Transparency News, 12/13/2022

Tuesday
December 13, 2022

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state & local news stories

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The former Loudoun County schools superintendent and a district spokesman have been indicted by a Virginia special grand jury investigating how officials handled two high-profile sexual assaults in county schools in 2021, according to charges unsealed Monday. But at least some of the indictments do not appear to be related to the sexual assault cases. Former superintendent Scott Ziegler is facing misdemeanor counts of false publication, using his position to retaliate or threaten to retaliate against an employee and falsely firing the same employee, according to indictments unsealed in Loudoun County. Schools spokesman Wayde Byard is facing a count of felony perjury. Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, declined to offer details about the alleged conduct that led to the charges, since the case is pending. Miyares convened the special grand jury. In an emailed statement Monday, Ziegler rebuked the grand jury’s investigation. “I am disappointed that an Attorney General-controlled, secret, and one-sided process—which never once sought my testimony—has made such false and irresponsible accusations. It appears clear to me that this process was and is aimed at advancing a certain political agenda,” Ziegler said.
The Washington Post

Washington County Sheriff Blake Andis released a press release and spoke with a local reporter about the Edwards case after the Los Angeles Times filed a story Friday under the headline, “Co-workers of cop who killed 3 in California took items from his home before official search.” The Times reported that two deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office went to the house on the day of the killings. They said that Riverside Police, who are leading the homicide investigation, told the paper they did not know about the Washington County Sheriff’s Office’s deputies’ actions. Andis disputed that, saying his agency did communicate with the Riverside Police Department. The Times quoted several legal experts who said that the Washington County Sheriff’s Office’s actions were “strange,” adding that the deputies were out of their jurisdiction. The paper said experts opined that “there are few – if any –legitimate reasons for law enforcement officers from a different county to go onto a property before an official search.” The Smyth County Sheriff’s Office conducted the search warrant on Nov. 26. The contents from that search are sealed in Smyth County Circuit Court. Local officials said that Riverside Police would have to request the warrants be unsealed.
Southwest Virginia Today

Dayton Town Manager Angela Lawrence has resigned, effective Friday. The Dayton Town Council accepted Lawrence's resignation unanimously at its meeting Monday, after convening in a closed session for about an hour-and-a-half. Lawrence became Dayton's town manager in July 2019. She left the meeting as the Town Council entered its closed session, and returned during the closed session because the Town Council called her back. She was not present when Council accepted her resignation. Lawrence said she gave Dayton's personnel committee notice a couple months ago that she intended to resign within six months. She loved working for the town of Dayton and loved its people, but said the job became "increasingly more difficult." "I want to be somewhere where the community can grow and prosper with my assistance," she said in an interview with the Daily News-Record after the meeting adjourned. She said recent Dayton Town Council meetings and other public government meetings have become "much more divisive," but her decision to resign was "not a knee jerk reaction" to an October council meeting where some residents and business owners voiced displeasure with Lawrence's actions toward downtown businesses leading up to and during the Dayton Days autumn festival.
Daily News Record

A frequent critic of Norfolk's city government has been found guilty of disorderly conduct. Michael Muhammad on Monday was given 90 days in jail on the misdemeanor charge, with 80 days suspended. He plans to appeal. Muhammad was charged by Norfolk police officer Alexander Benshoff after an incident outside council chambers. Video of the encounter was presented in court on Monday, with Muhammad telling the court that he didn't demonstrate disorderly conduct.
WAVY

For the first time in Virginia Beach history, residents only elected a City Council representative for their district last month, instead of members across the city. Now Mayor Bobby Dyer wants to reflect on the “merits and pitfalls” of the new voting system by giving the public the opportunity to weigh in, he wrote in a letter to his colleagues last week. The City Council will vote on Dyer’s request for public feedback Tuesday during the last meeting of 2022. Councilman Aaron Rouse, who has been outspoken in his support of the 10-district ward system, was caught off-guard by the mayor’s request. “I’m so upset,” Rouse said by phone Friday. “There has been no discussion about our election system by City Council as a body.” Rouse wants the new council members who are seated in January to take up the matter. He feels that the mayor is trying to advance an agenda while he still has the votes to support it. The mayor, however, said it makes sense that the current council members participate in a decision to gather election feedback in order to improve on it.
The Virginian-Pilot
 

stories of national interest

Supporters of Donald Trump pressured Livonia, Mich., city Clerk Susan Nash in January 2021 to hand over hard drives and voting machine data for "analysis," according to documents that shine new light on the push to obtain equipment used in Michigan's 2020 presidential election. Already, a special prosecutor is considering criminal charges against nine individuals who successfully got three Michigan clerks in rural areas of the state to supply tabulators, which they allegedly took to hotel rooms, broke into and examined. Patrick Colbeck, a Republican and former Michigan state senator, sent an email to Nash on Jan. 4, 2021, according to records obtained by The Detroit News through Freedom of Information Act requests. In his email, Colbeck included a letter written by someone else, but with Nash's name on the bottom of it, that was addressed to Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff. The letter, which Colbeck said ultimately wasn't sent to Meadows, asked for "the assistance of federal resources to undertake a cyber forensics review of the technology of the machines."
Governing

The Supreme Court is slated to resume announcing opinions from the inside of the courtroom, a tradition that was halted after 2020 building closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in the New Year, or whenever the first opinions of the term are announced, justices will read summaries of the majority opinions from the bench, the high court said Monday. The long-standing tradition had been halted for the past two years as the court opted to issue opinions only on its website, within 10-minute intervals of each other if the justices released more than one opinion during an issuance day.
Washington Examiner