Doug Harwood reported in The Advocate that Kleppinger acknowledged “destroying records concerning his dealing with a group attempting to privatize the Virginia Horse Center in order to keep the public — and this publication in particular — from obtaining them under the Freedom of Information Act.”
Harwood quoted Kleppinger as saying, “My understanding is that I shouldn ’t be doing what I’m doing.”
However, the local commonwealth’s attorney said there was insufficient evidence of criminal intent to support a misdemeanor charge of destruction of public records.
“Our economic development director says it was to maintain confidentiality,” Harwood wrote. “It also kept him from complying with FOI requests. “