While UVA leadership has continued to stress its willingness to engage with students over the ongoing conflict in Gaza, one such conversation did not proceed as planned on Thursday, May 9, when members of Apartheid Divest—a coalition of 43 student groups—walked out on a pre-scheduled meeting with UVA President Jim Ryan. More than 30 students stood in silence outside the meeting room, with their hands raised and painted red, as remarks and demands were read aloud to the UVA president.
Ryan listened to the statement in silence, leaving after the group started to chant, “35,000 dead and you arrested kids instead” and “Jim Ryan you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
In a statement to the Daily Progress about the decision to not move forward with the meeting as planned, Apartheid Divest member Josh Rosenberg said, “President Ryan’s actions were so inexcusable that there was no way we could have a good faith conversation with him after he refused to engage in good faith with students protesting peacefully for Palestine.”
Further division over how to best address UVA’s decision to call in police to break up the encampment arose on Friday, May 10, at a faculty senate meeting. Upper leadership, including Ryan, Longo, and Vice President and Provost Ian Baucom, attended the first portion of the gathering, and were grilled by several members and a small contingent of supporters among the faculty.
At the height of the conversation, multiple professors expressed their frustration with administration not dismissing the no trespass orders issued to protesters on the scene, especially those issued to faculty members and current students.
After leadership left, the senate passed an amended resolution calling for an external review of the events of Saturday, May 4, but declined to pass a resolution of solidarity.
Moving up
Supplied photo.
On May 13, Jamie Gellner started as the new Director of Transportation for Albemarle County Schools.
Prior to her current role, Gellner served as the Director of Special Projects, Program Evaluation, and Department Improvement for ACPS. She also has a background in transportation management, with experience in both Charlottesville and Fairfax.
“Our students deserve safe, reliable transportation services that support their education,” said Gellner in a release from ACPS. “I am eager to collaborate with students, families, and, of course, the dedicated staff of the Department of Transportation to implement innovative solutions and ensure every student arrives at school safely, on time and ready to learn.”
Gellner’s appointment comes at the tail end of a bumpy school year for bussing in the county, which experienced a driver shortage at the start of the 2023-24 school year. After three months, ACPS was able to expand bus services to all students requesting transportation outside of the walk zone.
Over the summer, Gellner will be working to minimize potential driver shortages that may pop back up this fall.
Cause for celebration
It’s graduation season in Charlottesville! Celebrations kick off at the University of Virginia on Friday, May 17, with events including valedictory exercises, the Donning of the Kente ceremony, and the Fourth Year Class Party. The main ceremonies will be held on Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19, at 9am, with respective commencement speakers Daniel Willingham and Risa Goluboff. Expect traffic delays at the Corner, Downtown Mall, and just generally all of Main Street over the weekend.
Phoning in
The Charlottesville Police Department will resume responses for some non-emergency calls on June 1. Responses were temporarily paused in 2021 due to staffing shortages. Significant improvements to staffing will allow officers to respond to credit card fraud, false pretense, impersonation, larceny, vandalism, and lost property calls in person.
Compromise concessions
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a compromise budget passed by the Democratically controlled state legislature on Monday, May 13. While the new version includes funding for schools and pay increases for teachers and other state employees, other key Democratic priorities were scrapped on the bargaining table. Notable changes include the exclusion of language requiring reentry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the removal of any tax increases or decreases.
Charges against Patrick McNamara were dropped on April 11. Supplied photo.
After almost three months, Charlottesville police have dropped charges against Patrick McNamara for the January 12 assault of a woman on the Rivanna Trail. The case against McNamara has been dismissed, but the arrest continues to affect his life.
On January 18, McNamara was taking a break outside while working from his apartment when he was approached by a CPD detective and placed under arrest. “It is not wise to talk to the police even if you’re innocent. I’m naive and thought, ‘this is a mistake,’” he says. “I didn’t know what I was being arrested for.”
Court filings indicate McNamara was arrested based on eyewitness identification by the victim, who was assaulted at approximately 9:39am on January 12 less than half a mile from the Rivanna Trail underpass at Free Bridge. The victim described the suspect as a “white male with short brown hair and an athletic build, approximately 6’2″, possibly 20-30 years old … wearing a white puffy jacket with a dark hooded sweatshirt underneath, which was pulled up over his head.”
When shown an image of McNamara by a friend on January 16, the victim identified him as her attacker. She later told law enforcement she was “100 percent positive” it was McNamara who assaulted her, according to court filings.
Following his arraignment and release on bond, McNamara was suspended from his job and given three days to vacate his apartment by his leasing company.
On January 22, investigators obtained surveillance footage from Cosner Brothers Body Shop. The video shows McNamara passing the victim without incident, and later a different individual in a puffy white coat can be seen in the area.
The person who collected the video initially told the case agent there was “nothing of value” on the recording, and “never prepared a supplement documenting its collection.”
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office was not aware of the surveillance footage or its content until April 9, following a letter submitted by McNamara’s attorney—Rhonda Quagliana—on April 8 requesting police obtain surveillance and video footage from 19 locations.
Charlottesville Police are currently conducting an internal investigation into the handling of the footage.
Both the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and Quagliana filed motions to dismiss the charges against McNamara on April 11. While Quagliana’s filing is a complete rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of McNamara and its handling of the case, the commonwealth called for a dismissal on the grounds that “there is no longer proof beyond a reasonable doubt to support this prosecution.”
The charges against him have been dropped, but McNamara’s trying to piece his life back together: He still hasn’t heard from his job about reentry, he still doesn’t have a place to live, and he still feels isolated.
