Defamation Lawsuit Filed Against Virginia Police For False Accusation

Michael Lewis, Jr. recently filed a civil lawsuit against a Virginia police officer claiming defamation, malicious prosecution, and false imprisonment. Originally, a Virginia Circuit Court had dismissed the case; however, the Virginia Court of Appeals recently reinstated the defamation claim after Lewis appealed the decision of the lower court.

The events that led up to the lawsuit began on August 1, 2008. According to court documents, Lewis, who was working as a general contractor, was working on a project in a residential neighborhood. While he was sitting in the driver’s seat of his parked truck talking with a customer on the phone, a ten-year-old child approached Lewis and asked if he would give him a ride home. Lewis agreed to give the child a ride even through he did not know him.

As the child got into the truck, a man who lived in the neighborhood came out of his home and approached the truck. He yelled at the child and told him to get out of the truck. Once the child exited the vehicle, Lewis attempted to explain the circumstances regarding the child to the concerned man and then drove away. The local man called the police and reported that he had witnessed an attempted abduction.

According to reports, the local news ran a televised story on the night that the incident occurred, claiming the police were “on the hunt for a suspect who tried to kidnap a local child.” Several days later, an officer from the Prince George County Police Department obtained an arrest warrant for Lewis based solely on the information that was provided by the local man who watched the child get into Lewis’ truck. According to the complaint, the officer did not interview the child or the child’s parents prior to arresting Lewis.

Lewis was held in jail for forty-one days and was denied bail on two separate occasions. The charges pending against Lewis were dropped after his defense lawyer and the attorney for the Commonwealth spoke with the child and confirmed Lewis’ version of the events that took place on August 1, 2008.

Lewis now claims that he was defamed when the officer that arrested him wrote an article about the arrest and published it on the county’s website. The article contained a picture of Lewis and stated that he had been arrested in connection with the local abduction case. According to court documents, the article remained on the website for several months after the charge against Lewis had been expunged.

The case was remanded back to the Circuit Court for further proceedings regarding Lewis’ defamation claim.