Reporters, sheriff cited in Sayre defamation suit against EDA director

On Friday afternoon, September 21, Shenandoah District Supervisor Tom Sayre filed a $25,000 defamation lawsuit against Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Director Jennifer McDonald.

The suit filed in Warren County General District Court alleges McDonald utilized Royal Examiner reporter Roger Bianchini, among others, “in attempting to frame Tom” for a June 2017 act of vandalism at her home.  Bianchini’s name appears six times in the Sayre suit’s 34-point Bill of Particulars tracing the theory and alleged actions at the lawsuit’s base, while Royal Examiner Editor Norma Jean Shaw’s name is cited once, as is Warren County Sheriff Daniel McEathron’s.

The presence of both Bianchini and Shaw’s names in the civil complaint leading to the likelihood they will be called as witnesses complicates Royal Examiner’s coverage of this story.  We have decided to proceed with internal interviews regarding the allegations made about Royal Examiner staff involvement in Sayre’s civil filing, with editorial board review of the resulting information to be published under a group Royal Examiner byline.

Say ‘cheese’ – Tom Sayre and Jennifer McDonald on June 18, 2018, celebrating the ITFederal groundbreaking behind EDA headquarters. Royal Examiner File Photo/Facebook

While Bianchini and Shaw have elected to minimize their public response at this point in time, both made it clear that they dispute Sayre’s allegations about their respective roles in alleged events laying the foundation of Sayre’s civil defamation suit.  Elaboration will follow below as appropriate upon approval of the Royal Examiner Editorial Board.

Shaw’s involvement is cited as a late August 2017 telephoned warning to Sayre that he was being set up to be charged in the alleged vandalism incident at McDonald’s home – it is a conversation Shaw told Royal Examiner colleagues she has no recollection of having with Sayre.

Also named in the suit as spreading negative information about Sayre related to an alleged plot to discredit the supervisor is Warren County Sheriff Daniel McEathron – “On or about August 1, 2017, the Warren County Sheriff Danny McEathron told a friend of Tom’s to ‘stay away from Tom Sayre’ because he was ‘trouble’,” Sayre’s filing states.

There is no elaboration on how that alleged warning relates to Sayre’s allegation of a plot to besmirch his name related to inquiries into the EDA’s workforce housing project.  However, Sayre presents it as a piece of a puzzle indicating a widespread word-of-mouth effort targeting him as a criminal conspirator in what his suit calls a “faux crime” at McDonald’s home property.

Motive?

Sayre bases his lawsuit on the idea that McDonald attempted to utilize long-time local reporter Bianchini, among others including it appears the Warren County sheriff, in an attempt to discredit him for past tough questions he asked regarding the EDA’s workforce housing project.  According to his lawsuit, Sayre’s tough questioning dates to a joint county board-EDA work session of June 6, 2017, called by Fork District Supervisor Archie Fox.

Tom Sayre, right, and Archie Fox at the June 6, 2017 joint supervisors-EDA work session Sayre cites as creating motive to attempt to frame him for criminal behavior.

“Defendant (McDonald) was aware that Tom (as Sayre is described throughout the filing) was continuing to investigate the questionable transaction,” Sayre’s lawsuit states about issues surrounding the workforce housing project.

Perhaps ironically, for at least two months prior to June 6, 2017 when Sayre states his tough questioning on the workforce housing project began, Bianchini was Royal Examiner’s lead reporter in forwarding myriad tough questions about the workforce housing project, including its initially unexplained gifted/non-gifted status involving property previously owned by McDonald’s aunt and uncle, Mr. And Mrs. Walter Campbell; and for as many as seven months prior to June 2017, Bianchini wrote a series of stories forwarding hard questions about the stated parameters of the EDA’s ITFederal project at the Avtex site.

• Workforce housing ‘gift’ is no more – EDA plans purchase instead
• Feds OK ‘Dollar Special’ on first Avtex property sale
• A ‘Perfect Storm’ of silence raises questions about 1^st Avtex client

Yet Sayre asserts McDonald chose to utilize a reporter known to ask hard questions about EDA projects to frame him for doing the same.

The toughest question asked by anyone about the workforce housing project – why the property was initially gifted by McDonald’s aunt and uncle, then announced it would have to be purchased by the EDA at an inflated price due to a failure to meet a previously undisclosed developmental deadline – was eventually explained by the August 7, 2017 announcement of the previously-undisclosed involvement of regional developer the Aikens Group.  That involvement, according to the EDA dated to a 2014 Aikens Group commitment to purchase the workforce housing property from the Campbells at an agreed-upon price – and is elaborated on in this linked story. EDA unveils ‘silent partner’ in workforce housing project – the Aikens Group

The next tough question, heretofore unasked publicly by Sayre or anyone we are aware of, might be – when is the Aikens Group or anyone going to begin development of what remains a still-unrealized workforce housing project targeting young professionals considering entry-level positions in this community?

Architectural rendering of a workforce housing apartment building – Courtesy EDA

But on the alleged defamation of Shenandoah District Supervisor Tom Sayre by Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Jennifer McDonald there is more.

Faux Crime?

Much of Sayre’s defamation scenario revolves around a criminal misdemeanor charge against McDonald of filing a false police report regarding an alleged stone-throwing vandalism incident at her home on July 15, 2017.  McDonald was charged by the Virginia State Police on July 13, 2018, two days before the statute of limitations on filing a misdemeanor warrant in that case expired.  A trial date of October 31 has been set in that case.

