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A Virginia state senator has been accused of damaging a Confederate monument in Portsmouth during protests that also resulted in the injury of a protester when a statue was demolished, authorities said on Monday.
Senator Louise Lucas faces charges of conspiracy to commit a felony and injury to a monument over $ 1,000, Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene said at a press conference. The demonstration took place in June.
Lucas is a longtime Democratic lawmaker and a key intermediary of power in the state Senate, joining the chamber in 1992. The charges were filed the same week that Virginia lawmakers undertake dozens of criminal justice reforms during of a special legislative session.
The reaction from some of his fellow Democrats was swift.
“It is deeply disturbing that, on the verge of seeing Virginia enact long-awaited police reform, the first black woman to become our Senate Pro Tempore is suddenly faced with very unusual charges,” tweeted on Monday evening the Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat.
Virginia State Senator Louise L. Lucas was charged with damage to the Confederate monument in June.
(Bill O’Leary / The Washington Post via Getty Images, file)
The United States Civil Liberties Union in Virginia has called for charges against Lucas and several others to be dropped. The ACLU said the charges were a blatant violation by police because they had not been approved by the local prosecutor’s office.
Lucas did not respond to an email and a phone call asking for comment. His attorney, Don Scott, told WAVY-TV that Lucas will “vigorously” fight the case and be vindicated.
Lucas is indicted at a time when many Confederation monuments are being destroyed, whether by protesters opposed to racial injustice or by authorities seeking to dismantle them through official channels. Monuments have long been viewed by many as symbols of white supremacy. But they have gained more and more attention after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in custody in Minneapolis.
The Portsmouth monument consists of a large obelisk and statues of four Confederate servicemen. During protests that drew hundreds of people in June, heads were torn from some statues while another was shot, seriously injuring a protester.
Greene, the Portsmouth Police Chief, said that “several people conspired and organized to destroy the monument and summon hundreds of people to join in criminal acts”.
Greene said these acts “not only caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the monument, but also permanent injury to an individual.”
Greene did not detail exactly what Lucas or several other people are accused of doing to justify the charges that have been brought against them.
Other people facing charges include members of the local NAACP chapter, a member of the local school board and members of the public defenders office, the police chief said.
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Greene said requests have been made to state and federal authorities to conduct an independent investigation. And she said a discussion with the Commonwealth Prosecutor in Portsmouth “resulted in no action.”
“It was the duty of the Portsmouth Police Department to begin a full and thorough investigation,” Greene said.
Stephanie Morales, the lawyer for the Commonwealth of Portsmouth, told The Associated Press in an email that her office had not approved the police department’s charges.
Claire G. Gastanaga, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, said Virginia is one of the few states in which an arrest warrant can be filed without the approval of a prosecutor.
“These accusations are political and I think they are discriminatory,” she said.
“The police service is making decisions on who should be charged in a circumstance in which the elected official (the prosecutor) is bypassed,” Gastanaga added. “The police want a different result” and it is alarming.
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Meanwhile, Virginia Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson has said the senator should surrender.
“Charges of felony leveled against a sitting state senator must be taken seriously and must not be sought for political gain,” he said in a statement. “It is for this reason that the Virginia Republican Party is calling on Senator Lucas to surrender. Immediately.”
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