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Days after a divided council approved a resolution calling for the closure, Judge Johnny Morrison made his order clear: “They are not to close that jail.”
Portsmouth and the sheriff have been fighting in court for months over the city jail's future and whether to send inmates to a regional jail. The sheriff's lawyer is asking a judge to hold the city in contempt for ignoring a court order to repair the city jail.
A new police strategy has netted dozens of arrests. But city officials are also reaching into schools and homes, aiming to keep teens from falling into the gang life.
A City Council resolution calls the jail unsafe and says inmates should be sent to the regional jail. A judge has not yet ruled on whether the city has that power.
The parents of Carmeita Jane VanGilder are suing eight Portsmouth officers, alleging police were negligent and failed in their duty to get care for her while she was in custody in 2018.
Details of prosecutors' evidence against Cleshaun Cox remain publicly unknown as a Virginian-Pilot reporter was kicked out of a courtroom. The newspaper objected to the closure.