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In brief: FOIA troubles, doctor found guilty, and more

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.

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FOIA showdown

Less than a year after a new Freedom of Information Act law expanded public access to police investigative files in Virginia, Delegate Rob Bell has sponsored a bill that would reverse the reform, citing concern for victims’ privacy.  

“There were immediate efforts to access what I would call very private information,” Bell says. He described a TV producer requesting access to a case file from the parents of murdered UVA student Hannah Graham, soon after the new law went into effect in July 2021. When the Grahams refused, Bell says the producer sought the complete investigative file in Graham’s murder through a FOIA request.

Bell’s bill passed through the House General Laws Committee last week on a party-line vote,  helped by support from the parents of Graham and Morgan Harrington. It has alarmed family members of another woman, Molly Meghan Miller, whose 2017 death was investigated in Charlottesville and ruled a suicide. 

“For over three years, this grim experience, from start to finish, has left our family with countless unanswered questions and unresolved concerns,” write Miller’s aunts, Tina Hicks and Lori Goodbody, in an affidavit attached to a FOIA lawsuit. The pair hopes to use the more expansive FOIA laws to learn more about the investigation into Miller’s death. The suit was sent to the city as formal notification of their intent to take legal action, and was received on February 3.

Miller was reported missing in December 2017. After a three-day search, Charlottesville police located her remains inside her own home. Miller’s death divided her family, with her mother publicly expressing support for police and requesting privacy, while other family members and friends expressed doubts about the investigation and what really happened to Miller.

“We lost our daughter, Molly Meghan Miller, to suicide on January 1, 2018,” reads a statement from Miller’s mother, Marian McConnell. “The case was closed in 2018. Tina Hicks and Lori Goodbody have no right and no need to any of Molly’s police investigative records…For 4 years we have asked them to accept the truth, honor Molly’s memory and respect our loss. We have been forced to disavow them due to their continued reprehensible behavior.  If they file suit, we will respond accordingly.”

Hicks and Goodbody’s suit claims that they filed a FOIA request with Charlottesville police for records in Miller’s case in July, soon after the new law took effect. Police initially provided a time and cost estimate for fulfillment, then, after multiple delays, reversed course. In October, the department denied the request for any records in the case. The suit alleges that complete denial violates the new FOIA law.

The Miller family’s situation offers another case study for Bell’s bill. If it becomes law, the bill would prevent access to closed police case files by anyone other than immediate family, defined as a spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild. In Miller’s case, that would mean only her mother. 

“This bill [says] that victims should certainly still be allowed to have access to those records,” Bell says. His bill also calls for victims’ family members to be able to file an injunction against anyone seeking information in a case through FOIA.  

Hicks and Goodbody’s attorney, Matthew Hardin, the former Greene County commonwealth’s attorney, spoke against the bill at a subcommittee hearing on February 8.

“The problem is when records can be released on a discretionary basis, which is how it used to be, the police could decide unilaterally when they wanted to give up records and when they wanted to keep them secret,” Hardin tells C-VILLE. “Of course, they release the records that make them look good, and they don’t release the records that make them look bad.” 

Hardin, a Republican, says the current FOIA law already grants an exemption to police allowing them to withhold crime scene photos and other personal information about victims and witnesses. He points out that Bell’s bill’s reference to immediate family doesn’t fit with a lot of Virginia families, which may include same-sex parents or step-parents. 

“It’s not just a problem under FOIA,” Hardin says. “This is actually an attempt to take the definition of family back to the 1950s.”

While Bell claims his bill would protect victims’ and witnesses’ privacy, Hardin believes greater transparency helps build trust between police departments and the communities they serve. 

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government also opposes Bell’s bill, according to Executive Director Megan Rhyne.

“We believe that like any other governmental entity, there needs to be some sort of oversight over how police and prosecutors do their jobs,” Rhyne says. “We don’t want to interfere in the ability to conduct an investigation, but once it’s completed and there’s no harm to come from disclosure, they should be releasing records the way other public bodies do.”

She also points out that not all victims have the same reaction in these situations—victims of the 2019 mass shooting at Virginia Beach supported expanded access to police case files. 

As Bell’s bill wends through the General Assembly, Hardin says he is waiting for a response from the city before filing the FOIA lawsuit in Miller’s case. City Attorney Lisa Robertson did not return a call requesting comment.