“The truth of the matter is that there’s permanent damage,” says McNamara. “I’m upset at the presumption of guilt that was levied upon me by all the institutions in my life.”
“I know I’m innocent. It’s hard for me to articulate to somebody what it feels like,” he says. “I have a lot of really good friends and I’m very thankful for that. I know that their assumption was, ‘Patrick couldn’t have done this, this is ridiculous.’ But to what degree of certainty I will never know.”
McNamara says the arrest has impacted all of his personal relationships.
“The commonwealth’s attorney made it sound like … ‘we don’t have enough to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.’ The police chief has spoken publicly since then and said, ‘we didn’t have enough to go beyond reasonable doubt,’” says McNamara. “That’s embarrassing language. … It’s just, frankly, it’s bullshit. And because of that, people will always doubt maybe I did it.”
Charlottesville Police Department declined to answer questions from C-VILLE about the handling of the investigation and interactions with McNamara. “Chief Kochis has done numerous engagements on various media outlets regarding the case,” wrote Public Safety Information Officer Kyle Ervin in an email. “Please refer to any previous comments made on the matter.”
As he contemplates how to move forward, McNamara says he is speaking to lawyers about potential legal action, but what he wants most is change and a return to normalcy.
“I don’t think it’ll ever be the same as it was on January 17,” he says. “I think there’s gonna be difficulties until the arrest is completely expunged from my record.”
“What happened in the legal process was unacceptable,” McNamara says. “It is scary. It is dangerous. And I am just a random, nameless citizen of this town that was caught up in this system. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody. And that, to me, is very scary until there’s change. What does change look like? I don’t know.”
At press time CPD has not issued a news release about McNamara’s charges being dropped, and has not updated the original release detailing his arrest.
Dave Matthews Band has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the star-studded class of 2024.
Musical acts become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first recording, and are inducted based on voting by more than 1,000 music historians, industry professionals, and current Hall of Fame members. Since 2012, fan voting has been a part of membership consideration, giving the winner of the poll one additional vote toward induction. In its first year of eligibility (2020), DMB was the first and only group to win the popularity poll, but not be inducted into the hall.
Eligibility, nominations, and inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been the subject of much national attention since its founding in the 1980s. After decades of snubbing Rock and Roll icons, the hall now balances honoring iconic figures years after they became eligible and inducting newer acts.
Joining DMB in the Class of 2024 are Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton, Mary J. Blige, Kool & The Gang, Foreigner, and A Tribe Called Quest. While this year marks the largest group of inductees ever, several nominees were snubbed, including Sinéad O’Connor, who died last year.
“Dave Matthews Band is honored to be in the @rockhall Class of 2024,” the band said on X/Twitter. “Congrats to our fellow nominees and thanks so much to all of our fans for the support!”
The Class of 2024 will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 19 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mascot mania
Finalist for new middle school mascot. Charlottesville City Schools.
Along with a new name and building, Charlottesville’s only middle school will soon have a new mascot. Voters have until April 30 to tell Charlottesville City Schools their preference from the list of finalists: the Black Knights, “another type of knight”(e.g. Junior Knights, Orange Knights), the Chargers, and the Monarchs.
The final choices were selected through an earlier survey conducted by the school district, with each potential mascot illustrated through stock photos and AI-generated images to give voters a feel for potential logos. CCS emphasizes that the “images shown are only starting points,” and it will work with a designer once a mascot is selected.
Regardless of which mascot comes out on top, the school’s colors and logo will be orange and black to match Charlottesville High School’s colors.
The district has not given a timeline for the selection of the mascot or revealed a final design, but Buford Middle School will formally be renamed Charlottesville Middle School when the new building is officially opened for the 2025-26 school year.
UVA assault
University of Virginia police responded to an assault April 21 on the 1400 block of University Avenue. The incident, which occurred around 2am, left one adult male victim with serious injuries. He was sent to UVA Medical Center. University police transferred the case to the Charlottesville Police Department, and detectives have begun an investigation. Photos of individuals sought by CPD are available at charlottesville.gov/1741/police. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact CPD at 970-3280 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at 977-4000.
Burn out
One of the tiki torch-bearers from August 11, 2017, has pleaded guilty to participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tyler Bradley Dykes, 26, of Bluffton, South Carolina, who was arrested in Charlottesville last year, took a guilty plea on two felony counts regarding his assault on Capitol police officers. According to the plea agreement, Dykes faces a maximum of eight years in prison, plus a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Dog’s day
The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA raised more than $100,000 this year during its 11th annual bow-WOW-walk fundraiser, which was held on April 20 at Boar’s Head Resort. The event featured both a competitive 5K race and a leisurely dog walk. Pet owners could also enter their furry friends into competitions for best trick, best costume, and pet-owner look-alike. According to CBS19, more than 250 people attended the fundraiser, whose proceeds will go to homeless animals and programs at CASPCA.
Novelists John Hart and Corban Addison (pictured here with their attorney Renée Flaherty in 2019) are freelancers who work from home or remote locations, and who sued the city and county over the business license tax. The city lost the case brought by Addison in circuit court, and the Virginia Supreme Court is now considering the city’s appeal. Photo: Eze Amos
To tax or not to tax
The Virginia Supreme Court is considering the merits of an appeal brought by the City of Charlottesville in a lawsuit over who is required to pay its business license tax.
Best-selling author Corban Addison sued the city in 2019 after receiving a letter telling him he was required to pay the tax based on his income as a freelance writer for current and previous years.
