State Sen. Louise Lucas filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a Virginia Beach attorney who is trying to have her ousted from office.
Tim Anderson launched the effort after a protest during which Portsmouth’s Confederate monument was heavily damaged and a demonstrator was seriously injured. WAVY-TV reported that Anderson accused Lucas of inciting a riot, a felony, and of telling police to stand down while people defaced the monument.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Lucas — a Portsmouth Democrat — said Anderson “irreparably damaged my reputation in the community, in the Commonwealth, and in the world.”
She is seeking more than $20 million in damages, though any award will be determined by a jury and judge if the case goes to trial and Lucas prevails.
The lawsuit accuses Anderson, also a gun shop owner, of defaming her because of the senator’s efforts to ban certain firearms.
Anderson could not be reached by phone at his law firm Wednesday afternoon and didn’t respond to a Facebook message seeking comment.
People in and around Portsmouth have falsely accused Lucas of encouraging people to deface the monument during the June 10 protest.
Anderson later started an effort to collect enough signatures to remove the longtime senator from office.
“What we have is an elected state senator telling a mob that it’s OK to vandalize city property,” Anderson said in a video posted on June 11 to his law firm’s Facebook page. “She caused a mob to come out there and gave them permission to vandalize the property and that resulted in somebody getting seriously injured. Louise Lucas needs to be held accountable for her actions.”
Hundreds gathered outside Portsmouth City Hall the following week to protest Anderson’s petition and support Lucas.
Crowds first gathered at the monument the night of June 9 as City Council members weighed plans for it at the end of a regularly scheduled meeting, said James Boyd, president of the NAACP’s Portsmouth chapter. That night, Boyd said, demonstrators hopped the monument’s fence to cover its four military figures using sheets and plastic bags with permission from Police Chief Angela Greene, who showed up to the site around 1 a.m.
The next day, the group discovered someone had removed the coverings, so Boyd climbed over the fence again to put them back up. He was arrested and charged with trespassing, along with chapter Vice President Louie Gibbs. Later, after they were released, Lucas arrived to scold a group of officers for taking them into custody. She also approached a Virginian-Pilot reporter to tell her and the group that no one would be arrested for demonstrating peacefully.
In the complaint filed in court Wednesday, Lucas said she was at the location for about 30 minutes and left about 2:45 p.m. She and other elected officials, including Sheriff Michael Moore, were there when demonstrators began to spray paint the monument, but she had been gone for hours before crowds started to break it apart.
“Lucas never advised the citizens to do anything unlawful,” the complaint says.
The senator laid that timeline out in a glossy flyer circulated at her June 19 rally, writing that she has “nothing to hide.” She declined to speak to reporters at the event.
“I do not condone destruction of public or private property,” Lucas wrote in the flyer. “If you believe otherwise, you don’t know anything about me as a human being or elected official.”
In a phone call with The Pilot last month, Anderson said his law firm handles primarily bankruptcy cases and Second Amendment litigation. Asked about his interest in Portsmouth politics, he said he knows many officers in the city and they reached out to him after the protest.
A post pinned on his law firm’s Facebook page advertises upcoming classes for concealed handgun permits. Anderson also posted this week on a personal page that he’d given money to the campaign of Amanda Chase, a Republican state senator running for governor.
Ana Ley, 757-446-2478, ana.ley@pilotonline.com