Hardin says he’ll continue to speak out against Bell’s bill, and he hopes other victims of crimes who prefer greater police transparency will also speak up.

“I think that all we’re saying is, once [an] investigation’s over, let the public take a look at it and see what went right and what went wrong,” Hardin says.

Updated 2/16 to add a statement from Marian McConnell.

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A12 plan: Judge rules state police must release it

More than a year and a half after a freelance reporter requested the Virginia State Police and the Office of Public Safety turn over its Unite the Right public safety plans, a judge ruled today that it’s time for the state to cough them up—although with some confusion about redaction and release.

Natalie Jacobsen worked with Jackson Landers, both of whom have written for C-VILLE, on the documentary Charlottesville: Our Streets about the August 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally during which dozens were injured and Heather Heyer was killed. Police were widely criticized for standing by while white supremacists and counterprotesters clashed in the streets.

Jacobsen filed a request for the safety plans under the Freedom of Information Act in 2017, and when the state refused to produce any documents, she sued, aided by the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which represents journalists around the world.

In Charlottesville Circuit Court last April, Judge Richard Moore ordered that the state turn over a redacted version of the safety plans. That same day, he issued a stay to the order so the commonwealth could appeal it.

In November, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled against the state because its appeal was filed several days before Moore had issued a final order.

During the May 22 hearing, Deputy Attorney General Victoria Pearson maintained the state should not have to release the safety plans because FOIA exempts tactical plans and because some information was already released in the reports from the governor’s task force and Charlottesville’s Heaphy report.

Virginia State Police did not turn over its plans to either investigative group, said Pearson, although Heaphy did receive some information about state plans that she suggested wasn’t accurate.

“I don’t know what harm comes from not releasing the report,” said Pearson. “It would be our position the entire report is exempt. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle once it’s out.”

Moore said the crux of the case was to balance public safety—and public access. He agreed to lift the stay and ordered the release of redacted reports.

Then he brought up an issue of how the plan would be redacted, either by blacking out the material the state police consider exempt, or by deleting the information and providing Jacobsen only what was not redacted.

Typically when reporters receive material that’s been partially redacted, information is blacked out. That was the case when Attorney General William Barr released the Mueller report.

Moore said he agreed Jacobsen should have a redacted copy, but asked that she not release it.

“I strongly object.” said her attorney, Caitlin Vogus.

“Okay then, I won’t give it to her,” said Moore. “I don’t want it released prematurely. I don’t want her saying they blacked out 20 pages.”

“Ms. Jacobsen is not interested in anything she cannot release publicly,” replied Vogus.

Moore ordered the plans released—without restriction—within 30 days.

Jacobsen said she wants to see a document with blacked-out information so she can tell how much has been removed.

“It’s a right for the public to see this information, because this was a public event,” she said after the hearing. “The Unite the Right rally actually resulted in the death of a civilian and two officers and that is pertinent and the public has a right to view it.“

She called it a “dangerous precedent” for police to think they don’t have to release information because it’s already been released by a leak or another firm, especially when the state says there may be discrepancies in the Heaphy report.

“We need to see what those discrepancies are,” said Jacobsen.

The decision, she said, “is a big win for freedom of information. It’s a right for the public to see it and I hope they will comply with the 30-day ruling and that we see it.”

 

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In brief: City digs in, winemaker dies, rioters plead, and more

Truth in scheduling: Progress joins City v. Civilian Review Board fray

A Daily Progress reporter was a topic of discussion during public comment at the May 6 City Council meeting, following Nolan Stout’s story earlier that day that police Chief RaShall Brackney’s calendar seemed to contradict claims that she was unavailable to meet with the Police Civilian Review Board.

CRB member Rosia Parker thanked Stout for his reporting, while Mayor Nikuyah Walker blamed Stout for the escalating tension between the chief and the review board. Councilor Wes Bellamy said he had “personal issues” with the article, and defended Brackney and her calendar. Police gadfly Jeff Fogel yelled at Bellamy to “not punk out,” and Bellamy replied, “You’re the last one to tell me to punk out.”

