At its first regular meeting of the new year, Middleburg Town Council heard protests and calls for formal investigation of the role of their Police Chief, Town Sergeant Steve Webber, in the investigation, high-noon arrest and November 30 perp walk of Middleburg Eccentric Editor-in-Chief Dee Dee Hubbard four days before this year's Christmas in Middleburg celebrations. Webber looked on in silence as two former Town Council members, a former Reagan Administration Undersecretary of Commerce, and the Publisher of the Middleburg Eccentric spoke. All expressed dismay with Webber's conduct and expressed serious concern about both the action and lack of action by the Chief in the planning, execution, and appearance of subsequent front-page publicity following Hubbard's arrest on November 30 by Virginia State Police officers, called into the case by Webber himself.

Ironically, the calls for Council investigation of Webber's role in the Hubbard arrest were followed by Council's unanimous passage of a resolution commending the volunteers who made this year's "Christmas in Middleburg" celebrations a roaring success. Hubbard's name, and that of her co-chairman, Jim Herbert, headed the long list of those thanked and honored.

The Case

Council listened politely and with not a little forbearance as Middleburg Eccentric Publisher Dan Morrow spent well more than his allotted three minutes of "public comment" reviewing the events of November 30 and outlining a series of as-yet-unanswered questions about the Chief and his role in the Hubbard affair.

Hubbard was arrested for what key sources close to the investigation now describe as a dispute over some $9,000 in bookkeeping errors, apparently attributable to mistakes by both Hubbard and her local bank.

Each and every check in question, some 15 in all, has been submitted as evidence of a separate incident of alleged felony embezzlement, despite evidence that the misplaced funds had been, by all accounts, reconciled and refunded months earlier, with offers by Hubbard's local bank to cover any shortfall apparently refused by the complainant in the case.

Hubbard, who has yet to be indicted on any charges, was immediately released by the magistrate who processed her arrest at the County jail, set free on her own recognizance, with no bail required and with no restrictions on her future travel, inside Virginia or out.

The formal preliminary hearing on the case, the hearing that will determine if there is indeed a case worth pursuing, has also been postponed, at the request of the County Prosecutor handling the case, until March.

Though the accused 67-year-old grandmother, editor, and community service volunteer was apparently neither armed, dangerous nor a flight risk, Chief Webber, Middleburg Police Officer Owen Heine, State Police Investigator Robert Mrak, and two additional State Police officers were mobilized for her arrest.

Witnesses report that at least two of the officers involved hid behind a tall wooden gate screening garbage cans at Mello Out while waiting for Hubbard to appear in the restaurant's parking lot. Witnesses also report that at least one was heard to remark that a felony arrest would certainly look good on their record.

Webber's own emails, published in the December Eccentric, appear to confirm that he set up the time and place of the arrest and lured Hubbard to it by claiming, falsely, that he wanted to meet with her to discuss "Christmas in Middleburg."

Once arrested, with her hands shackled behind her back, Hubbard was then perp-walked through the small Mello Out parking lot, into East Federal Street, across the intersection, and then half a block down West Federal Street, around a corner and into a parking lot behind the Police Station.

Asked why he didn't simply ask Hubbard to meet him at the Police Station, whose back door opens directly onto the same parking lot, Webber first tried to blame the State Police for the planning and execution of the arrest, and then, confronted with his own emails, refused to comment.

Though both Mrak and Webber have been asked by The Eccentric why they thought such treatment of Hubbard was either necessary or appropriate, neither have been willing to answer on the record.

"His Duty Was to Stop It."

Bruce Smart, a WWII veteran, retired CEO, a 24-year resident of the County, a former Reagan Administration Undersecretary of Commerce, a member of at least three State or County commissions, and a Middleburg Eccentric columnist concluded his formal remarks to Council by stopping just short of a call for Webber's resignation or dismissal.