“I have lots of author friends, and none of them at that point that I knew was paying a business license tax in the county or the city,” Addison says. “It was just sort of logical because I wasn’t inviting customers. I didn’t have… a physical plant that was just creating intellectual property and licensing it to publishers.”
Addison, who is also an attorney, read the city code and didn’t see how it applied to freelancers.
“My response to the city was, how am I a service? I mean, that really is the nub. The fundamental issue in the case, even now in front of the Virginia Supreme Court,” says Addison.
The Charlottesville Circuit Court agreed with Addison and ruled against the city. The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments in the city’s appeal on April 20.
Attorney Keith Neely with the Institute for Justice, the organization representing Addison, says the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling could have significance well beyond the City of Charlottesville.
“There are many municipalities across the state of Virginia that share similar tax codes,” says Neely. “So this could have some far-reaching ramifications on taxpayers across the commonwealth.”
A similar lawsuit brought by author John Hart in Albemarle County has been stayed while the Charlottesville appeal continues.
Same pattern
Last week, the Charlottesville Police Department released its 2021 annual report, revealing the continued disproportionate arrests of Black residents.
Both in 2020 and 2021, 56 percent of people arrested in Charlottesville were Black, while 42 percent were white. Only about 15 percent of the city’s population is Black, according to the 2020 census.
However, 2021 had 831 arrests—a slight decrease from 2020’s 922 arrests.
Last year, there were no homicides, but around a 20 percent increase in “crimes against persons,” including 19 forcible rapes, 121 aggravated assaults, and 496 simple assaults. In 2020, there were four homicides, 17 forcible rapes, 115 aggravated assaults, and 368 simple assaults.
Though there was a slightly more than 5 percent drop in “crimes against society” in 2021, there was about a 17 percent rise in “crimes against property,” largely burglaries, destruction of property, thefts of motor vehicles, and other larcenies. The largest uptick was thefts of motor vehicle parts or accessories, which rose from 47 incidents in 2020 to 172 in 2021.
Despite calls from community members to reallocate police funding to community services, this month City Council approved a $20 million CPD budget for the next fiscal year—a nearly 7 percent increase from last year.
CPD’s 2021 annual report shows that arrests in the city have dropped, but the disproportionate arrests of Black people has continued. Photo: City of Charlottesville
In brief
High roller
It could be your lucky day—a Powerball ticket worth $50,000 purchased at the Fas Mart on Rolkin Road on November 1 hasn’t been claimed. The ticket matched four of the first five winning numbers—9, 25, 34, and 44—and the 8 Powerball. The winner must contact the Virginia Lottery before 5pm on May 2 to take home the prize.
Order up
After doing takeout only at its new IX Art Park spot for the past two years, Lampo will reopen its original Belmont location for dine-in this summer. But if you still want to grab a slice to go, Lampo2GO will remain open at IX.
No relief
The Virginia Rent Relief Program will stop accepting new applications on May 15. State officials claim the program has recently received a surge in applications, and may not have enough funding available to fulfill the requests. Those from households that make less than half their area’s median income—or with one or more people who have been unemployed for at least 90 days—will be prioritized until the deadline.
Slow down
The family of Rahmean Rose-Thurston unveiled a new memorial on Fifth Street last week, in honor of the 23-year-old Charlottesville resident who died in a motorcycle accident on the road in 2020. In the last six years, seven people have died in accidents on Fifth Street. Last month, the city lowered the speed limit from 45 to 40 mph, and announced plans to hire an engineering firm to consider additional safety improvements.
Anti-anti-racism
Former Agnor-Hurt Elementary assistant principal Emily Mais filed a lawsuit against Albemarle County Public Schools claiming school employees harassed and retaliated against her after she used the term “colored people”—instead of “people of color”—during a training session, and complained about the division’s anti-racism policy. The complaint alleges Mais, who is white, was forced to resign due to a “racially hostile and divisive work environment” in August.
Getting the city to divulge how much it’s paid to settle police misconduct claims over the past several years has been difficult.
Photo: Eze Amos
Fogel FOIA response from city
How much has the City of Charlottesville paid out in settlements for claims of police misconduct? That’s what attorney Jeff Fogel hoped to learn when he filed a FOIA request on behalf of the People’s Coalition two weeks ago, asking for any responsive records for the past two years. The city’s response to the request: dozens of pages of emails between officials and attorneys, with almost all of the content redacted.
“I don’t know anything more than I knew before,” says Fogel, who has now filed a second FOIA request with the city, expanding the information he’s seeking to include settlements for police misconduct paid on behalf of the city between 2017 and 2019.
Like most Virginia municipalities, Charlottesville is insured by the Virginia Risk Sharing Association, which pays out settlements from a pool of funds.
Fogel says city representatives have previously told him they don’t know how much settlement money has been paid as a result of claims of police misconduct. He suggests that ignorance represents a deliberate effort by city officials to avoid having to disclose the information through FOIA.
City attorney Lisa Robertson did not respond to C-VILLE Weekly’s request for comment.
The city’s response to Fogel’s FOIA about police misconduct settlements does shed light on another legal action against the city: a free speech lawsuit filed by former city manager Tarron Richardson, who alleged he was wrongfully terminated in 2020, and publicly disparaged by members of City Council in violation of a nondisparagement agreement. Richardson eventually dropped the lawsuit, and no information about any settlement has ever been made public. The documents in the city’s response to Fogel’s FOIA request include multiple emails identified in the subject line as “settlement negotiations” in Richardson’s case.
Fogel says if his latest FOIA request results in no information about settlements in police misconduct cases, he plans to file suit against the city seeking the information.
