university, as well as her notes from a meeting student activists had with former UVA president Teresa Sullivan following the Unite the Right rally. The exhibit also features a controversial video of Sullivan claiming that no one told the university administration about the tiki torch march. (A 2017 report by former university counsel Tim Heaphy found that the university administration was warned of the impending violence, and did not properly prepare for and respond to the march.)

The exhibit also details the decades-long history of student activism at UVA—including the fight for desegregation and co-education—and criticizes the university, city leadership, and police for not taking action against rally organizers or preventing the violent events. To provide further historical context and background, the exhibit includes QR codes linking to news articles, City Council meeting minutes, the Sines v. Kessler civil lawsuit, and other important sources.

As the fifth anniversary of the rally heightened the nationwide focus on Charlottesville, Russell-Hunter believes it’s especially critical to uplift survivor and organizer voices, and reflect on what has—and hasn’t—changed in the city since 2017. She hopes visitors will come away from the exhibit with an increased recognition and appreciation of “the rich history of organizing” at UVA and in the community, she says.

“I hope that this is a starting point for more research and curiosity about the city, the [rally], and all of the circumstances around it,” adds Russell-Hunter. “We have such a deeper history to learn from.”

“No Unity Without Justice” will be on display until October 29.

Categories
News

‘He is very sorrowful’

Charlottesville IT analyst Allen Groat was caught on a security camera entering the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020. Photo: Department of Justice Video

Less than two weeks before the fifth anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally, the City of Charlottesville announced it would not be terminating an employee who participated in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. After former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney accused the city of refusing to discipline the employee—IT analyst Allen Groat, who works with the police department, sheriff’s office, fire department, and rescue squad—in June, city leadership provided limited information on the matter until last week’s City Council meeting.

During the August 1 meeting, interim City Manager Michael Rogers explained that the employee wrote an apology letter to him—which he refused to share publicly—and has been interviewed by the FBI three times over the past year and a half.  

“I’ve spoken with the employee, who has never been charged with any criminal offense,” said Rogers, declining to publicly name the employee. “The employee in question admits he attended the events at the Capitol. He posted his presence on his social media page, he shared this information with the FBI, and he was not arrested.”

“He is very sorrowful of his activities. He’s experienced a great deal of personal loss,” Rogers added. “Considering the totality of circumstances, including that it’s been a year and half without any action, I conclude that no further action or review is warranted in this case.”

According to Rogers, the Charlottesville Police Department received information from a city official—who Brackney has told C-VILLE was former city councilor Heather Hill—regarding the employee, initially thought to be a CPD officer, on the weekend of January 16, 2021. Then-assistant police chief Jim Mooney later determined that it was an IT employee, and reported his findings to Brackney and then-city manager Chip Boyles on January 20. The following day, CPD notified the FBI in Richmond. 

“@FBIRichmond interviewed Asst Chief & claimed arrest pending. Boyles & IT director were informed the employee was dangerous & to revoke his IT access/privileges,” Brackney tweeted in June. In an email on August 8, Brackney clarified that Mooney was informed by the FBI that it planned to arrest Groat possibly in late January or early February. 

On January 6, 2021, 31 CPD officers were also absent from work. However, “they were mostly on regularly scheduled days off. … There is nothing that we see that raises any alarm,” said Rogers during the meeting.

When asked if she was concerned about the number of CPD officers who took off work on January 6, 2021, during her tenure, Brackney said she expressed her alarm directly to former interim city manager John Blair, Hill, and CPD’s command staff following the insurrection. She instructed the command staff to check the social media accounts of CPD officers, as well as officers from Albemarle County, UVA, and other surrounding police departments. “I cannot confirm the [31 CPD officers’] days off were regularly scheduled. However, I am not sure how one makes the leap that regularly scheduled days off equates to no cause for alarm,” she wrote. 

During his investigation into the insurrectionist employee, Rogers claimed there “were no city records available” for him to review, except for Mooney’s report on his conversation with the employee. In a confidential letter Mooney sent to Blair—which Brackney posted on Twitter in June, with the employee’s name blacked out—on January 20, 2021, Mooney said he had a private meeting with the employee, who he identified as the city’s IT public safety liaison. The employee told Mooney he was an “independent journalist and photographer” and was admitted to the Capitol by police officers, along with other members of the media. “It is my opinion that this is a civil, personnel matter,” wrote Mooney.