The misdemeanor case against McDonald revolves around the belief she told a previously unnamed individual about the vandalism incident several hours before it was reported on Thursday, June 15, 2017.  Sayre’s lawsuit identifies Bianchini as the unnamed individual McDonald is believed by authorities to have told details of the stone-throwing vandalism at her home several hours before she reported it at 9:02 p.m., Thursday, June 15, 2017.

McDonald’s defamatory statements alleged in Sayre’s filing include her telling Bianchini of a “note” that Sayre’s lawsuit states “she intentionally left in her front yard” that “contained a list of crimes that (McDonald) wanted the police to believe were intended to be committed against her in the future.”

“Defendant confirmed to Mr. Bianchini in this discussion that one of the numbers listed was that of Tom and that she believed that Tom was involved in the crime (Bold in context).  Her clear intent in speaking to Mr. Bianchini was to the have the newspaper (grammar in context) disseminate this false information framing Tom for the fictitious crime.”

It is noteworthy considering the above supposition about motive, that Bianchini has never publicly mentioned, nor attached Sayre’s name to any Royal Examiner story regarding any incident or alleged incident at McDonald’s home or anywhere else.

However, Sayre’s civil suit alleges that “defamatory statements regarding Tom were seen or heard by numerous residents of Warren County, including, but not limited to, Mr. Bianchini (and everyone he told), the Sheriff of Warren County (and related police staff of Warren County and the Town of Front Royal), and Greg Drescher.”

Drescher, superintendent of Warren County Public Schools, was at the time chairman of the EDA Board of Directors.  Drescher appeared with McDonald at the joint county supervisors-EDA work session of June 6, 2017, during which Sayre asserts questions he asked set the stage for McDonald’s alleged plot to frame him for what he states was a fictitious crime.

Jennifer McDonald and EDA board Chair Greg Drescher did field some tough questions at a June 6, 2017 joint work session of the supervisors and EDA.

As for “everyone he told” about his off-the-record conversations with McDonald about incidents targeting her or EDA property, Bianchini estimates he told very few people – likely single digits – any detail of those conversations; and that they were, for the most part, professional news associates with whom the information was shared in confidence.

Sayre’s suit states, “While Tom was not immediately aware of what the Defendant had done, in the weeks after June 15, 2017, he noticed certain people were beginning to treat him differently, including Greg Drescher – Chair of the EDA.”

The lawsuit does not elaborate on how Drescher, or anyone else for that matter, treated Sayre before or after June 15, 2017.

Jennifer McDonald and Greg Drescher face off with county officials – and a Royal Examiner film camera – about the workforce housing project prior to public revelation a major regional developer had been involved from the outset. That revelation two months later tied a lot of loose ends together.

Sayre cites an August 4, 2017 phone interview with Kenneth Pullen, a private investigator hired by McDonald to look into what she said was happening at her property, as well as a May 18, 2017, EDA office break-in.  “Though he was being questioned as if he was a suspect and he had no idea why, Tom candidly answered all questions,” Sayre’s lawsuit states without detailing those questions.

Pain and suffering

As to the punishment of $25,000 Sayre is seeking in defamation damages, the General District Court Clerk’s Office confirmed that is the maximum amount obtainable in a civil filing in that court.  In seeking that compensation Sayre cites “reputational harm … since it was clear numerous people in the Town and County had heard about the allegations against Tom” and “that if he was indicted and/or convicted for these crimes he could lose his law license (Sayre has publicly stated that he is currently employed as human resource director at Seton Home School), be unemployable, be removed from the Board (of Supervisors), and he and his family would suffer immensely.

“Tom lost significant sleep, suffered acute anxiety, could not focus at work, sought counseling from his Priest, spent countless hours seeking to clear his name and repair damage to his reputation.”

He said/He said

Bianchini denies that McDonald ever told him she believed Sayre was involved in the alleged vandalism at her home or that Sayre’s phone number was found on a “note” Sayre believes McDonald planted on her own property to implicate him in a staged crime.  Bianchini also noted (pun intended) that he has no recollection of ever telling anyone that McDonald told him either of those things.

In fact, Bianchini said he conveyed this information to Sayre in the hallway of the Warren County Government Center following a board of supervisors meeting several months ago when the supervisor inquired about the topic.

“He came up to me and asked what Jennifer McDonald had told me regarding a ‘note’ he believes implicated him and was planted by McDonald on her property.  I told him his name was never mentioned to me as a suspect.  I gave him a little more detail than I care to go into publicly at this time,” the reporter told his colleagues at Royal Examiner – colleagues who have heard that additional detail in confidence.

Bianchini also said that while McDonald did eventually express suspicions to him about possible suspects, NEITHER of those suspects was Tom Sayre.

Information about the alleged series of incidents at her home were confided to Bianchini as a result of a June 5 conversation about a recent verbal altercation between the reporter and McDonald’s husband, whom Bianchini has considered a friend dating to his sportswriting days covering the Front Royal Men’s Softball League in the early to mid-1990’s.  The information was presented as a possible explanation for her husband’s uncharacteristic display of hostility toward the reporter since she explained the alleged trespass incidents at her property usually occurred shortly after one of the reporter’s articles presenting EDA business in a negative light appeared on the Royal Examiner website.

Bianchini notes that McDonald never asked him to alter the tone of or stop writing stories about EDA projects, surmising their publication might eventually help apprehend a suspect.

Now, oddly perhaps, it appears she is that suspect – though exactly how that relates to Sayre’s defamation case remains to be determined.

View Sayre v McDonald filing