World of pain
An Albemarle County pain doctor charged with sexually assaulting female patients between 2011 and 2017 has been found guilty in the first of multiple scheduled trials. According to The Daily Progress, it took a jury two-and-a-half hours to reach a verdict on Friday, April 1, at the conclusion of Mark Dean’s five-day trial in Albemarle County Circuit Court.
Pain doc Mark Dean was found guilty of sexually assaulting a female patient. File photo.
The victim, identified in the trial by her initials, accused Dean of inserting his fingers into her vagina without her consent at an appointment in 2017. A second patient testified that she’d had a similar experience during an appointment with Dean. Defense attorneys sought to undermine the victim’s claims by noting she returned to Dean’s office for additional appointments after the assault and didn’t report it for several years. Expert witnesses, however, testified that is not unusual for victims.
Dean will be sentenced on August 31, and faces a minimum of five years to life in prison. His next trial is scheduled for June.
In brief
Boost up
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a second coronavirus booster shot for immunocompromised individuals ages 12 and older, and adults 50 and older. These groups are eligible to get the Pfizer or Moderna shot at least four months after their most recent booster. Appointments can be made on VaccineFinder.org.
Price cut
Senator Tim Kaine has co-sponsored legislation that could drastically reduce the price of insulin across the country. Introduced by Senator Raphael Warnock, the Affordable Insulin Now Act would require both Medicare and private health insurance plans to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per month. The cost of the life-saving medication has skyrocketed—diabetics currently spend around $6,000 a year on insulin, according to the Health Care Cost Institute.
Tim Kaine. Photo: Gage Skidmore
In reverse
Last spring, the University of Richmond’s board of trustees refused to rename campus buildings with white supremacists’ names on them, sparking student and faculty protests. But last week, the swanky private school reversed its controversial decision: It renamed six buildings, including Ryland Hall—named for the school’s first president Reverend Robert Ryland, who enslaved more than two dozen people—and Mitchell-Freeman Hall—partially named for 19th-century trustee Douglas Southall Freeman, who supported eugenics and segregation. In recent years, the University of Virginia has also stripped the names of racists from several academic buildings—but has yet to rename Alderman Library, named for the school’s first president and eugenicist Edwin Alderman.
Former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney is threatening a lawsuit against the city. Photo: Jackson Smith
Two months after her controversial firing, former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney has filed formal complaints against the city, and is threatening to bring a lawsuit.
In complaints submitted to CPD’s human resources department, the local Office of Human Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the NAACP, Brackney—the city’s first Black woman police chief—says her firing was direct retaliation against her efforts to dismantle white supremacy within the department. Since Brackney’s firing by then-city manager Chip Boyles (who has since resigned) on September 1, she also claims that city leadership has defamed, harassed, and discriminated against her based on her race and sex.
Brackney is demanding $3 million and a public apology.
The city is allowed to fire Brackney without cause. However, Brackney claims that after she was dismissed, public comments from the city manager and other leaders insinuated that she was fired with cause. That, her legal team argues, constitutes a wrongful termination.
“For the actions I took, for the attempt to dismantle racism, misogyny, nepotism, and police violence, I was deemed, quote, ‘not a good fit’ for this city,” said Brackney at a downtown press conference last week. “My professional reputation has been diminished, harmed, devalued by this city.”
City spokesman Brian Wheeler, who also announced his resignation this month, said the city has “no comment at this time” on Brackney’s complaints.
During the press conference, attorney Charles Tucker of The Cochran Firm walked through the events leading up to Brackney’s firing, beginning with her receipt of an email and video from a “concerned citizen” on June 6.
“What the video uncovered was that several officers using a city phone were engaged in police misconduct,” said Tucker. “[Brackney] put those who were responsible under investigation.”
According to a city statement released in August, the investigation revealed that SWAT team officers filmed their children setting off explosives, circulated pornographic videos and racist jokes on department cell phones, threatened to kill department leaders, and fired semi-automatic weapons at unauthorized events. Brackney fired one officer, and dissolved the SWAT team. Two more officers resigned.
As early as August 2, Tucker said that Boyles began holding secret meetings with city leaders to discuss terminating the chief. In her complaint to the Office of Human Rights, Brackney accuses Boyles, City Attorney Lisa Robertson, City Councilors Heather Hill and Lloyd Snook, Vice-Mayor Sena Magill, Police Civilian Review Board Chair Bellamy Brown, Police Benevolent Association President Mike Wells, Major James Mooney (who has also since retired), and Captain Tito Durrette of colluding to get her fired, in response to her disciplining “white male officers for criminal and departmental misconduct.”
Tucker claimed he and Brackney have records of emails with evidence of the meetings, but did not plan to release them publicly at this time.
Brackney declined an interview with C-VILLE for this story, but did provide written responses to our questions.
Before her termination, Brackney writes that she had an “open, transparent, and professional relationship” with Boyles, and that he gave her “no indication” he believed the department needed a leadership change.
Citing community backlash against Brackney’s termination—along with Mayor Nikuyah Walker’s pushback—Boyles resigned as city manager in October. He has taken a new job as executive director of the George Washington Regional Commission in Fredericksburg.
“The city’s response to my actions…[sends] a message that proclaims throughout CPD and City Hall that the good ol’ boys system of patronage and insularity are alive and well in Charlottesville,” said Brackney during the press conference.
In addition to disbanding the SWAT team, removing school resource officers from city schools, and ending CPD’s relationship with the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force, Brackney said she held officers accountable for severe misconduct, including police brutality, domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. She also claimed the SWAT team has been secretly reassembling since her termination, and will be fully funded in the FY23 CPD budget.
