Transparency News, 10/22/21

The preliminary hearing for the former Christendom College professor charged with sexual assault allegations was continued Thursday to next year because of a last-minute motion from the defense to exclude the press. William Luckey, 72, is due back in Warren County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 6. Luckey is charged with solicitation of a minor younger than 16 years old and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. Luckey’s attorney Shannon Johnson made the motion just before the hearing was set to begin. Judge Daryl Funk initially questioned if not allowing the press from observing the hearing was a violation of the First Amendment. But after a recess of a few minutes, Funk returned to the courtroom citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed the defense to file the motion, but also allows the press to intervene in the matter and argue it case to be present. Given the allegations in the complaint against Luckey, Funk stated he understood Johnson’s motion.
The Northern Virginia Daily

Magistrate Elizabeth Fuller, the woman who filed the complaint that ultimately led to the bondsman in the Karla Dominguez homicide case losing his license, has been fired for comments she made to the Alexandria Times earlier this month. The Department of Magistrate Services claimed that Fuller violated the Canons of Conduct for Virginia Magistrates by providing public comment about her decision to file a complaint against bail bondsman Man Nguyen, whose gun and car Ibrahim Bouaichi used last summer to allegedly kill Dominguez, his rape accuser. In the courtroom, there exists an ongoing debate of whether to interpret a law broadly or narrowly. Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and a former attorney, said this particular canon might work if interpreted narrowly. “If it’s interpreted to mean, ‘Don’t give away confidential information that you learn because you are judging a case,’ then it’s probably a perfectly legitimate use of the canon,” LoMonte said. “But to say that judges are forbidden from speaking to the media about anything they can learn in the course of their employment would be an overly broad interpretation. … If it is understood to include even proceedings that are concluded, then that seems indefensibly broad.”
Alexandria Times

The superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools sent a brief, confidential email to school board members on May 28 — the same day a female student at Stone Bridge High School said she was sexually assaulted in bathroom. In an email provided to WTOP by the school system, Superintendent Scott Ziegler alerted the board that the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office was investigating the incident, but provided few details.
WTOP
 

The Backstory: Long before the Champlain Towers collapse, there was money laundering. Here’s how we uncovered it. (Hint: public records)
USA Today

 

 

Deschutes Brewery is closing up shop in Roanoke. As reported in The Roanoke Times, the Oregon company announced it will soon vacate its downtown tasting room and says it has no plans to build a promised East Coast brewery on land it still owns in Roanoke County. Despite my emotional tie to the Star City, the Deschutes Brewery closing isn’t really about Roanoke. It’s really a story that could (and has) played out in any town, city or county across the Commonwealth. It’s the story of great fanfare over an economic development deal. Hurrahs and hullabaloo, crowing about such-n-such business choosing Our Fair State as the site of its new business, expansion, headquarters, etc. But sometimes it’s a story with a sad, almost predictable ending. What I know, though, is that exemptions for economic development are commonplace here and elsewhere in the country. And though they may help create more lucrative or more tempting deals, they are not 100% in the public interest when, just like that, a business that took advantage of what was offered closes up shop and leaves the public holding the empty mug.
Megan Rhyne, VCOG’s Substack Newsletter

Balancing the freedom of expression with the health and safety of the people has been an issue that’s long troubled our nation’s highest courts. The freedom of speech, and Bill of Rights as a whole, is a symbol of national pride in the U.S. However, we don’t practice complete and unadulterated free speech — and haven’t for a long time.  Today, as corporations and institutions create policies to establish standards of appropriate behavior among employees and students, the question emerges: Do these individuals’ rights remain when they enter these environments?More complicated yet is when this question is applied to public universities in receipt of public funding — and further still, when the public university in question is the Bill of Rights author James Madison’s namesake. 
Evan Weaver, The Breeze