A reader sent me an email this week with a provocative subject line – “Why do you help cover up issues in Augusta County?”
Yep, this one’s gonna be fun.
Seems that the reader, Cody Lewis, wanted to know more, at the top, about why we hadn’t written about the decision by Ronald Smith, 42, the twin brother of Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith, to forego entering guilty pleas resulting from a December 2023 incident in which he allegedly stole the sheriff’s semi and led authorities on a chase that ended with him reportedly attempting to attack a sheriff’s deputy.
ICYMI
Ronald Smith was scheduled to enter a plea in the case on Monday, but according to online court records, he opted for a one-day jury trial now scheduled for Sept. 16.
“Curious to see how local media was covering this, I turned to Google – only to find absolutely nothing from any local SAW media outlets,” Lewis wrote.
Which, OK, I’ll bite – my news judgment there is, a guy charged with a slew of felonies opting for a jury trial isn’t at the top of my list in terms of newsworthiness.
Our reader, Cody Lewis, isn’t on the same page with me there.
“This lack of coverage is deeply concerning,” Lewis wrote in his missive, which he concluded: “When did holding power accountable stop being a priority?”
Fire, Ready, Aim
The issue here is, Ronald Smith isn’t someone in “power” who needs to be held “accountable.”
His brother, the county sheriff, is, and I think we do at least a decent job holding the sheriff accountable.
We reported last month, for instance, on the case of an Augusta County sheriff’s deputy, Sgt. William Mikolay, who entered an Alford plea to a misdemeanor assault and battery charge to resolve his legal exposure from a 2023 arrest of a Gordonsville man that ended up putting the arrested subject in the hospital.
ICYMI
- Augusta County sheriff’s deputy resolves assault charge with Alford plea
- Dark Thursday: Augusta County deputy convicted, another’s charges certified to grand jury
We raised issue in a December article with the delay in getting out an Amber Alert in a case involving two abducted children; and did some digging in October on a rumor making its rounds in the community about the release of Ronald Smith from jail being the result of political favoritism – turns out it was due to a medical emergency.
That one is among a slew of stories that we’ve had on the case against Ronald Smith dating back to 2023.
ICYMI
- Augusta County: Why did it take so long to issue an Amber Alert in last week’s abduction case?
- Twin brother of Augusta County sheriff released from jail: We found out why
This, plus giving the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office and Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin repeated hell over their slow-walk on the implementation of body cams.
ICYMI
So, no, not going easy on the sheriff.
Lewis also brought up in his email his disappointment over the quiet end to the matter of the closed-door meeting of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors in March 2023, which we fought in the local courts for several months, into calendar year 2024.
The backstory there is, it was revealed that a member of the Board, Scott Seaton, had secretly recorded the meeting, in which the resignation of former BOS member Steve Morelli was discussed in apparent violation of the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
Once we learned that, we took the county to court, to get access to the recording.
And lost.
Then appealed, and lost again.
We fought the law, and the law won.
ICYMI
“The truth is, the public still doesn’t know what happened behind those closed-door meetings,” Lewis wrote in his email, raising the issue that “what’s worse” is “no one is asking the tough questions anymore.”
“Our community deserves better,” Lewis wrote. “We deserve reporters who are willing to dig deep, ask the uncomfortable questions, and shine a light on the issues that affect us all.”
Well, you got me there
I’ll concede this point to Mr. Lewis, because we fought this particular battle with the county for nearly a year, and at the end of the day, it wasn’t apparent to me that more than a literal couple of people in the greater Augusta County community ever gave a damn.
Which, yes, was frustrating.
More frustrating: I came to learn as we reported on that story that what was being presented publicly as a battle for the soul of Augusta County was, in actuality, a battle between competing sets of MAGA Republicans, both of whom intend to govern from the far right.
ICYMI
Taking a step back, I’ll explain here that my editorial philosophy is to use our limited resources at AFP to try to effect change.
For instance, in the 2024 cycle, we poured a ton of energy into advocating for the center-left slate of candidates running for the three open seats on Waynesboro City Council, and we decided early in the cycle to highlight as the important issues affordable housing/renter assistance and the related issue of dealing better with the unhoused population.
I feel like we were successful, in that Waynesboro ended up electing a center-left majority to lead us for the next two years.
ICYMI
We didn’t put as much energy into the Staunton races only because there were no MAGA/far-right candidates running for Staunton City Council in 2024.
I’d like to think that AFP helped play a role in that, by highlighting the bad governance exhibited by the surprise MAGA majority that won in 2020, and did its best to try to run the city into the ground.
ICYMI
Augusta County, which voted 73 percent for Donald Trump in November, is a challenge in terms of trying to effect change.
The voters in the county haven’t expressed any interest in changing the status quo, which is their wont.
I don’t feel like we really win either way if we back Scott Seaton, a hardcore MAGA, against the rest of the board, a group of six hardcore MAGAs, because it’s my perception that the Seaton-vs.-AC6 battle is one of personality, not substantive policy difference.
Basically, I don’t know that expending my time and mental energy to help one MAGA group overpower another is what I need to be doing.
Going forward
Now, yes, I could have us expend time and resources trying to highlight the change that we think needs to come to the county, but the problem there is, if there aren’t candidates who can take the ball and run with it, and voters willing to give those candidates a chance, it’s pointless.
If I’m going to expend my resources, I want it to be for something meaningful.
It was disheartening to have fought the system for a year, and have nothing come of it.
We’re taking as our solace that we helped effect change in the two cities, and now we’re focusing our energies on good governance in the cities, and also highlighting what we can all do to be a part of the resistance to the moves in the direction of fascist dictatorship coming out of Richmond and DC.
If a group of Augusta County residents wants to take up the mantle of trying to effect change in the county, is able to start organizing their neighbors to press the issues, get candidates to put their names on the ballot for this year’s Board of Supervisors and School Board elections, we’ll stand by you – I pledge that.
I’m a native, and my family lineage in Augusta County dates to the early 1730s, and as a lifer – Augusta County-born, Augusta County-bred, and when I die, I’ll be Augusta County-dead – I want better for my homeland.
We deserve better access to quality education, better economic opportunity, proper staffing and training for our law enforcement, meaningful representation of our interests in the State Capitol and on Capitol Hill.
Me writing about what we can do, a few people reading my articles, and nobody doing anything, ain’t going to get it done.
Which is to say, I’m not the one covering up issues in Augusta County.
Y’all are, by pretending there are no issues in Augusta County.
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Chris Graham