The former chief also accused the city of rewarding people who support systemic racism. Brackney said Durrette, a former SWAT team commander, was on a “performance improvement plan” before he was promoted to assistant police chief, following Mooney’s retirement last month. Durrette is leading the department until a new permanent chief is hired.
During her three-year tenure as chief, Brackney writes that some officers “openly embraced and supported reform.” But some of her initiatives were met with concerted pushback. In particular, she required officers to participate in implicit and explicit bias training, which was unpopular. She also required them to file Response to Resistance reports for every use-of-force incident in the field. Officers also disagreed with Brackney’s response to last year’s protests against police violence, and believed CPD “should confront and arrest individuals for blocking streets, shutting down traffic, or other violations of a special events permit.”
“My reward for doing what’s right? Slander. My reward? Defamation. My reward? Retaliation, harassment, humiliation. My reward for challenging the system of supremacy? Termination,” said Brackney at the press conference.
During a City Council meeting following Brackney’s termination, Boyles, who said he’d held discussions with police officers, city leaders, Wells, and other parties, claimed that key departmental leaders planned to quit their jobs due to their lack of trust in the chief. He pointed to the results of two anonymous surveys of officers—one conducted by the department last year, the other conducted by the Police Benevolent Association in August—which led him to believe the department would only descend into “further chaos” under Brackney’s leadership.
Tucker emphasized that the PBA survey was commissioned in July, shortly after Brackney had disbanded the SWAT team and disciplined multiple officers for misconduct. It remains unclear who the survey was sent to. “The timing of it is suspect, where it came from is suspect, the way it was used is very suspect,” he said.
Brackney pointed out that Boyles himself admitted he had no faith in the survey, and called it “unscientific.”
In explaining his rationale for the firing, Boyles claimed that he had consulted various department employees and area public safety experts. Brackney’s team submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for records of those meetings, and was told that no records matched the request. “Not one shred of documented evidence exists that these ‘interviews’ were conducted,” she writes.
“You slandered me. You libeled me. You literally diminished me. And then now you’ve been torturing me for the past two months,” said Brackney of Boyles.
According to Tucker, Brackney still works at the department, and will be on the payroll until the end of the month. However, she has lost access to all CPD spaces and systems, and must make an appointment to enter the department and be escorted around by a subordinate officer.
“They have curtailed the information that she’s receiving on a day-to-day basis, and have basically stripped her of her responsibilities for the most part, and have her shadow a captain,” he explained during the press conference.
The city has until November 26 to respond to Brackney. If it does not reach a settlement agreement with her, the former chief will take her case to federal court. In her complaint to the NAACP, she also urged the organization to file a class-action suit against the city for its “pattern” of discrimination.
After all this, Brackney remains open to staying at CPD, if the city’s new management offers her the job back.
“My attorney and I will not take anything off the table,” said Brackney. “The city’s got the next move.”
In August, Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Review Board, a body designed to investigate accusations of police misconduct, approved a new ordinance that expanded its powers. City Council, which began discussing the proposed ordinance last week, will have to vote in favor of it for the CRB to begin its work.
In accordance with a new state law that took effect in July, the ordinance would allow the board to independently receive and investigate complaints, hold hearings, subpoena documents and witnesses, and issue disciplinary recommendations in cases that involve “serious breaches” of department and professional standards.
During last week’s lengthy work session, City Council’s discussion of the ordinance included CRB members and its Executive Director Hansel Aguilar, who was appointed in September.
The board has yet to determine exactly who is allowed to file a complaint, and what kind of cases would require it to conduct an independent investigation. To limit the criteria for CRB investigations, board vice-chair William Mendez suggested Aguilar could closely oversee CPD’s internal affairs division, and make recommendations throughout its investigations to ensure they are complete and unbiased.
Councilor Lloyd Snook pointed out that potential complaints like use of excessive force are typically cases of criminal conduct or civil action, which the board is not allowed to investigate. “Where do these exclusions leave the PCRB with something meaningful to do?” he asked.
Aguilar suggested the board take notes from Washington, D.C., where he formerly served as a police misconduct investigator. If the city’s CRB received a complaint about a potentially criminal act, the board conducted a preliminary investigation and sent it to the U.S. attorney’s office. If the office decided not to prosecute the police officer, the board then continued to investigate the complaint as a breach of department standards.
Councilor Michael Payne asked if complaints involving the University Police Department could also be submitted to the CRB. “It was absolutely the intent of the legislature to consider the campus police in this process,” replied Delegate Sally Hudson, who said she could help clarify that part of the law during the upcoming General Assembly session.
Payne also recommended the board include a code of ethics in the ordinance, detailing when council could remove members for misconduct. During public comment, several community members called for the removal of board chair Bellamy Brown, who has been accused of collaborating with the Police Benevolent Association to get former CPD chief RaShall Brackney fired.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she brought up Brown’s behavior to council multiple times, but was told it was a private matter. “If there is only the will of one person to take his behavior [and] determine if he’s a good fit for the board, then there’s not much that can be done,” she said.
During the work session, councilors also commented on the CRB’s proposed interim hearing procedures, which would allow the board to proceed with one review request while it waits for the full ordinance to be passed.
The placeholder hearing procedures give board members full access to the police department’s internal affairs files, but leave complainants with just a police department-authored summary of the files. Snook voiced multiple concerns about that mechanism, suggesting that it could make it more difficult for complainants to argue their cases.
