In a recent letter denying a citizen’s request for conflict-of-information training data, a senior assistant attorney general responded saying a “good-faith argument” could be made that the office is responsive to FOIA requests only as a courtesy.

A Cuccinelli spokesperson told both The Roanoke Times and The Washington Post that “FOIA doesn’t apply to a constitutional office,” including the attorney general’s office.

The AG’s office reports it now is inserting a disclaimer into all FOIA responses contending it is not bound by the FOIA based on a 2011 Supreme Court of Virginia opinion. That opinion holds the state FOIA does not apply to the State Corporation Commission.

Cuccinelli’s FOIA position is not mentioned in the three-page FOIA “Rights and Responsibilities” document posted on his office’s website. The opening sentence of the information sheet states the FOIA guarantees citizens “access to public records held by public bodies, public officials, and public employees.”

The document details how to make a request for records from the Office of the Attorney General. “The office must respond to your request within five working days of receiving it,” the document reads.

A Virginia legislator introduced a bill to reverse the Supreme Court opinion exempting the SCC from the FOIA. House Bill 2321 was left in committee in the 2013 General Assembly, but sponsor Del. Scott Surovell tells WRIC he remains hopeful for a change in the law.

The station reports Virginia was ranked low in a “state integrity” investigation because of the SCC FOIA exemption.

Baskerville was elected for the honor by her fellow members of the 2013 class of Influential Women of Virginia. The award was announced Thursday at the annual ceremony in Richmond.

Baskerville is CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia, but her accomplishments are numerous.

She is a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates. She was Secretary of Administration in the cabinet of former Gov. Tim Kaine. In 2005, she ran for nomination for lieutenant governor of Virginia. She was a Fulbright Scholar, a former member of the Richmond city council and a city vice-mayor.

Her signal achievement as a state legislator was the passage of a bill providing scholarships for the so-called “lost generation” of Prince Edward County’s African-American students. Those students were educationally abandoned when the county closed public schools for five years.

The Influential Women program, now in its fifth year, recognizes high-achieving women in the fields of law, health care, business, education and real estate, among others.

GINA prohibits discrimination based on genetic information as well as the “acquisition” of genetic information by an employer, including an employee’s family medical history.

According to the EEOC, Oklahoma-based Fabricut Inc. ran afoul of the law when the company’s medical examiner handed a questionnaire to a prospective employee as part of a post-job offer medical exam.
–Correy Stephenson

Rhonda Jones was a temporary memo clerk who applied for a permanent position with the company. Fabricut made Jones an offer and sent her to a medical examiner for a drug test and physical. At her appointment, Jones was given a questionnaire to complete which questioned her about the presence of a variety of disorders in her family history, including cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease, as well as “mental disorders.”

After her exam, Jones was instructed to visit her personal physician for further testing to determine if she suffered from carpel tunnel syndrome (CTS).

Although Jones’ doctor cleared her, the EEOC said Fabricut rescinded its offer based on the company’s belief that she had CTS.

Interestingly, the agency’s suit began simply as an Americans with Disabilities Act claim based on Fabricut’s rescinded job offer.

But during the course of the investigation, the EEOC reviewed the questionnaire completed by Jones and determined it “reflected an unlawful inquiry for genetic information” on its face, adding one count of GINA discrimination to the suit filed in Oklahoma federal court.

“Employers need to be aware that GINA prohibits requesting family medical history,” David Lopez, EEOC general counsel, said in a press release about the case. “When illegal questions are required as part of the hiring process, the EEOC will be vigilant to ensure that no one be denied a job on a prohibited basis.”

Under the terms of the proposed consent decree, Fabricut did not admit to a violation of the ADA, GINA or any other law but agreed to pay Jones $50,000.

The company will also initiate various ADA and GINA anti-discrimination measures, including management and human resources training as well as the dissemination of company policies to employees.

Fabricut – described by the agency as one of the world’s largest distributors of decorative fabrics – also promised to stop the practice of inquiring into genetic information of applicants and their family members and will only refer applicants to post-offer health assessments in compliance with the law going forward.

The award will be presented for the first time in 2013, in the 50th anniversary year of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, finding that assistance of counsel is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial and that the Sixth Amendment guarantees this right to indigent defendants.

The award recognizes a leader in the community, other than a defender, whose work acknowledges the critical role the public defense function plays in ensuring equal justice, and who personally contributes in a significant way to the enhancement of human dignity and quality of life of citizens unable to afford legal representation.

The award will be presented at a public ceremony on May 30, 2013, at 4:30 p.m. in Charlottesville Circuit Court.  A reception will be held in the courtroom lobby immediately following the ceremony.

Parthemos has been with the county attorney’s office since 1987; he became deputy county attorney in 2010.

