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PORTSMOUTH — Former Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene plans to sue the city for wrongful termination, defamation, conspiracy and interfering with her contract.
A law firm representing Greene sent a letter last month to then-Mayor John Rowe, the interim city manager and interim city attorney saying she intends to file legal action.
Greene was fired in November, about three months after she announced felony charges against state Sen. Louise Lucas, NAACP leaders, a school board member, several public defenders and others stemming from a June protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate Monument. In all, 19 people were charged.
Greene’s firing came the same day a judge dismissed all charges in the case at the request of the city’s elected prosecutor, who said there was not enough evidence to prove the required elements of the crimes.
In the letter sent to the city Dec. 16, attorney Jacqueline Kramer wrote that Greene was “improperly” placed on leave Sept. 4 and later fired for her role in the investigation and filing of criminal charges in the June protest.
“Chief Greene … was terminated in retaliation for upholding and complying with the law and for refusing to perform an illegal act,” Kramer wrote.
A lawsuit has not yet been filed in court. Under state law, anyone who plans to sue a city must notify the locality in writing within a certain amount of time. But the letter doesn’t guarantee a lawsuit will ultimately be filed.
In an email, Kramer declined to comment, saying it would be premature to do so before a lawsuit is filed. Acting City Attorney Burle Stromberg declined to comment.
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Greene’s legal case will be financially supported by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, the group announced Friday. On its website, the Alexandria-based organization says it also helped in the case of Michael Edington Jr., a Norfolk police officer who was found not guilty of manslaughter in the 2014 shooting death of David Latham.
On June 10, protesters gathered in the afternoon and began spray painting the Portsmouth monument ahead of a rally planned for that night. While that was happening, the City Council postponed a vote on moving the monument, a long-debated subject. (The council has since voted to move it, and work crews have removed the structure.)
Hours later, protesters beheaded the four statues of Confederate military personnel on the monument and pulled one of them down. That one fell on a man, seriously injuring him.
After charges were filed in August, then-City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton told council members in an email that Portsmouth police were supposed to drop an investigation into the protest because of a conflict of interest, although she didn’t say what the alleged conflict was.
Greene has said there wasn’t a conflict for her department, and Portsmouth officers investigated after “all efforts were exhausted” to have an outside agency investigate because of a potential conflict involving “elected city officials” who were at the protest.
Greene worked with Richmond police for 15 years before joining the Portsmouth department as an assistant chief in 2016. She took over as chief in March 2019, replacing Tonya Chapman, who said she was forced out and raised allegations of systemic racism within the department.
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com