A Virginia state senator was accused Monday of damaging a Confederate statue during protests more than two months ago, with the governor announcing the timing of accusations against veteran Black lawmakers as “profound” restless. “
First Chamber member Louise Lucas is facing charges of conspiracy to commit crime and vandalism to a monument in excess of $ 1,000, Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene said during a news conference. The protest took place on 10 June.
Lucas, 76, a longtime Democratic lawmaker and a major senator in the state Senate, joined the House in 1992.
Members of the local NAACP chapter, a local school board member and members of the public defenders’ office are also facing charges related to the protest. The lawsuits were filed the same week Virginia lawmakers take up dozens of criminal justice reforms in a special legislative session.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam convicted the prosecutors.
“It is deeply confusing that on the edge of Virginia’s ongoing police transformation, the first Black woman to serve as our First Chamber Pro Tempore is suddenly facing very unusual charges,” Northam, also a Democrat, wrote in a tweet Monday. “@SenLouiseLucas, I’m looking forward to seeing you in Richmond this morning – so we can get to work.”
Greene asked the public to help identify other people accused in the protest, based on photos released by the police department.
The monument in Portsmouth consists of a large obelisk and statues of four Confederate military personnel. During protests that drew hundreds of people in June, heads of some of the statues were torn down while one was pulled down, critically injuring a protester.
Calls to remove the Confederate and Christopher Columbus monuments have been sounded amid widespread protests against police brutality following the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. Some protesters around the country have taken matters into their own hands, while officials in other cities are choosing to dismantle them.
Greene did not specify exactly what Lucas as the others are accused of doing during the protest. But she said that “several people conspired and organized to destroy the monument and called on hundreds of people to take part in criminal acts.”
The actions “resulted not only in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the monument, but also permanent damage to an individual,” Greene said. She said the man had “life-threatening” injuries, but did not say what that was.
Greene said requests were made to state and federal authorities to conduct an independent investigation. And she said a conversation with the Portsmouth Commonwealth attorney “yields no action.”
“It was the duty of the Portsmouth Police Department to begin an in-depth and comprehensive investigation,” Greene said.
Stephanie Morales, the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s lawyer, did not sign the charges against the police department, a spokeswoman for her office told NBC News.
A statement from the agency released on Tuesday said it had not received any investigative results regarding the protest and “the Portsmouth Police Department chose its traditional process to secure warrants, though more than two months after the expected incident, instead of filing complete research results to this agency. “
The statement said the agency is citing a witness in the arrested warrants related to the prosecutors, even though “Ms. Morales was not on the scene to be an order for any of the said cases.”
The bureau intends to file a motion to delete all the statements made in the case, but “if that motion is rejected and a special prosecutor is sought, it will remove the ability of this Commonwealth lawyer. of action and places the cases in the hands of a special prosecutor who is not responsible for this city, “the statement said.
Claire G. Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, said Virginia is one of the few states where a criminal order can be filed without the approval of a prosecutor.
She called for the costs to drop.
“These accusers are political, and I think they are discriminatory,” Gastañaga said. “The police department makes decisions about who should be charged in a situation in which the chosen one (prosecutor) is surrounded.”
Lucas’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Her lawyer, Don Scott, also did not respond immediately, but told NBC affiliate WAVY that the latter was a political stunt.
“They do what they always do. That’s what they’re arming the criminal justice system against Black leadership, and that’s what they do,” Scott said. “This time we will fight it fiercely, we will fight it fiercely.”
