The Shadow
Welcome back, Shadowers! Picture this: A mom, with hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, tries to channel her inner Zen as she hurries through the morning rush hour traffic on the way to school. Meanwhile, in the backseat, her middle schooler is spamming her phone with a barrage of texts and emojis (graphical icons representing an emotion or action) — middle fingers, smileys, giraffes, topped off with a stupid selfie photo. Of course, she can’t read or answer the texts, she’s driving. So she lets them ding. And ding. And ding.
The middle schooler finds it hilarious. Mom? Not so much.
That’s apparently what happened during an Olde Town Covington (OTC) board meeting on April 24, 2023, where our Vice Mayor, who is also the City’s official representative on the OTC board, allegedly decided to hilariously spam the OTC President’s phone with a barrage of texts, emojis, and a stupid selfie photo.
We’re not talking about a harmless single “oops, wrong emoji” moment. Nope, this was a sustained, targeted barrage of 23 texts, apparently meant to disrupt, disrespect, bully, harass, and “mess” with the President. The Vice Mayor even confirmed his actions in the final text, “And I got to mess with you. Win-win.”
How exactly was this a “win-win” for the OTC President? Was it that she got a front-row seat to the Vice Mayor’s masterclass in effective bullying and nonconsensual harassment? Hey, if it was hilarious for him, it should be for her too, right?
No. Not ever.
Bullies never understand that sending a barrage of unwanted advances or texts isn’t just childish—it’s straight-up harassment. And when there is no consent, or agreement that together the behavior is okay and fun, it immediately turns into bullying, which, surprise, is illegal. And how are our children supposed to learn bullying and harassment are not okay, when our community leaders apparently think acting like a class clown is acceptable and cool?
Do as I say, not as I emoji.
However, this no-laughing matter rabbit hole goes deeper. Despite the childish content, the Vice Mayor’s texts are considered city-related business records as they occurred during an official board meeting where the Vice Mayor was acting in his official capacity as the city’s representative. Yes, you heard that right—he was apparently officially representing us taxpayers with… a flurry of middle-finger emojis and a stupid selfie photo. And since those texts qualify as official city business, they are also subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. So, what does that mean? Those little “jokes” are now the public’s business, like it or not.
On June 5, 2024, The Virginian Review submitted a FOIA request to obtain city-related business texts on the Vice Mayor’s personal cellphone. The response came back: “David does not do business on text.” Remember, Virginia State Law views any city-related business conducted on any device, even personal devices, is owned by the public.
Unfortunately for the Vice Mayor, the Virginian Review was already in possession of several instances of texting evidence that show he does indeed perform city-related business on his personal phone. The evidence also included several texts from the OTC board meetings. All that was left was the mere formality of the Vice Mayor to officially provide the texts from a FOIA request.
Activate the Lie Laundering defense.
Lie Laundering is the process of obscuring lies in a way that makes them appear credible or trustworthy. It’s the same concept as money laundering, where illegal “dirty” money becomes “clean” and legitimately usable.
So what’s a good example of Lie Laundering?
After the first FOIA request that the Vice Mayor denied and refused to comply with in June, 2024, he apparently decided to double down and continue to refuse, dip, dive, and dodge further FOIA requests. It was like a grueling three-month-long Virginia Reel square dance, “Dos a Dos-ing” along to fancy footwork moves that seemed to be allegedly designed to prove the texts didn’t exist. Don’t forget, the taxpayers and the Virginian Review paid some handsome legal and FOIA fees for these alleged fancy foot Lie Laundering moves.
In another example, to ensure the “David doesn’t do business on text” statement held water, the City required an outside IT consultant to “search” the Vice Mayor’s phone to prove he was not lying. This is like hiring your best buddy to investigate whether or not you cheated on a test. Oddly, the IT consultant, a publicly confirmed ‘buddy’ with the Vice Mayor, came back with the same revelation:
“No messages related to City business during the requested time frame.”
Let’s cut to the chase. The texts exist—you’ve seen them, I’ve seen them, we’ve all seen them. And apparently, bringing in your IT buddy, the one that publicly stated We [IT consultant and the Vice Mayor] “make a great team” to search your phone? It’s not just a bad look—that’s a potential conflict of interest so glaring it might as well be wearing a neon sign. Now, the real questions: Did the Vice Mayor straight-up lie to the Virginian Review and then rope in the City Manager and City Attorney to help him pull off a little “Lie Laundering” dance? Or did he go all in and destroy the texts, so he could technically say, “Oops, they don’t exist”? Or, did his IT pal play clean-up crew and help cover it all up for his good buddy?
Whichever the case, the whole thing stinks worse than a dead flat skunk on a hot road.
Why would the Vice Mayor apparently go to such extremes in disobeying the laws he’s been elected to uphold, risking civil or criminal action just to hide or destroy business-related texts? We’ve seen this alleged behavior many times before with this administration—deny, retaliate, and then wait it out because nobody’s going to do anything about it. Covington is a self-policing government, so what’s the use in trying to hold any of our leaders accountable anyway?
This is like being the batter, the pitcher and the umpire. You can rig the game any way you want.
This way of thinking has a word for it. An “Autocratic” state is where public officials thumb their noses at the law, making them bolder and believe they can get away with unethical behavior without accountability or consequence. It tells other officials that it’s cool to Lie Launder, dodge transparency, and abuse power.
Apparently, that’s the clear signal received by others in our current administration. The Virginian Review also sent FOIAs for both the City’s Mayor and the Small Business Coordinator’s business texts, and guess what… they apparently used similar tactics as the Vice Mayor. The Mayor either responded with irrelevant texts, or simply didn’t respond at all. The Small business coordinator responded, “Terri McClung does not use text for City business.”
So has our beloved City been highjacked by childish leaders who think they don’t need to abide by no stinkin’ laws? The way this situation has progressed, only shows our public leaders apparently think they don’t need to legally respond to, in their mind, some meddling do-gooders and slimeballs apparently wanting to destroy the town and wage lawfare. Real leaders make their own rules as they go, right?
No. Never.
Oh, wait. What about all the texting evidence the Virginian Review already has in their possession? Perhaps a District Court Judge, when reviewing the facts and evidence would have a slightly different opinion on this kind of behavior?
So there it is. Allegedly, we have public officials acting like childish bullies, harassing and lying through their teeth to dodge FOIA requests for three months. If they’re so squeaky clean and innocent, why all the alleged unethical and illegal dodging, ducking, and Lie Laundering fancy foot moves? Perhaps they honestly think they can just send a middle finger emoji to the law and the taxpayers so they can apparently keep strolling down a crooked path like nothing’s wrong?
Well luckily there’s one word that can immediately fix this behavior once and for all:
VOTE.
I’m out of time, out of coffee, but I’ll leave you with the famous words of Winston Churchill: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