Following the work session, Council voted 4-1 during its Monday night meeting to approve the interim hearing procedures, with Mayor Walker dissenting. In the coming weeks, several CRB members and councilors will hold another work session to further discuss and amend the ordinance. Council hopes to pass the final ordinance before the end of the year.
Last summer’s protests prompted Virginia legislators to pass the Marcus-David Peters Act, which limits the role of police during mental health crises. PC: Eze Amos
Last summer, hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Charlottesville, demanding justice for Black people murdered by police across the country. Many protesters urged the city to drastically reduce the Charlottesville Police Department’s $18 million budget, and reallocate those funds toward community services, including mental health treatment.
Thanks to new legislation, a mental health crisis unit could soon be coming to Charlottesville. In November, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Marcus-David Peters Act, named in honor of a 24-year-old Black high school biology teacher killed during a severe mental health crisis in 2018 by a Richmond police officer.
The act directs localities to limit the role of law enforcement in mental health crises, instead establishing a Marcus Alert system to bring non-police responders into the fold. By July 2022, the city must create a 988 phone number for mental health crises, and develop a response protocol defining when law enforcement will—and will not—need to be involved in answering calls.
In January, a work group—including city councilors, community leaders, emergency services professionals, and individuals who have experienced mental health crises—began exploring how to create a new mental health response system in Charlottesville. Last week, the group presented its findings to City Council, alongside the Imagining A Just Cville work group.
Mental health advocate Myra Anderson, co-chair of the Marcus Alert group, explained how police have mistreated her during many of her mental health crises. She also highlighted the cases of Black people who were killed by police while experiencing a crisis, including Corrine Gaines, Deborah Danner, and Anthony Hill.
“There have been times where I’ve found the police to be very helpful, [and] there have been times when things have gone horribly wrong,” said Anderson. “But I feel like when I’m in a crisis, I shouldn’t have to play Russian roulette with how they are going to show up.”
Lieutenant Larry Jones, who works with CPD’s crisis intervention team, expressed his support for the Marcus alert system. Responding to mental health calls is often very time consuming and costly for police, he said. He suggested the department create a specialized mental health unit specifically for high-risk calls requiring police intervention.
In order to establish a robust response system, mental health care professionals and facilities will need a lot more funding and community support, explained Region Ten Executive Director Lisa Beitz. In July, five of Virginia’s eight state-run mental hospitals stopped accepting new admissions due to staffing and capacity issues. Many people experiencing mental health crises have had to spend days with a police officer in their local emergency room, waiting for a bed to be available at a state or private mental hospital.
Representing the Imagining a Just Cville work group, which was organized by Mayor Nikuyah Walker last year, Neal Goodloe of the Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board shared the results of his study on crime in Charlottesville over the past decade. Though reported crime has decreased by similar percentages among Black and white residents, Black people are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated, and white people are more likely to stay in jail for less than a day.
Charlottesville resident Wanda Smith, Walker’s cousin, spoke about how her family has been impacted by mass incarceration. While her brother and sister were incarcerated for over a decade, she had to help raise her nieces and nephews, preventing her from pursuing her own life goals. Raylaja Waller of City of Promise discussed how seeing her father go in and out of jail deeply affected her as a child, and she advocated for more grassroots re-entry programs.
CPD intern Nancy Amin, a University of Texas School of Law student, highlighted the effects of officer discretion during arrests, using recent police department data. She described a traffic stop involving a white woman who admitted to driving drunk, but started crying and claimed that another CPD officer was her best friend. The woman was allowed to park her car and take an Uber home, and was not arrested. During a similar traffic stop involving a Hispanic man, the officer became impatient because the man did not speak English. The man did not understand the officer’s request for a sobriety test, but the officer arrested him for “refusing” the test, and he was found guilty of a DUI. (The charge was later dismissed.)
To take discretion away from officers, former CPD chief RaShall Brackney—who continues to work with the group despite her recent firing—suggested the city create a diversion program that people accused of certain offenses could opt in to before being arrested or charged.
City Manager Chip Boyles expressed his support for the recommendations and a willingness to get to work on them.
“These are just really starting points,” said Walker. “There’s a lot of work still left undone, and those things are going to require some funding [and] whoever is at the table in the city to see the vision.”
Questions remain about the firing of former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney, who spent less than three years on the job. Photo: Eze Amos.
By Brielle Entzminger and Ben Hitchcock
Three weeks ago, Charlottesville City Manager Chip Boyles announced that he had decided to fire Police Chief RaShall Brackney. The city will open a national search for the next chief of police, though community members and city councilors alike feel the reasons for Brackney’s dismissal remain murky. And for a city beset with organizational turmoil—and a police department that’s proven itself resistant to reform—the path forward is anything but clear.
Questions remain
Brackney, the first Black woman to serve as Charlottesville’s police chief, was hired in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally and relieved of duty after less than three years in charge. Shortly before her departure, the area Police Benevolent Association released an anonymous survey of 66 police officers, in which they expressed their dislike for Brackney and a lack of faith in her leadership. After that, the city made public multiple documents detailing police officers’ bad behavior, and implying that Brackney’s unpopularity was a result of her attempts to change the department’s racist and sexist culture.
Boyles has not taken media questions about Brackney’s firing, though he has penned two press releases and a Daily Progress op-ed explaining his decision.
The survey of officers “revealed substantial concerns of trust and confidence in the leadership,” wrote Boyles in the Progress last Sunday. “While great strides were made during Chief Brackney’s time 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 claimed that he wished he could have involved City Council more in his decision and worked with Brackney to develop an “improvement plan,” but felt that he needed to act quickly before the department became “gripped in chaos.”