The latest outburst follows a bizarre April 26 city press release that accused a CRB member of lying about Brackney refusing to meet with the board. That was followed by an even weirder April 30 retraction of the falsehood allegation, which instead pointed the finger at the Progress’ reporting. The paper stands by its story.

And in the latest deepening of trenches in the war of words, city spokesman Brian Wheeler told Stout his Freedom of Information Act request for emails between Brackney or her secretary and City Council or CRB members, and emails between councilors and CRB members, would cost $3,000 and require a $700 deposit. Wheeler refused to break down the costs, which are unprecedented in C-VILLE Weekly’s experience with FOIA.

Megan Rhyne with Virginia Coalition for Open Government says this is only the second time she’s seen a local government refuse to detail its alleged costs, and tells the DP, “I don’t think it’s very transparent.”


Quote of the week

“I believe we have more than enough mandatory minimum sentences—more than 200—in Virginia state code.” Governor Ralph Northam on why he won’t sign any more such bills, which he calls punitive, discriminatory, and expensive


In brief

Carbon friendlier

Charlottesville’s carbon emissions per household—11.2 tons annually—are a ton above the national average. City Council voted unanimously at its May 6 meeting to approve a climate action plan that includes a goal of 45 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2030, and total carbon neutrality by 2050.

Wine pioneer dies

David King. file photo

 

David King, patriarch of King Family Vineyards, died May 2 after what the family calls a “hard-fought” battle with cancer. The 64-year-old was a past chair of the Virginia Wine Board, a polo player, pilot, and reserve deputy with the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue division. The family will host a celebration of life on June 14 at their Crozet family farm from 7:30-9:30pm.

Rioters plead

The last two members of the now-defunct California white supremacist group Rise Above Movement, who traveled to Charlottesville for the August 2017 Unite the Right rally to brawl with counterprotesters, pleaded guilty May 3 in U.S. District Court. RAM founder Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, from Redondo Beach, and Michael Paul Miselis, 30, from Lawndale, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot. Fellow RAMmers Cole White and Thomas Gillen previously pleaded guilty.

The Guys

Unrelated Bridget Guy and Kyle Guy got top UVA athletics honors at the Hoos Choice Awards May 1. Bridget, from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is an all-American pole vaulter who was undefeated this season. Indianapolis-native Kyle was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four, in part for his sangfroid in firing off three free throws in a row to beat Auburn 63-62.

Flaggers appeal

Confederate battle flag-loving Virginia Flaggers were in circuit court May 2 to appeal a Louisa Board of Zoning Appeals decision that the 120-foot pole they raised on I-64 in March 2018 to fly the “Charlottesville I-64 Spirit of Defiance Battle Flag” exceeded the county’s maximum of 60 feet. The judge has not yet issued a ruling.

Cruel and unusual

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Virginia’s death row inmates, who spend years alone in a small cell for 23 to 24 hours a day. The justices said the inmates face a “substantial risk” of serious psychological and emotional harm in violation of the Eighth Amendment in the case filed by local attorney Steve Rosenfield.

UVA student sentenced

When former UVA student Cayden Jacob Dalton drunkenly abducted and strangled his ex-girlfriend in August 2018, she told the judge “there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die.” Now, he’ll serve one and a half years for the crime, with the rest of his 15-year sentence suspended.


Show us the money

With the first campaign finance reports filed March 31, we learned who’s pulling in the bucks ahead of the June 11 City Council Democratic primary,  as well as the funds raised by independents Paul Long and Bellamy Brown.

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In brief: FOIA fun, both sides—not, gabapentin implicated, and more

You say sunshine, we say FOIA

Reporters know one of the greatest tools for keeping the public informed is FOIA—the Freedom of Information Act. As Virginia Code notes: “The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government.” Federal and state FOIA laws ensure that public meetings and information are truly available to the public.

Sunshine Week, an annual event to promote freedom of information and open government, falls around father-of-the-Constitution James Madison’s March 16 birthday. Smart Cville and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government hosted a FOIA panel March 25 for people appointed to boards and commissions, and we figured it’s never too late to share some FOIA highlights.

“We organized this event because we value transparency and knew others, within government and outside, have similar values,” says Smart Cville founder Lucas Ames. “If we’re truly committed to transparency and openness, it’s important that we take steps to promote those ideals, including educating local citizens who sit on boards and commissions that fall under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.”

Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, regularly fields FOIA questions, and ran down a few of the most common.

1. How to request: A FOIA request doesn’t have to be written, but it’s a good idea. An email can read: Under the Freedom of Information Act, I’m requesting all records from DATE to DATE that deal with X. Please provide an estimate to fulfill this request.

2. Fees: People aren’t always aware that they can be charged for copies of documents, particularly those that involve a lot of staff time to pull together. Government bodies can give you an estimate—but you have to ask for it, says Rhyne.

3. Response: A government body has five days to reply. Typical exemptions to FOIA: police investigative files, personnel records, working papers.

4. Not exempt: Messages dealing with public business on personal devices and in personal accounts. Government employees’ salaries must be disclosed.

5. Meetings: FOIA also mandates that the public be notified of meetings of elected and appointed officials, and these meetings are supposed to be open to the public. But the law does not require public comment, which surprises a lot of citizens, says Rhyne. Public notice of a meeting is required, except for staff meetings. Three or more members of an elected or appointed body cannot meet for coffee to talk about public business unless the public is notified.


Quote of the week

“In Charlottesville and around the globe, we stand firmly in stating: There are not very fine people on both sides of this issue.”—Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney on the racist threat that closed city schools


In brief

Albemarle ditched

Last spring, Governor Ralph Northam was here to tout construction software company CoConstruct’s $485,000 investment that would create 69 new jobs in Albemarle County. On March 22, CoConstruct announced it was moving to downtown Charlottesville and will lease 40,000 square feet in the five-story office building under construction on Garrett Street. 3TWENTY3 bought the property from Oliver Kuttner for $5.4 million in October.

Crozet crash

Jack Looney

The National Transportation Safety Board released its 1,600-page report on the January 31, 2018, collision of an Amtrak train and a Time Disposal garbage truck. The NTSB concluded the truck went around downed crossing arms and driver Dana Naylor, who was acquitted of criminal charges last month, was impaired by marijuana and gabapentin, a drug used to control seizures or relieve nerve pain, for which he didn’t have a prescription.

Farm scuttled

Developer Justin Shimp’s plans to build the controversial Hogwaller Farm, an apartment complex and urban farm concept that would straddle Charlottesville and Albemarle, were put on hold when City Council voted 3-2 to deny a rezoning request necessary to build an on-site greenhouse. Shimp says he’s planning to pursue a similar opportunity on the property, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Equity loans

Charlottesville launched its Business Equity Loan program earlier in March for existing businesses whose owners are socially disadvantaged either by race, ethnicity, or gender. The city allocated $100,000 to the Wes Bellamy initiative, and applicants who have been in business for at least six months can apply for loans from up to $25,000, according to Hollie Lee, an economic development specialist.

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In brief: FA5 tightens up, free the nipple, another renaming and more

Fridays new format

Treasured Charlottesville tradition Fridays After Five kicks off April 13, with a not-so-special nod to the realities of crowds gathering in the 21st century. After-Fivers will find enhanced security at the Sprint Pavilion with bag checks and fewer entrances to the area.

“Anyone in the event industry holding mass gatherings understands the shift,” says general manager Kirby Hutto. “We want to provide a safe environment.”

That means professional security will be examining bags and entrance will be limited to the Downtown Mall, Seventh Street at Market and the Belmont Bridge ramp.

And for ticketed events, attendees will walk through metal detectors.

The season will kick off with more rather than less security, says Hutto. “We don’t want to create long lines. We know people come from work with their laptop bags or with strollers.”

Says Hutto, “It’s just a recognition of the changing world we live in.”


In brief

Mayor’s speeding ticket

Staff photo

Nikuyah Walker was in Charlottesville Circuit Court April 9 to appeal a November 14 conviction for driving 43mph in a 25mph zone, but her attorney, Jeff Fogel, didn’t show. The case was continued to June 1.

 

 

More Soering defenders

Another cop has cast doubt on the 1990 conviction of Jens Soering for the double slaying of then-girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom’s parents. Former FBI special agent Stan Lapekas says he’s found documents proving the FBI did a profile in 1985 that said the killer was likely a female with close ties to the Haysoms. Bedford investigator Ricky Gardner has steadfastly denied such a profile existed.

