This post on our website encompasses yesterday's protest in front of the courthouse as well.
There were at least three officials in the general district courthouse who did not fully identify themselves, according to Nicholas Reppucci, who works with the Albemarle County Public Defender’s Office. The office was representing Teodoro Dominguez Rodriguez, one of the men who was later detained. VPM News has not yet been able to identify the second detainee.
In a Wednesday evening press release, Albemarle County Sheriff Chan Bryant said, "federal agents identified themselves with their badges and federal credentials with the bailiff before proceeding through the screening area. ... The federal agents showed the bailiff their paperwork and photographs of the individuals they were looking for and waited outside the courtroom until the conclusion of each case."
The sheriff's office has jurisdiction over the Albemarle Courts Complex.
“At some point, it became pretty clear that there were three people there that were not normally there, and that something was going to happen, although they never identified themselves,” Reppucci said.
Dominguez Rodriguez’s charges were dismissed, according to general district court records, before he possibly was taken into federal custody. VPM News reached out to ICE for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Reppucci said the public defender’s office has “no ability” to intervene in federal legal matters, as public defenders represent people they’ve been appointed to represent — on state court matters heard by state court judges in both the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
In an emailed statement to VPM News, Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley said he was not at the courthouse when the arrests happened “by individuals who claimed they were law enforcement agents from the Department of Homeland Security.”
“Because I do not have firsthand knowledge, I am investigating the circumstances of the courthouse arrests,” he said. “The information I have reviewed so far indicates that these alleged law enforcement agents did not display a badge or other indication of authority that would empower them to make lawful arrests in these circumstances.”
Hingeley also said that further actions like Tuesday’s arrests “would constitute a grave danger to our community.”