“I took decisive action to prevent key leadership positions—which were in jeopardy of becoming vacant—from erupting into deeper divides within the department,” he explained. “I did not expect to be confronted with such anger and vitriol…I felt the larger community would respect my intentions.”
Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who criticized Brackney’s firing, said it was the last straw in a decision to cancel her own November re-election campaign. At Monday night’s City Council meeting, she pressed Boyles for answers about his decision-making process.
Boyles said he spoke with half a dozen police officers, met with the Police Benevolent Association twice, and consulted other law enforcement agencies including the UVA Police Department, the Albemarle County Police Department, and the Emergency Communications Center. The city manager said he couldn’t go into more detail because he felt the officers and leaders he’d consulted had a “confidentiality right” when they spoke with him about the chief.
“You have said in the past that the reforms that were taking place were necessary,” Walker told Boyles. “I think you should be able to give us a general understanding of what the complaints were, and how you made a decision that those complaints were more important than reforming racist policing practices that have devastated the Black community in this city.”
Walker reiterated that she felt her fellow city councilors were not concerned enough about the circumstances surrounding the firing. “The rest of you just sit there and don’t say anything,” Walker said. She specifically addressed Lloyd Snook, a defense attorney: “Unless you’re motivated by getting more clients for you to provide inept defense for, you should be concerned about how police treat citizens in this community.”
“I certainly want greater clarity on motivations of the decision, and what the plan is for the future direction of the department, as well as criminal justice reform efforts that the department was involved in,” Councilor Michael Payne said to Boyles. Payne felt that the timing of the firing suggested the decision was a “direct response to the PBA.”
“Regardless of intent,” Payne said, “it sends a message that reform had gone too far.”
Brackney in hindsight
Charlottesville leaders who have followed the police department closely in recent years say the city has to learn from this saga in order to move toward its stated police reform goals.
Local activists Don Gathers and Rosia Parker appreciated Brackney’s efforts to modernize the department and address longstanding racial issues. They praised her for ending the department’s relationship with the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force and dissolving the CPD SWAT team after reports of misconduct surfaced. Brackney also was supportive of the Obama administration’s report on 21st-century policing, which emphasized police transparency and accountability, outlined specific use-of-force policies, and detailed critical steps toward police reform.
Gathers also understands the immense pressure Brackney faced.
“Coming in on the heels of the Unite the Right rally, any chief was going to have issues,” says Gathers. “I’m not sure if she ever fully embraced the community as some would have hoped she would have, but I’m certain there was at least a popular segment of the community who never embraced her.”
Albemarle County detective and Central Virginia Police Benevolent Association president Mike Wells worked to push the survey into the public eye, and has praised the decision to fire Brackney. Wells did not respond to a request for comment.
Parker had issues with the former chief’s communication—she says that Brackney lied to the community about her actions multiple times, and spoke publicly against her and other community members. She wishes that Brackney had established a memorandum of understanding with the city’s public housing communities, too, in order to keep “out of control” officers in check.
Local civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel supported Brackney’s efforts to eradicate the department’s outdated “warrior mentality.” He thinks Brackney shouldn’t have hesitated to alert the public of the changes she made.
“I’m sorry she didn’t talk more about some of the things she had done inside of the police department that got some of these officers rattled,” says Fogel. “The community would have supported her in those endeavors, instead of being critical of her in certain other endeavors.”
Job description
To successfully implement the crucial reforms many in the community have called for, the new police chief must understand Charlottesville’s complicated history and politics, and be committed to 21st-century policing, the activists say. They should also be strong-willed and have thick skin, but be able to listen to the entire community and find common ground.
A new chief should “at least have some type of knowledge of what it is that you’re going to do when you come here to Charlottesville,” says Parker, who was a key part of the creation of Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Review Board. “You’re coming in behind so many different things that have taken place within the department. And have an understanding of what is the meaning for what Black people are going through today.”
Parker emphasizes that the chief should have a “no-nonsense” attitude, and not hesitate to hold officers accountable and discipline them when they are out of line. They should also prioritize building strong, transparent relationships with the community and the Police Civilian Review Board.
Gathers wants the new chief to be a person of color. At the same time, Charlottesville must drastically improve its treatment of Black leadership, he says. Since the Unite the Right rally in 2017, two Black police chiefs and two Black city managers have either resigned or been fired, and the Black mayor has decided not to seek re-election.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker recently called off her re-election bid, saying Brackney’s dismissal was the “final straw” after months of contemplating dropping out of the City Council race. Photo: Eze Amos.
“The person who was next in command [to Brackney] was a Black man with over 30 years of service to the community,” says Gathers, referring to Captain Tito Durrette. “Instead of giving [the position] to him, we asked Mr. Mooney to un-retire and lead the charge…that truly was a slap in the face to the Black community.”
Fogel believes the city needs to do more than hire a new chief to solve its policing issues—it needs to completely overhaul the department. The new chief must recruit new officers who are committed to progressive policing, and fire everyone who is not, he says.
“We have to start sweeping up that department from the bottom up,” says Fogel. “And if Chip Boyles expects somebody to come in and clean out that department without having some upset police officers, he’s got his head buried in the sand.”
“Overall, we’re going to have a hard time replacing [Brackney]—there aren’t that many police chiefs who have a progressive view of the role of police,” he adds.
In the meantime, Fogel remains concerned about the department’s current leadership, and fears that officers will retaliate against local residents, pointing to the survey participants who expressed disdain for the community.
“They don’t trust this community. They are making demands to trust [them], yet have not shown any reason why the community should trust them,” he says.
