CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A judge quashed a group's effort to unseat Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas on Friday.
The judge dismissed a recall petition that included the signatures of more than 5,000 voters from Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Portions of each city are in Lucas' district.
The group, which hoped to see the senator recalled, filed its petition on June 22. Its members believed Lucas misused her position in June 2020 while she was at a protest at the Confederate monument in Olde Towne in Portsmouth.(The monument has been removed.) The group pointed to video in which Lucas could be heard telling officers they were not going to arrest demonstrators, even after the demonstrators began vandalizing the monument. Additionally, the group said Lucas told protesters they wouldn't be arrested. The petition stated, in part:
Senator Lucas, using the authority of her office and position in the public, directed the Portsmouth Police Department Officers to not arrest any protestors and that the protestors were within their rights as taxpayers to vandalize the statue if they chose to.
Lucas' lawyers argued that the state law the group used when it filed the petition didn't apply in this case, because a state senator only can be removed from office if two-thirds of the Virginia Senate vote to remove the lawmaker.
The law says the person in office can be removed by the person or authority who appointed him/her, unless that person is sentenced for a crime or is determined to be mentally incompetent.
The judge agreed with Lucas' lawyers.
State Senator Lucas denied 13News Now's request to speak on camera, but her attorneys spoke on her behalf. Attorney Anthony Troy from Eckert Seamans Law says the state Senator “found justice” in today’s court hearing.
“It was a question of jurisdictions…that’s simple," said Tryoy. “I think, you know, the judge understood. Unlike the individual who drafted the petition, he understood the constitution.”
The group of people who signed the petition disagreed. One of them, Steve Carroll, telling 13News Now, "We got one victory out of this and it’s to make people aware that our state officials are not accountable to the people. That’s the problem. The people spoke, but the law did not hear.”
RELATED: Portsmouth, Chesapeake voters file petition to recall State Sen. Louise Lucas for 'misuse of office'
Hours after Lucas could be heard interacting with police, some of the demonstrators pulled down a statue that was part of the Confederate monument. That statue fell on a man who was there and left him with a severe brain injury from which, more than a year later, he has not recovered.
The group's petition was another legal effort directed at Lucas after the incident in Olde Towne.
Previously, former police chief Angela Greene filed charges against the senator and several other people who were at the monument on June 10, 2020. Those charges were dismissed.
Greene was fired a short time later. She said city leaders didn't tell her why she was being let go but only told her she was an "at-will employee."
Greene challenged the dismissal, filing a $15.4 million lawsuit.
Just this week, Lucas filed a lawsuit against Greene and Sgt. Kevin McGee for $6.7 million. Lucas claims that Greene and McGee brought the criminal proceedings against her without probable cause and with the intent to hurt her.