The good-‘ol boy network in Augusta County, predictably, is intent on protecting the shield, at all costs.
The Board of Supervisors, at its meeting on Wednesday, was forced, briefly, to revisit its decision to reimburse $25,000 in legal fees for a sheriff’s deputy who entered an Alford plea to settle a 2023 felony malicious wounding charge in Albemarle County.
The misdemeanor plea helped Sgt. William Mikolay get out of a case that also involved a felony charge for malicious wounding in the Sept. 29, 2023, arrest of Adam Ryan Martin, who went on to file a multimillion-dollar civil suit against the deputy last year alleging “excessive use of force” in the incident.
ICYMI
Note to neighboring prosecutors who have to deal with cases involving the excesses of our sheriff’s office: you’re now fully aware how our leaders here look at the excessive use of force, which is to say, they’re OK with it, to the point of actively funding it.
Martin, per the civil suit, spent three days in the hospital due to a “significant laceration,” “significant blood loss” and head trauma after his apprehension.
A passenger who had been in the vehicle with Martin during the pursuit that led to the apprehension, Tina Marie Lang, suffered injuries from the incident that included a black eye, a cheek fracture and broken ribs.
Mikolay was placed on paid administrative leave for 14 months until the criminal matter was resolved with the plea on Feb. 6, 2025.
ICYMI
With the Alford plea, the misdemeanor charge against Mikolay was to be taken under advisement for a period of 12 months, with the charge to be dismissed at the conclusion of that period, pending compliance with court conditions.
That period is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks.
The matter with Mikolay came back up with the Board of Supervisors because Scott Seaton, who represents the Wayne District on the Board, raised issue with the Board minutes from the November meeting at which the BOS moved to reimburse Mikolay and a second deputy, CJ Taylor, who had a legal bill for $29,128.67 from a separate use-of-force incident.
ICYMI
Taylor, an investigator in the sheriff’s office, was convicted in Staunton General District Court on two misdemeanor charges and fined $2,000 in an Aug. 31, 2022, incident that occurred in the City of Staunton, but Taylor appealed the ruling to the Staunton Circuit Court, and ultimately accepted a plea agreement that “found sufficient evidence to convict the defendant of both charges,” but withheld adjudication.
One word: technicality.
According to criminal complaints filed against Taylor, two local men – Antwhon Suiter, the president of the Shenandoah Valley chapter of Black Lives Matter, and Christopher Shifflett, a self-styled police auditor – were recording a traffic stop in Staunton involving Taylor with their mobile phones when the deputy approached them, “talking aggressively,” according to Shifflett’s complaint.
“I backed up. He then grabs my wrist and slammed me to the ground,” Shifflett wrote in his complaint.
Taylor, according to the complaint, “applied pressure, saying I was resisting,” and smacked the phone that Shifflett had been using to record the traffic stop out of his hand “and broke the screen.”
Suiter’s complaint also alleged that Taylor grabbed the phone out of his hand during the interaction.
The plea ordered Taylor to pay all costs associated with these two assault and battery cases and “to be of good behavior” for a period of 12 months.”
The 12-month period passed, and the charges were dismissed with prejudice.
Seaton, at Wednesday’s BOS meeting, questioned the decision by the majority of the Board to reimburse the deputies for their legal expenses, given the way the courts handled their cases.
“They were not innocent. The decision of the court was, not innocent,” Seaton said, buttressing his argument with an email specific to the Mikolay case from Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney James Hingeley.
Under the Alford plea, per Hingeley, in his email, “Sgt. Mikolay maintained his innocence while acknowledging, as he did in the plea agreement, that there were facts sufficient for him to be found guilty. … He was not acquitted of the misdemeanor assault and battery charge.”
The Board chair, Jeffrey Slaven, who represents the North River District, pushed back at Seaton at Wednesday’s BOS meeting, saying the final decision in the case was “the decision of the courts, correct, not the Commonwealth’s Attorney, not you, not us.”
Seaton’s reply: “I was against giving them money from the taxpayers because they were not innocent, and their pleas demonstrate that.”
The actual matter discussed this week was not the reimbursement, which ostensibly has already been made, but rather, the characterization of the discussion in November in the Board minutes.
Seaton wanted his full objection to the move to reimburse the deputies reflected in the minutes, which would be a minor victory for the notion of justice, and whose side county leaders are on – the sheriff’s office
The Board voted against even just amending the minutes to reflect Seaton’s objections.
Which is to say, the county, again, as it did last week, with our Commonwealth’s Attorney, Tim Martin, prematurely exonerating two deputies who shot and killed a suspect on Dec. 17, protected the shield.
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Chris Graham