No matter who takes charge of the department next, activist Ang Conn of Charlottesville Beyond Policing does not expect much to change.
“We’re speaking about trying to reform an institution created by white men in order to inflict harm and even death, at will, upon Black and Indigenous people to benefit white property—structural and human beings—owners,” says Conn. “These same ideals and practices have been transformed over time to fit in with social norms.”
“There’s no reforming that,” she adds.
Now hiring
At the end of Monday’s council meeting, city leadership discussed the process for hiring a new chief. Boyles said the city will first have to hire an interim chief, and that person would ideally be someone from within Virginia who could start almost immediately. Then the city will conduct a national search for a permanent candidate. The search process will require retaining a firm and consulting with community groups.
The last time Charlottesville had to retain a search firm to select a candidate for a major position was in January, when Tarron Richardson’s resignation left the city without a city manager. That hiring firm wound up calling off their contract when the firm’s boss told Snook that he had “never seen a level of dysfunction as profound as what he was seeing here.”
Both Walker and Payne said they were concerned that the applicant pool of potential chiefs wouldn’t exactly be brimming with reform-minded progressives. Boyles agreed with the councilors that it was vital for the new chief to arrive with a desire to change the department.
Walker suggested amending the city’s charter to allow City Council to have approval on high-ranking city appointments such as police chief. Currently, the hiring power lies with the city manager.
“This may be a very difficult position to fill,” Boyles said of the vacancy he created.
Chief RaShall Brackney was let go last week. Photo: Eze Amos.
Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney is on the outs—City Manager Chip Boyles terminated her contract last Wednesday evening. Brackney, the first Black woman to hold the job, had been at the head of the department since June 2018.
A recent survey of police officers indicated that the rank-and-file had lost trust in Brackney, but other newly public documents give numerous examples of misconduct within the department and detail Brackney’s efforts to turn things around. Seven officers have been terminated for bad behavior since Brackney took charge.
The city initially announced Brackney’s firing in a brief press release on Wednesday evening, and then elaborated on the decision in another release on Friday. The city manager’s team declined to speak directly to C-VILLE about the termination.
“I fully supported the difficult personnel decisions made recently by Chief Brackney,” said Boyles’ statement. “However, in order to dismantle systemic racism and eliminate police violence and misconduct in Charlottesville, we need a leader who is not only knowledgeable in that work, but also is effective [at] building collaborative relationships with the community, the department, and the team at City Hall.”
Councilor Lloyd Snook, the only city councilor who could be reached for comment, echoes Boyles’ concerns about Brackney’s ability to build consensus.
“When Chief Brackney came, she very early on ruffled a lot of feathers among the good old boys network,” Snook says. “That didn’t bother me. There were a lot of people who had been in the job too long or had brought an unhelpful attitude.”
But Snook says he became concerned when reports surfaced that department morale had reached an all-time low, and when officers who Brackney herself had hired began to leave. “I’ve been generally quite impressed with the folks who have been hired,” Snook says. “The problem is that most of the folks who I was impressed with didn’t stay.”
Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who had spoken favorably of Brackney throughout her stint as chief, disagreed with the firing.
“The City of Charlottesville publicly eviscerated Dr. RaShall Brackney to protect police officers who are fighting the internal reforms she’s implementing,” Walker wrote on Facebook after Brackney’s dismissal.
“I supported Dr. Brackney because she is as committed to breaking down these racist systems as I am,” Walker wrote in a separate post. “I’m saddened because little Black girls everywhere are looking at this and learning what happens when you risk everything to tell the truth.”
Shortly after the news broke, Walker posted a four-page memo that Brackney had shared with councilors in early August, which goes into further detail on the type of behavior that was common in the police department.
Officers let their children fire police weapons and detonate explosives, swapped pornographic images and racist jokes on department cell phones, and shotgunned Bang energy drinks before their shift on the anniversary of August 12, the memo reveals. SWAT team recruits “were frequently subjected to humiliating comments regarding their skin tones and ethnicity, as well as stereotypical references to an African American recruit eating chicken,” it reads.
The document also includes a transcript of a text exchange between three officers, in which one high-ranking department member brags that he “just threw the boys into the octagon at the house and told them to fight for my amusement…winner got ice cream. Loser got to watch the winner eat the ice cream…I’m breeding next gen savages!…I want them both fucking the prom queen one day.”
As a result of these incidents, the SWAT team was disbanded, one officer was fired, and two more resigned. Those personnel moves were among the decisions that had irritated the department’s officer corps—some officers complained about the departures of their colleagues in an anonymous survey released two weeks ago.
On the other side, some police reform activists expressed mixed opinions about Brackney’s firing.
“While the Chief was not particularly in favor of community oversight, the City’s firing her for trying to change police culture is a step in the wrong direction,” reads a statement from the People’s Coalition, a police oversight advocacy group.
“I’ve never been able to understand, or get a clear answer, as to why there was the development of a Civilian Review Board here,” Brackney said in a 2019 interview with C-VILLE.
Snook says he understands the gravity of letting the department’s first Black woman police chief go, and that he’s heard from some in the community that “by firing Chief Brackney you’re allowing the racists in the police department to win.”
“All I can say is right now, what’s clear is that Charlottesville is losing,” the councilor says, “and we need to figure out a better way to do this.”
Brackney will be paid a lump sum equal to 12 months of her $160,000 salary. Charlottesville has made a habit of paying large severance packages to outgoing officials: Last year, former city manager Tarron Richardson took a check for $205,000 with him on his way out the door.
Assistant Police Chief James Mooney will take over while the department conducts a national search for a new chief.