Since assuming his position in January, Rogers has not spoken with the FBI about the case. “I tried to reach the FBI, and the agent has retired,” said Rogers during last week’s meeting. Last May, FBI agent James Dwyer was reassigned from Richmond to Dallas, but “he indicated things would continue to move forward” with Groat’s case, wrote Brackney in an email to C-VILLE on Monday.

Brackney also claims that Groat lied about why he needed to take off work on January 6, 2021. “When Mooney briefed me, he spoke with the IT Director [Sunny] Hwang to determine if Groat was working that day. Hwang stated, ‘Groat requested the day off to take his wife to the doctors,’” Brackney wrote.

In an email to C-VILLE on August 8, Mayor Lloyd Snook explained that the city’s personnel policy prevents leadership from disciplining the employee since he has not been charged with a criminal offense related to the insurrection. “Most of the government employees who have been disciplined for being involved in the events of January 6 fall into one of two categories—either they have been charged with a crime … or they are a member of a government that has a ‘Code of Conduct’ for its employees that allows the government employer to take action under certain circumstances against someone who is not actually charged with a crime. We have no such Code of Conduct, though I have suggested that we look to adopt one,” he wrote.

The city will not fire an employee “just because they become a political football,” added the mayor.  

Per the city’s personnel regulations, a city employee can be terminated for a felony conviction, sexual harassment, workplace violence, illegal drug or alcohol use in the workplace, and other serious offenses. Contrary to Rogers’ claims, Groat has a criminal record—in 2020, he pleaded guilty to aggressive driving with intent to injure, a Class 1 misdemeanor, after chasing a woman and pulling a gun on her at a red light. 

In June, Snook initially agreed with Mooney that the employee—who he said he could not name publicly—had not committed a crime that CPD could investigate. However, after activist Molly Conger exposed Groat’s pro-insurrection Twitter account in June, Snook saw videos that “seem to show a different picture,” he told C-VILLE. He also confirmed that Conger had positively identified Groat as the insurrectionist employee.

On his Twitter account, @r3bel1776, Groat did not hide his support of and participation in the insurrection. In November 2020, Groat called on those who “love America” to “defend the republic by any means necessary.” He also posted photos of himself with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and white supremacist group the Proud Boys at a Trump rally, later claiming in a Facebook post that he served as “impromptu” security for Jones and the Infowars team. Just days before the insurrection, Groat again shared his plans to “force Congress [to] #DoNotCertify the fraudulent election results” at the “#WildProtest” in D.C. (Groat confirmed to C-VILLE that the account belonged to him.)

In body-worn police camera footage obtained by Conger, Groat can be seen inside the Capitol recording on his phone. When police ordered the rioters to leave, Groat did not. “We love you guys. … It’s their fault not ours,” he told the police, motioning to Congress.

“It has been reported that more than 800 people who … entered the Capitol on January 6 have been arrested and charged,” Rogers said during last week’s meeting. “In this group are individuals who are pictured and filmed by themselves [engaging] in destructive acts or being disruptive. The arrests stem from their criminal activity—not merely their presence in the Capitol.”

While Groat’s Twitter account can no longer be found, he may now have an account on Truth Social, a social media platform founded by former president Donald Trump. On August 3, Truth Social user @R3bel1776—an almost identical username to the one Groat used on Twitter—asked his followers to pray for him, “as I was recently doxxed for my patriotic participation, and it is affecting me in my career and relationships,” according to a screenshot posted by Conger.

The FBI in Richmond has said it cannot reveal if it’s interviewed anyone from Charlottesville involved in the insurrection—the FBI’s Washington, D.C., office is responsible for filing charges against the rioters, reports The Daily Progress. The FBI could not be reached for comment for this story.

During public comment last week, community members pushed back against Rogers’ claims that Groat did not commit a crime, and called for the IT analyst to be immediately fired.

In an interview with C-VILLE, activist Ang Conn pointed out that Rogers has “no stakes” in the community as a temporary city leader, and accused him of not caring about the safety of Charlottesville.

“It is a total slap in the community’s face…we have a white supremacist on our payroll and they’re going to remain there because they wrote an apology letter,” said Conn.