CASEY: Criminal defamation case against Roanoke cop involves Facebook posts about Tazewell lawyer | Crime News

“Roanoke police officer in hot water in Tazewell County over ‘satire’ blog on Facebook.”

The Facebook page was known as the “Down & Dirty news of Southwest Virginia.” Something similar, or a copy, is still floating around online but absent the offending posts, said Tazewell County Chief Deputy Harold Heatley.

It’s unknown who’s operating that presently — but it was updated late Sunday or early Monday. An earlier pinned post characterized the whole page as satire.

The Roanoke officer in question is Larry “Kenny” Bowman. He’s charged with “combining to injure others in their reputation, trade, business or profession.” It’s a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Court records list the offense date as March 13 and Mike Hall, a lieutenant with the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office, as the complainant. Specifics about the alleged offense remain unclear.

A Tazewell County sheriff’s investigator connected Bowman to the original “Down & Dirty news” page via a subpoena to Facebook.

Heatley said the offending posts, which don’t currently appear online, harmed the reputation of a Tazewell County lawyer, Penny Nimmo. He declined to divulge copies of the pages, or specifics about how she’s been defamed.

The charges against Bowman were first disclosed in an article in The Voice. It’s a newspaper that circulates in Cedar Bluff, the Tazewell County town where Nimmo has her law office. Neither that story nor The Roanoke Times version mentioned Nimmo as the victim.

“We have [the offending posts] downloaded and saved as evidence,” Heatley said. “It does reflect very negatively on Ms. Nimmo and her law practice.”

An assistant said Nimmo was out of her office Monday morning. I left a message, but Nimmo didn’t call back. I was unable to find a working phone number for Bowman, who Roanoke Police said is also under internal investigation.

Heatley added that the case was referred to his department from the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, and that somehow, it also involved the Buchanan County Department of Social Services. Buchanan County borders Tazewell County, to the north.

Buchanan County “had a conflict of interest,” Heatley said. “I’m not sure what it was.” He added that he believes the case is still under investigation in Buchanan County. In The Voice’s article, Tazewell County Sheriff Brian Hieatt said Bowman is from Buchanan. (Bowman currently resides in Hardy.)

As of Monday, no charges had been filed against Bowman in Buchanan County General District Court. Marci Watson, director of social services for Buchanan County, did not return a call for comment. Nor did Buchanan County Sheriff John McClanahan.

If you were surprised that writing unkind things about someone on Facebook could lead to criminal charges — and potentially jail — then join the club. That’s because libel (defamation published in writing) and slander (spoken defamation) are more commonly seen as torts that wind up as civil lawsuits.

But Virginia’s hardly the only state with criminal defamation laws on its books. The American Civil Liberties Union says 23 other states have them, too. There used to be more, but six states have repealed their criminal defamation statutes, according to the ACLU.

In the East, aside from Virginia, defamation can still be a crime in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, both Carolinas and Florida. (Georgia and Maryland are two of the states that have repealed criminal defamation laws.)

And Virginia has at least two statutes on its books.

The first is Virginia code 18.2-417, titled “Slander and Libel.” Here’s the first (of two) paragraphs, which is the guts of law:

“Any person who shall falsely utter and speak, or falsely write and publish, of and concerning any person of chaste character, any words derogatory of such person’s character for virtue and chastity, or imputing to such person acts not virtuous and chaste, or who shall falsely utter and speak, or falsely write and publish, of and concerning another person, any words which from their usual construction and common acceptation are construed as insults and tend to violence and breach of the peace or who shall use grossly insulting language to any person of good character or reputation is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor.”

The maximum punishment is a $500 fine.

Bowman was charged under a second, and apparently more serious law, 18.2-499, which is titled: “Combinations to injure others in their reputation, trade, business or profession.” Here’s the guts of that:

“Any two or more persons who combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake or concert together for the purpose of (i) willfully and maliciously injuring another in his reputation, trade, business or profession by any means whatever or (ii) willfully and maliciously compelling another to do or perform any act against his will, or preventing or hindering another from doing or performing any lawful act, shall be jointly and severally guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Such punishment shall be in addition to any civil relief recoverable under § 18.2-500.”

It’s also against that law for one person to procure the participation of another person in any of the above. Maximum punishment is a year’s incarceration and a $2,500 fine.

So there you have a bit more information about this unusual — and criminal — defamation charge.

We’re still waiting to learn specifically how Bowman — allegedly — injured Nimmo’s reputation. Or whether other victims will press charges for other posts that previously appeared on “Down & Dirty news of Southwest Virginia.”

But that law’s mere existence might cause some folks to think twice about their next social media rant that’s directed at somebody else.

A year in jail for injuring someone else’s trade or business reputation? On a Facebook page that characterizes itself as “satire?”

Considering that much of social media is an absolute sewer, only God knows how many more potential crimes are waiting to be brought.