Portsmouth police announced criminal charges Monday against a bevy of public officials and activists — including state Sen. Louise Lucas, leaders of the NAACP, the city’s top public defender and a School Board member — stemming from a June protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate monument that left a man seriously injured and much of the statue toppled.
Lucas, NAACP President James Boyd and Vice President Louie Gibbs, School Board member LaKeesha “Klu” Atkinson and four others were charged with felony injury to a monument and conspiracy, Police Chief Angela Greene told reporters Monday afternoon. Public Defender Brenda Spry, two attorneys from her office and three others were charged with felony injury to a monument. Each charge carries up to five years in prison.
It was an extraordinary day even for Portsmouth, a city where racial divisions are often on display in local politics.
Most of those charged were Black, including Lucas, Boyd, Gibbs and Atkinson. Lucas, who’s been a Democratic state senator since 1992, is a member of a group of lawmakers calling for police reforms in a special session that starts Tuesday.
Gov. Ralph Northam and other Democrats called the timing suspicious.
“It’s deeply troubling that on the verge of Virginia passing long-overdue police reform, the first Black woman to serve as our Senate Pro Tempore is suddenly facing highly unusual charges,” Northam said on Twitter.
Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, who heads the Senate Democratic Caucus, called the charges a “thinly veiled attempt to intimidate and silence the most powerful Black woman in the Virginia legislature.”
Lucas did not immediately return a call seeking comment late Monday afternoon. Nor did Atkinson, Boyd, Gibbs or Spry. Greene asked those charged to turn themselves in, but it was not clear Monday whether any had.
It’s not clear whether prosecutors knew about the charges, and a spokeswoman for Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales declined to comment.
Greene said that after earlier discussions with police, Morales’ office did not seek the appointment of a special grand jury or special prosecutor. In a press release in early July, prosecutors said their office doesn’t have an intake unit and therefore doesn’t initiate charges independently. Prosecutors said they could not present any evidence in the case to a grand jury because they hadn’t received an investigative file from police.
Lucas’ attorney, Don Scott, said she was already in Richmond on Monday to prepare for the session. He called both the charges and the timing of their announcement a politically motivated attack against Black leaders in Portsmouth who have been fighting for criminal justice reform.
“It’s just politics from people who don’t live here and don’t care about our concerns,” Scott said, alluding to efforts by Virginia Beach attorney and gun shop owner Tim Anderson to recall Lucas from office following the monument protests. “They’re the ones that are stoking the racist viewpoints and trying to come after the Black leadership here, the Black creme de la creme of Portsmouth.”
Greene said the public expects the police chief to “ensure all the laws of the state and our constitution are upheld,” and that her department investigated the incident to make sure those who “conspired, organized and participated” in the protests were held “accountable.”
Lucas, who filed a defamation lawsuit against Anderson, has previously denied inciting a riot or encouraging protesters to “do anything unlawful.”
Scott, who is a newly elected Democratic state delegate, said he and Lucas were taken aback by the charges, for which they didn’t have advance notice. After Greene’s press conference, he came to Portsmouth police headquarters to talk to the police chief but left after he was told she wasn’t available. He said it seems like Greene, who is Black, has been “co-opted by hostile forces … trying to take down Black leadership.”
“I feel sad that the chief has allowed her department to be used in this way,” he said.
The police chief’s announcement came a little more than two months after the protest, during which demonstrators beheaded four statues and pulled one down with a tow rope. A protester, 46-year-old Chris Green, was seriously injured.
Several of those charged Monday were present on the day of the protest, but it’s not clear whether any of them are accused of being present hours later, when people beheaded the statues and a man was seriously injured by a falling piece of the structure. Lucas had left hours earlier.
On June 10, demonstrators began spray painting the monument ahead of a Remove the Stain rally that was scheduled for that evening. As people protested, the Portsmouth City Council postponed a decision on moving the monument, a long-standing issue of debate. Council members have since voted to move it.
The monument at Court and High streets stands at a location where slaves were punished on a whipping post, Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a Norfolk State University history professor, told The Virginian-Pilot in 2017.
After announcing the charges Monday — an event announced with less than an hour’s notice — Greene said she asked State Police to investigate the incident because a man sustained life-threatening injuries. Greene repeatedly referenced the injuries as the impetus behind the charges but announced no charges specific to his injury, only the defacement of the monument.
She said requests were made for state and federal help to conduct an independent investigation of all that led up to Green’s injuries, but those requests “fell outside of the scope” of those law enforcement agencies.
“Furthermore, when a discussion with the commonwealth’s attorney regarding a special grand jury and a special prosecutor did not yield any action, it was the duty of the Portsmouth Police Department to begin a thorough and comprehensive investigation into this incident,” Greene said.
After state police finished their investigation July 22, a “team of detectives and supervisors” compiled evidence, Greene said, and ultimately the police department announced charges against 14 people Monday.
Greene said Amira Bethea, Kimberly Wimbish, Dana Worthington and Lakesha Hicks were charged with felony injury to a monument and conspiracy.
Police charged Raymond Brothers, Hanah Renae Rivera, Brandon Woodard and assistant public defenders Meredith Cramer and Alexandra Stephens with felony injury to a monument.
Police are still investigating and are trying to identify several others involved, Greene said. She did not take questions from reporters at the press conference.
NAACP leaders Boyd and Gibbs previously had been charged with misdemeanor trespassing at the monument stemming from earlier in the day June 10. Prosecutors declined to pursue the charges, and a judge ultimately dismissed them.
Sara Gregory, 757-469-7484, sara.gregory@pilotonline.com
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com
