Litigation

Will releasing documents in Newport News case compromise process for investigating police

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled last year that a trial judge got it wrong when she closed a bond hearing for a Newport News police officer charged with murder. The seven-member high court ordered the transcript into Sgt. Albin Trevor Pearson’s case to be released, soon making known what happened behind closed doors. But the Supreme Court sent the cases back to Newport News Circuit Court to decide whether the documents referenced at the bond hearing should be released. Those 91 pages include the prosecution’s motion to revoke bond and personnel records involving complaints against Pearson in two past cases. The city maintains they should remain strictly under seal. The public confidence in a police agency, the city says, is largely determined by whether it responds appropriately to internal and citizen complaints. And internal investigations into police misconduct, the city contends, only work well when other officers are promised confidentiality. But the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot contend the press and public should have access to the internal affairs documents — including the other officers’ names and their statements — that are already part of the court record. The decision on whether to release the documents is now in the hands of Circuit Court Judge Margaret Poles Spencer, a retired Richmond judge who has presided over the Pearson case for three years.

dailypress.com

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Local

Prince William supervisors kill measure that could have delayed Digital Gateway vote

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday rejected along partisan lines a measure calling for the delay of major land-use decisions, including the contentious PW Digital Gateway plan, until a new board is sworn in next year. The Democratic majority on the Board of County Supervisors last year approved a Comprehensive Plan amendment that essentially paved the way for Digital Gateway’s approval, but specific site plans and development proposals still need the board’s OK. Lawson, the Republican nominee for board chair, said the move was intended to“ensure public trust and accountability in local government” in the aftermath of a primary seen by many as a referendum on data center development and current at-large board Chair Ann Wheeler’s leadership. The resolution, shot down in a 5-3 vote, would have prohibited its members from holding public hearings on any land-use proposals between the Nov. 7 General Election and Dec. 31 when the current board’s term ends. Lawson pointed to past instances of the Prince William board and neighboring jurisdictions moving to delay land-use proposals during a lame duck session as justification for the legitimacy of her efforts. While in an interview Wheeler acknowledged that Prince William abided by the lame duck session rule in the past, recent boards since 2019 haven’t followed suit.

insidenova.com

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Local

Audit Finds Flaws in How Roanoke Handled Funding for Gun Violence Reduction

An internal audit of Roanoke’s Gun Violence Prevention Commission found the city has failed to verify whether programs funded to reduce gun violence were effective or even occurred at all. The 88-page audit, released Friday, outlines shortcomings in how commissioners made decisions and city staff monitored the progress of grant-funded programs. One of the more serious findings said the city could not prove it met federal regulations for monitoring how outside agencies used government pandemic relief funds — a claim that city leaders denied.

roanokerambler.com

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Local

Councilman lowers the blade on grass cutting

A Blackstone Town Councilman’s business was the low bidder to cut grass and bring 12 properties into compliance with the Town’s 10-inch weed ordinance. But the $1,205 bid from Clay’s Landscaping — owned by Council President Eric Nash — was not approved unanimously. Ward B rep Wes Gormus cast the lone dissenting vote at Council’s Continued Meeting on June 28th, and Nash abstained, resulting in a 5-1-1 tally. Town Manager Philip Vannoorbeeck told officials that Town Attorney Tessie Bacon several years ago advised officials that when Nash or any other official wins a bid for Town business, that Council should adopt a formal resolution declaring that the official submitted the lowest responsible and responsive bid. Ward C Councilman Jacob Allman moved to approve the resolution, Ward D rep Carolyn Williams seconded, but Gormus asked why the resolution was being voted on before Council awards a bid. “It’s just simply to make sure everything’s clean,” Nash told Gormus. “How does it make it any cleaner,” Gormus asked, “being on Council and bidding on work for the Town?” Gormus said Council should award the grass cutting bid first — before adopting a resolution — suggesting that voting on the resolution first might make it appear a forgone conclusion that Councilman Nash was going to get the bid.

courier-record.com

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Statewide

Virginia Tech student has become a national ‘go-to’ source on state legislative elections

Chaz Nuttycombe leads a bit of a double life. A rising senior at Virginia Tech, the 24-year-old engages in typical college student activities: he goes to class, he studies, he works out at the gym. In his free time, he’s been known to sample the downtown Blacksburg bar scene. Free time for Nuttycombe isn’t particularly plentiful, however. On top of his studies at Tech, where he’s a political science major, Nuttycombe directs CNalysis, a nonpartisan operation he founded that forecasts state legislative elections across the United States. As far as the Hanover County native knows, he’s the only analyst in the country who specializes in these elections.

cardinalnews.org

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Federal

A fire destroyed millions of veterans’ records 50 years ago

The apocalyptic scene is still burned into Mike Buttery’s memory 50 years later: Black smoke billowing from the top floor of the Military Personnel Records Center; bits of paper wafting through the air as dozens of firefighters tried desperately to stem the inferno. “They’d hit it (the paper) with the water, and the water would knock it back up in the air, and then it would float around some more out there,” Buttery, then a janitor at the center, recalls of the wind-whipped paper swirling around the massive six-story building outside Saint Louis. As he watched from a safe remove, Buttery could only think of the millions of veterans — like himself — whose records were being consumed and “how in the world would they get their benefits.” The July 12, 1973, fire in Overland, Missouri, consumed an estimated 16 to 18 million personnel files, the vast majority covering the period just before World War I through 1963. It’s believed to be the largest loss of records in one catastrophe in U.S. history.

pilotonline.com

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