On Tuesday, July 14th, four protestors were detained and three arrested around 1 P.M. outside of the McCoart building. They were protesting as a part of the Black Lives Matter Movement and some in favor of the Defund the Police Movement.

On Tuesday, July 21st, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors met for the first time following the incident. At the start of the meeting Supervisor and Vice Chair, Victor Angry, D-Neabsco, asked to add to the closed session “the events that took place last week, at the, here, with the protests, if I can do that.”

Chair-At-Large, Ann Wheeler, asked County Attorney, Michelle Robl, “can we add that to the [agenda]?” Robl replied and Chair Wheeler repeated her reply stating “no, she’s saying no.” Following that Chair Wheeler said “we’ll have to add that to another agenda item or have discussions offline.”

Immediately after that dialogue the Board entered into public comment time. A number of residents who spoke commented on the events of last week and implored the Board to take action and speak about it.

Patricia Kuntz, a resident from the Gainesville District and a member of the Prince William Democrats Leadership Committee came to express her concern “over the events of what happened at the last week’s Board of County Supervisors meeting.” She highlighted that “this is exactly the systemic racism of the police force that citizens have been talking about.” Criticizing the Board for passing a resolution at 12:30 A.M. “for no one to see in real time that praised the police force and stated that you are categorically opposed to [the] defunding the police movement.” On behalf of the Prince William Democratic Leadership Committee she urged the Board to “rescind resolution 14B” and “insist on an independent investigation for the arrests that took place last week.”

Enrique Dentone, Gainesville District resident and protestor who was arrested and charged last week spoke about the Board’s role in the community. Addressing Supervisor Yesli Vega, R-Coles, directly he said “you’re supposed to help unify the community, instead all you’ve done is divide us.” Dentone then went on to quote comments from a video Supervisor Vega posted on her public Facebook page using clips from public comment time. In order not to “waste another hour of our time talking about decorum” he censored the actual language used in the comments.

Gainesville District resident, Aida Iftikhar, spoke about how “funding education and prioritizing humanity doesn’t have negative consequences.” Imploring the Board that “if you care about your constituents please prove it” At the end of her comment time she quoted the late Congressman John Lewis who said “never ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Later on in the meeting several topics were discussed publicly with Robl and others being delineated for closed session. Excluded from closed session discussion was the topic of last week’s events. Supervisor Pete Candland, R-Gainesville, directed a question towards Robl regarding Supervisor Angry’s request that last week’s events be added to the closed session agenda. He asked Robl “could you provide some explanation for why that couldn’t be addressed in closed session?”

Robl addressed the Board explaining “I had a discussion with Mr. Angry to explain the Code of Virginia delineates certain provisions of why and how you can go into closed session. A lot of people get confused because there are exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that allow us in our discretion to not turn over something, but that doesn’t have an automatic crosswalk over into closed session. So since the altercation that occurred last week is now an active criminal investigation, if somebody made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the police for their investigative file we have an exemption that states, we don’t have to release that. But there is no exemption in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for closed session to discuss criminal investigations or criminal cases. There is no lawsuit against the county so there is no provision of actual or probable litigation. I explained to Supervisor Angry probably the only way it could go into closed session- and I don’t think it’s the reason why the Board would want to discuss it- would be may be the personnel, of named certain employees, of their performance. So if you wanted to have a personnel discussion but it would be limited only to the performance of those employees. So I explained to Supervisor Angry that there is no legal basis to discuss that in closed session at this time.”

Immediately following Robl’s comments Supervisor Kenny Boddye, D-Occoquan, stated “I do think the public needs to hear what happened right. Because last week Colonel Phelps came and said ‘hey we’re still collecting information, it just happened what have you’ and now it’s been a week since that’s happened. But I also understand there is an investigation going on. I guess my request is once, or as much as Colonel Phelps is able to report back on what happened, I would hope that he does, it doesn’t have to be tonight, because we have a lot of stuff going on, it’s short notice. But next meeting, or when we get back, I don’t want to wait until September but if it can be next meeting, I would appreciate that.”

Robl’s response to Supervisor Boddye’s comments was that “with regards to- and I understand the concern in the delay that Supervisor Boddye has- but unfortunately the judicial system does not move forward as quickly as maybe this board would like. This matter is now before the courts. There is a separation of powers. You are a legislative body. It is my recommendation to you to allow the judicial branch to move forward. To not taint a potential jury pool out there. To not interfere with any possible due process rights of anybody involved.“

Supervisor Yesli Vega, R-Coles, mentioned that “there were some valid concerns by several citizens in regard to how that video came to light, can we add that?”

“Last week we received a Freedom of Information Act request. It was sent to the county and just asked for ‘the video in front of McCoart on x date.’ It didn’t say ‘I would like for the video of an altercation that led to an [arrest].’ It was a generic request.” According to Robl. Adding that “there was no exemption, we were required to turn it over.”

That concluded discussion of the topic and no further comments have been publicly made by the Board since.