Charges dismissed against Portsmouth NAACP leaders arrested at Confederate monument

Portsmouth — A judge on Thursday dismissed misdemeanor trespassing charges that were filed last month against two Portsmouth NAACP leaders who had been protesting at the city’s Confederate monument.

NAACP President James Boyd and Vice President Louie Gibbs were at the monument June 10 when police handcuffed and arrested them.

At a hearing Thursday, prosecutor Shea Coleman moved to drop the charges because evidence “showed that the elements of the charges were not met,” she wrote later in an email.

Defense attorney Don Scott, who represented Boyd and Gibbs and is also a state delegate, asked the judge to go a step further and dismiss the charges. The judge did that, as no evidence was presented, according to those who were at the hearing.

Boyd said the charges were a “waste of judicial resources” and a “power play to make some type of statement.”

“Citizens should pay attention and question leadership at this point,” Boyd said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “[They] should be concerned about the city’s behavior regarding citizens exercising their First Amendment rights and the continual pattern of abuse of power.”

Boyd and Gibbs said they plan to pursue legal action against the city.

Gibbs referred to a well-known quote by civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, whose funeral was Thursday, that urges people not to fear getting into “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

“We believe that the way we fight is necessary because there are too many who are pushed back in defeat, who are afraid to stand up … for fear of punishment,” Gibbs said in a phone interview.

“We’re not afraid of their jail cells, their handcuffs.”

[ Previous coverage: Portsmouth Confederate statues beheaded, partially pulled down by protesters ]

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Late on June 9 and early in the morning June 10, Boyd and Gibbs were at the monument placing coverings on it. Boyd said the police chief came out, said she spoke with the city attorney, and they were OK to be inside the fence around the monument as long as it wasn’t defaced.

The coverings were removed later that morning, however, so Boyd said they returned several hours later to put them back up. That’s when they were arrested.

In the afternoon, protesters began spray painting the monument ahead of a Remove the Stain rally that was set to start at 7:57 p.m. That evening, the Portsmouth City Council postponed a debate on what to do with the monument after years of debate over moving it.

Later that night, demonstrators beheaded four Confederate statues on the monument and pulled one down using a tow rope. A protester was seriously injured when the statue fell on him.

Located at Court and High streets, the monument rests at a spot where slaves were punished on a whipping post, Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a Norfolk State University history professor, told The Virginian-Pilot in 2017.

This week, the Portsmouth City Council unanimously voted to approve moving the monument.

Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com