2008 meeting still reverberates in county [Daily Press, Newport News, Va.]

Nov. 24--GLOUCESTER -- When seven members of the Board of Supervisors took their seats the night of Jan. 2, 2008, and a majority prepared to make decisions that were agreed on beforehand without the knowledge of two members of the Board, the action launched a nearly four-year odyssey that roiled Gloucester for years to come.

Only recently, with the settlement of a $5.4 million defamation lawsuit against Commonwealth's Attorney Bob Hicks filed by supervisors Bobby Crewe, Michelle Ressler and Gregory Woodard and ex-supervisor Teresa Altemus, can the final costs of that night be counted.

The Board's votes that night sparked a criminal investigation that led to the indictments of four members of the Board -- Crewe, Ressler, Woodard and Altemus -- Sheriff Steve Gentry and a developer, George Woodhouse.

Gentry's indictment was quickly dismissed, followed by the dismissal of the indictments against Altemus, Crewe, Woodard and Ressler. Woodhouse later took his own life as his legal troubles and financial difficulties mounted.

Of the seven supervisors in 2008, only one -- Louise Theberge -- will remain on the Board when it convenes for its first meeting of 2012.

Altemus and Crewe lost by wide margins in their bids for re-election in 2009 and this November, respectively. Woodard and Ressler chose not to seek re-election this year.

Christian "Buddy" Rilee also did not run.

While Rilee was aware of plans prior to the meeting to remove two top Gloucester officials and hire a friend of Altemus' as county administrator at a pay rate of $10,000 a month plus a county vehicle, Rilee was not indicted after cooperating with Hicks in an initial Freedom of Information Act investigation that was a precursor to the special grand jury probe.

The actions that night cost Gloucester taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay legal fees racked up by a battery of attorneys hired by the four supervisors who initially were indicted to fight the criminal charges and subsequent civil petitions that sought to remove them from office; those also later were dismissed on technicalities.

Other figures caught up in the 2008 actions of Board are either leaving the county's employment or have already left.

Early Jan. 3, 2008, Altemus asked Information Technology Department Director George Bains and Gentry to enter the offices of County Administrator Bill Whitley and County Attorney Danny Stuck and take their computers after their dismissal.

Altemus had Bains retrieve for her the email contact lists and other data from each computer, according to the report of a special grand jury convened to investigate the Board's actions.

While Gentry won his re-election this year by a comfortable margin, Bains is leaving the county's employment after taking a job in Henrico County.

Former Planning Director Jay Scudder left the county in 2008, months after he had a closed door meeting with Crewe and Ressler to explain why the county was tying up money that Woodhouse -- Crewe's largest campaign contributor -- had in surety on a housing project. Nine days after the meeting, Smith asked Scudder to resign or face firing.

In affidavits filed in connection with the settlement of the defamation lawsuit against Hicks, Crewe wrote that the meeting with Scudder was "purported" as undue influence of a county official when it was actually "simply making an inquiry on behalf of a constituent."

According to court documents, the special grand jury determined Woodhouse's business had been a political supporter of Altemus, Ressler, Crewe and Woodard and had paid Crewe thousands of dollars in "finder's fees" for properties for Woodhouse to develop.

Scudder testified he felt pressured by Ressler and Crewe during the meeting and that they wanted him to suspend his best professional judgment on behalf of the county and interpret the county codes in favor Woodhouse, according to the report.

Smith later twice demanded Scudder resign, though he refused.

Altemus, Crewe, Ressler and Woodard will try to collect on a cumulative $1 million judgment against Hicks, though as part of the settlement they will seek payment from his insurance carrier, State Farm.

The four plaintiffs had believed that the dismissal of the criminal charges would allow them to return to their lives, wrote Tony Troy, a Troutman Sanders attorney for Crewe, Ressler, Woodard and Altemus in settlement documents.

But Hicks' statements at a November 2008 luncheon that the criminal charges that had been dismissed were winnable had "turned their lives upside-down, and did great and lasting damage to their reputations," Troy wrote.

For Hicks, the settlement brings to an end the cloud of a potential multi-million dollar judgment hanging over him. He leaves the Commonwealth's Attorney Office after 17 years and will enter private practice.

As part of the settlement, he agreed to "fully cooperate" with Altemus, Crewe, Ressler and Woodard as they seek payment of the $250,000 judgment apiece from State Farm.

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