Chesterfield County Attorney Jeffrey Mincks nominated Parthemos for the award, describing him as “unflaggingly loyal and completly committed.” Parthemos’s expertise includes a number of substantive legal areas, including personal injury, insurance, risk management, public utilities, employment discrimination, complex construction disputes, elections, Freedom of Information Act inquiries, and building code violations.

The Cherin Award was established in 1994 and renamed in 2000 to honor the memory of Bob Cherin, an outstanding local government attorney who served in the Fairfax County Attorney’s Office for 25 years.

Pace, who spearheaded the effort to bring Rule of Law education to Virginia middle schools, will remain “of counsel” at Gentry, Locke, Rakes & Moore, the Roanoke firm where he was managing partner for 13 years.

He will join Roanoke College full time on July 1 and will work from the president’s office, the school said in a news release.

Pace is a former president of the Virginia Bar Association and the founder and president of The Center for Teaching the Rule of Law which located its offices on the Roanoke College campus last year.

Earlier this year, Pace was recognized by the VBA as the recipient of its Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished Service Award.

The Virginia Democrat is urging Senate colleagues to push the W&M model on law schools in their home states to provide “tangible assistance” to veterans on complex claims.

The Lewis B. Puller Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic harnesses “the energy and skills of law students” to help veterans preparing “some of the most difficult VA benefits claims,” Warner said in a May 14 letter.

The letter follows Warner’s April 22 communication to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs suggesting the agency find ways to partner with the W&M law school to duplicate the efforts of the Puller clinic elsewhere.

There is a backlog of some 600,000 claims for benefits at the VA.

McDonnell is not charged in the case, but the chef’s defense lawyers have raised allegations ranging from misuse of kitchen resources to unreported gifts from a political supporter.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch obtained a copy of a letter from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli appointing Troy and his firm, Eckert Seamans, to serve as special counsel to the office of the governor.

Troy’s hourly rate is $250, with bills to be sent to the governor’s office, according to the letter.

She reported security breaches in her office, including a menacing note taped to a door. She began carrying a handgun on her hip.

One local lawyer accused Frederick of lying about her residency when she registered to vote in Culpeper County. A special prosecutor appointed to investigate found the charge unfounded.

In the latest dustup, a probation officer reportedly accused Frederick of getting rough with her in an incident last week in the county Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, according to The Free Lance-Star.

No charge has been filed. Frederick denied the accusation and accused the county sheriff of a pattern of harassment and obstruction in disclosing the matter.

Now, the clerk of the J&DR court has entered the fray. Clerk Bethany Tharpe McClanahan has reportedly barred Frederick from the J&DR clerk’s office. The Free Lance-Star says McClanahan reportedly sent a letter to Frederick saying her privileges in the office have been suspended, although other prosecutors were not affected.

Note: This item was changed May 15 to correct the description of the alleged elections law violation.

The officer arrested the woman for battery, but Virginia law allows corporal punishment and the officer could not automatically assume that any touching of the child by the mother justified the arrest for battery, the 4th Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a May 7 decision in Pleasants v. Town of Louisa.

Police earlier escorted the father during a visitation exchange between the parents, who were fighting over custody. During a later encounter, the father asked an officer to go with him to check on his daughter, who reportedly was screaming and crying in the background when the mother refused to allow the two to talk on the phone.

When the officer appeared at the mother’s door, she told him and her ex-husband to leave. The officer could see the daughter standing about 10 feet inside the doorway. As the mother tried to close the door, the officer entered to talk to the girl.

The mother sued in Charlottesville U.S. District Court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming unlawful entry and false arrest. Under the “peculiar procedural posture” of the case, the 4th Circuit upheld summary judgment for the officer on the unlawful entry claim, but reversed dismissal of the false arrest claim.

No clearly established law prohibited the warrantless entry, said 4th Circuit Judge Dennis W. Shedd. Without case law that defines the boundaries for an “exigency” for an emergency-aid exception to the warrant requirement, the officer had qualified immunity.

The law surrounding the false arrest claim raises other issues. The officer said he knew the mother had touched her daughter twice – a slap on the hand and a grab of the wrist.

Under Virginia law, a parent may use corporal punishment on a child, and “any touching of a child by a parent cannot automatically create probable cause for arrest,” the appellate panel said.

Even though Virginia law recognizes the “slightest touching” as a battery, some touching of a child by a parent “must be legally permissible,” Shedd wrote.

“A parent must often use de minimis force to reprimand or even protect his children, and such force cannot always lead to the possibility that a police officer can arrest the parent,” the court said in its unpublished opinion. The panel said it was not trying to define the level of force for probable cause to arrest, but simply stating that “application of de minimis force by a parent does not automatically create probable cause for arrest.”

The panel reversed dismissal of the false arrest claim and remanded for further proceedings.
–Deborah Elkins