The Loudoun County Circuit Court dismissed one of the convictions Scott Smith was facing after being arrested at a June 2021 Loudoun County School Board meeting. Smith, represented by State Senator Bill Stanley’s (R-Franklin) legal firm, asked the judge to recuse Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj from the case; a written opinion from the judge is pending after Monday’s court appearance.
Smith is the father of a student who was allegedly sexually assaulted on school property in May. At a June 22 school board meeting, during the debate over a transgender school policy, school board Member Beth Barts asked, “Do we have assaults in our bathrooms and our locker rooms regularly?”
“To my knowledge we don’t have any records of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” Superintendent Scott Ziegler said, according to Newsweek.
Ziegler later apologized for how the district handled sexual assaults, and defended the statement by suggesting that he misunderstood the context of Barts’ question.
Smith was arrested at that same meeting.
In August 2021, Smith was found guilty on two counts in a district court trial, Loudoun Now reported.
On Monday, a circuit court judge dismissed Smith’s obstruction of justice conviction due to a paperwork error.
“The obstruction charge was thrown out because the order for a conviction on that charge did not contain a disposition and the judge did not have the jurisdiction to send it back to lower court to be corrected or clarified,” Stanley Law Group spokesperson Autumn Johnson told The Virginia Star.
Smith is still facing a disorderly conduct charge.
In 2021, Stanley and the Smiths said they would file a federal lawsuit against the school board.
On Tuesday, Johnson said the lawsuit “has been drafted and will be filed soon.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bill Stanley” by Bill Stanley.Â