Slowpoke schadenfreude

Thousands of the annoying drivers who hog the left lane while going below the normal speed of traffic have been fined $100 since Virginia enacted fines July 1, 2017, WTOP reports.

Topless buskers

Morgan Hopkins. Staff photo

Jeff Fogel filed a lawsuit against Charlottesville police for the August 12 arrest of Morgan Hopkins, who, amid the violence and mayhem of that day, took off her shirt. Fogel, who represented activist Veronica Fitzhugh when she disrobed at Occupy in 2011, says under state law, “the mere fact of nudity does not constitute indecent exposure,” and that shirtless men with Hopkins were not arrested.

 

 

 


“During Aug 12 Nazi rally in #Charlottesville, police ignored assaults by Nazis, didn’t arrest them. Instead, they arrested harmless hippies on the downtown mall. Thanks, CPD, for protecting the public from women’s exposed nipples! Smh”@Jalane_Schmidt in an April 6 tweet


Hand ‘em over

Judge Rick Moore has ruled that Virginia State Police must turn over a redacted copy of its August 12 operational plan to local freelance journalists Natalie Jacobsen and Jackson Landers, who were represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. They’ve also obtained Charlottesville police plans as a result of the same Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Unsuccessful lobby

The city hired Troutman Sanders Strategies to lobby the General Assembly against Delegate Steve Landers’ revenue-sharing bill, which requires Charlottesville to account for the millions Albemarle pays it each year and for the two localities to meet annually to discuss economic development. The bill passed unanimously in both houses and Governor Ralph Northam signed it into law.

Teen runaway

Margie Araceli Garcia Urbina, 17, was reported missing March 3. Albemarle police say her cellphone is off,  she has not responded to attempts to contact her on social media, and she appears to have used an ATM March 3 in Opelika, Alabama.

 

 

 

 

Elder embezzlement

Renee Magruder Madel was convicted of felony embezzlement for using a power of attorney to bilk an elderly victim of thousands. She was sentenced April 3 to 10 years suspended, 30 days in jail and restitution of over $50,000.

Closure wanted

Robert Hourihan. Submitted photo

Robert Hourihan disappeared seven years ago on April 8. Last seen in Palmyra, his car was later found in a parking lot in Maryland. Police suspect foul play and are still seeking information to provide closure to his family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Popular parks monikers

The city conducted a survey March 6-28 to rename the parks formerly known as Lee and Jackson and currently dubbed Emancipation and Justice. Led by longtime resident Mary Carey’s dislike of the name Emancipation, the survey received 7,535 submissions. Lee and Jackson were disqualified, but that did not keep Lee from receiving the most write-in votes, according to “The Schilling Show.”

Most votes

For Emancipation Park: Market Street Park

For Justice Park: Court Square Park

Weighted votes

Emancipation Park

  • Vinegar Hill Park
  • Market Street Park
  • Central Park

Justice Park

  • Court Square Park
  • Justice Park
  • Courthouse Park

Top write-in (aside from Lee and Jackson)

Swanson Legacy Park, in honor of Gregory Swanson, the first African American to attend UVA law school—after he sued the university, a case that was heard in federal court, which was located in what is now the Central Library bordering Emancipation Park.

 

Updated April 12 with the Swanson Legacy Park write-ins.

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October surprise: Lunsford faces lawsuit over FOIA request

Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford, in a hotly contested race for reelection, faced additional heat October 29 when Richmond attorney Matthew Hardin filed a lawsuit against her for creating a “barrier to transparency” in her response to a Freedom of Information Act request issued earlier this week.

The FOIA request asked for information on Lunsford’s credit card usage, reimbursements she received from the county and correspondence about convicted former supervisor Chris Dumler, overturned abduction-conviction defendant Mark Weiner and Albemarle police officer James Larkin during the period of January 2012 and December 2013.

“We were curious whether she paid for [personal business] trips on personal funds or with taxpayer money. Of course correspondence was requested to see what standards her office was using as regards more controversial cases,” Hardin explains.

Lunsford responded by saying she would need $3,200, as well as five additional weeks to produce the requested documents.

“It’s an incredibly high number and it impedes access to the records,” Hardin says. “It’s more than an average Charlottesville citizen pays for health insurance.”

Hardin acknowledges that Lunsford is allowed to charge a reasonable fee in response to the request, but says that by insisting on reviewing the records herself, Lunsford unnecessarily increased the fee.

“She’s the highest paid employee in the office,” he says, “We believe that her assistant commonwealth’s attorneys could review these at a much lower cost and we believe when that’s available, that’s what the law requires.”

Alan Gernhardt, staff attorney at the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, says the costs do not surprise him and that he has seen similar fees in the past. Gernhardt specifies that depending on what the search involves, Lunsford’s $3,200 could be a reasonable amount to charge.

“There’s tons of practical and technological questions involved,” Gernhardt says, “Just searching through the mass volume of e-mails can be time consuming.”

Gernhardt adds that the time delay also is not surprising and it’s “not out of the realm of possibility” that Lunsford would require that amount of time to retrieve all of the records.

Hardin stresses that he’s not trying to cause trouble for Lunsford. “It might turn out that everything she’s done is completely correct and honest and I hope that that’s the case,” Hardin says, “but the problem is that without the records I can’t tell.”

The lawsuit falls at an inconvenient time for Lunsford, who runs for reelection November 3. Hardin, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Tyler Pieron, denies any political motivation in the requests.

“We’re not interested in the elections,” Hardin says, “I will happily drop the lawsuit if the records are produced in a reasonable way at a reasonable time.”

Denise Lunsford did not respond to CVILLE’s e-mail requesting comment, but in other media accounts, she has called the lawsuit “politically motivated.”

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FOIA suit fails: Judge rules police don’t have to release stop-and-frisk records

 

After Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo’s report to City Council stated that 70 percent of the people police stopped were African-American, the Public Housing Association of Residents and the local NAACP filed a lawsuit seeking police records under the Freedom of Information Act, according to their lawyer, Jeff Fogel.

Judge Rick Moore ruled September 11 that what had been described as “narratives” of temporary detentions, aka stops and frisks, were criminal investigative files and exempt under FOIA. He read a handful of the reports, saying, “I think it’s in the public interest to hear so there’s not a veil of secrecy.”

In 2012, Longo required officers to start reporting narratives of each stop to look at “the decision making of the officer making the stop,” he testified. “I was shocked we weren’t keeping this important constitutional record.”

Fogel initially made a FOIA request for the narratives in June 2014 and was told he could have them, but then he became ill, according to the lawsuit. When he requested them again in February, he was told they were criminal investigative files and exempt under FOIA. In court he asked Longo why he changed his mind.

Longo said he wanted to balance the needs of the community with the department’s interest in exercising the exemption by constructing an independent review process that could include the citizens advisory panel, the Human Rights Commission and the commonwealth’s attorney office.

In one instance, said the chief, an officer was sent to take a constitutional class at Montpelier to make sure he had proper knowledge of the law. “It was determined an officer had made a misapplication of the law,” he said.

After the hearing, Fogel said, “We learned there were some bad searches from the mouth of the police chief.” And he contended that withholding the narratives was “a political decision not to expose the police department to liability from illegal searches.”

Moore acknowledged that Fogel was at a disadvantage in the suit because he had not seen the narratives, and the judge said he read all 237 of the records the city provided. “They are all, in my opinion, criminal investigative files,” he said. Almost all were in response to calls—about fights, someone drunk, property loss or injury, he said.

He read the first four reports:

  • A white male drank half a beer and walked out of a bar without paying. He told the officer the beer was warm and went back in to pay for it.
  • A man was disorderly and drinking in front of a store. The officer found a person matching the description with a 40-ounce malt liquor, and gave him a ticket.
  • Three witnesses said during an argument at closing time, a man spit in the face of a woman and kicked her several times on the mall. The officer talked to the suspect who denied touching anyone.
  • A witness said a black male was sleeping on a bench. The officer spoke to the man, noticed slurred speech and the smell of alcohol, and took him to the Mohr Center, a residential treatment center.

In all of these instances, said Moore, although no arrests were made, they were all criminal investigations.

After the hearing, PHAR staffer Brandon Collins said he was disappointed with the ruling, but felt the judge seemed to encourage the idea that the information could be made public eventually.

“I think I was expecting something different from the narratives,” he said, “and why decisions were made.”

Updated 10:40am September 12 to clarify Longo’s testimony on not releasing the narratives.