"Ms. Hubbard," he noted, "a respected citizen of Middleburg, is accused of offenses that sound more like sloppy bookkeeping than anything criminal. She was lured to a meeting for another presumed purpose, then arrested and handcuffed in front of a crowd, and marched off to jail while cameras popped. Press coverage of this arrogant spectacle followed."

"The behavior of your Police Chief in arranging or participating in this matters seems reprehensible," he said. "His duty was to stop it."

Smart then called on Council to determine why Webber acted, or didn't act, in the events leading up to and including the perp walk of 30 November.

Noting that he, personally, knew nothing of the relationships between the plaintiff in the case, Chief Webber and Hubbard, Smart told Council, "You will have to determine whether there is a motive of revenge at work. You will also have to determine what relationship exists between the plaintiff and the Chief."

"Unless you find that Ms. Hubbard's behavior merited such harsh treatment, and the Chief was innocent of arranging the meeting, calling in the state officers, and has no personal relationship with the plaintiff," Smart continued, "I believe he has no place in Middleburg law enforcement."

At the conclusion of his prepared remarks, Smart paused for several seconds, then noted quietly that, in his youth, during the Second World War, he had served in the United States Army.

In that war, he said, he lost friends in armed combat against both Germany and Japan. "This sort of thing," he said, "was what they died to prevent from ever happening again."

Council's Duty

Former Council Member Lisa Patterson, the proprietor of the restaurant from which Hubbard was called out, the daughter of the accused, and the mother of one of Hubbard's grandchildren, spoke with difficulty and, she said, with the hope "...of keeping out of her remarks anything personal." As a former Council member, she observed that the Town lacked anything but the most general written procedures and guidelines for handling matters like the arrest, perp walk and transportation of her mother.

Council needed to develop guidelines covering when, where and how arrests are made, she said, as well as where police interviews are conducted.

"Public arrests that involve the parading of citizens through the streets should not occur," she insisted. "They embarrass Middleburg."

Nor should arrests be deliberately staged at businesses, she continued. It's tough enough, she said, to be in business during the current economic crisis.

Noting that both the State Police and Webber had denied alerting "the press" prior to the Hubbard arrest, Patterson called on Council to look into who, if anyone, had alerted the complainant in the case, and the professional photographers who did appear to be waiting both inside Mello Out and on the street. Pictures taken by one or more of those photographers were later sold to local media and published as above-the-fold front page news.

The former Council Member also insisted that the Legislative chambers of the Town Council were inappropriate venues for police interrogations.

A Pall Over the Town

Former Council member Judith Pryor Plescow agreed with Patterson in a letter to Council which she asked be read into the record. Her letter addressed what she referred to as "...incidents that have cast a pall over the town and the town's reputation."

"First," she wrote, "there was an arrest of a local business owner and philanthropic organizer. This person has spent 28 plus years working in and around Middleburg and has consistently been involved in originating organizations that have supported the town and its residents (both two and four-legged) as well as victims of natural disasters near and far."

She deplored what she perceived to be the effects of the Chief's issuing misleading press releases, making inappropriate remarks about other "pending allegations" both "during and after her arrest."

"While this is a Police issue, the Police report to Council," she continued. "This places this boorish behavior square on the shoulder of Town Council."

Witch Hunts and Fear

Plescow pointedly agreed with Patterson about the use of the Town Offices for police interrogations.

"I have been made aware of the fact members of the Christmas in Middleburg Committee were called into the Town Office to be questioned," Plescow continued.

"The Town Office is public domain," she wrote. "Why did this occur at the Town Office? If there is reason for additional Police investigation, then it would be professionally appropriate to handle it in the Town Police Department Office. This is beginning to take on the appearance of a Town sanctioned witch hunt."

Plescow also questioned Webber's handling of communications in general and the impact of his choices about when to issue public statements and when to remain silent.

"The Town was recently again in the news due to an armed robbery of a Federal Postal employee," Plescow reminded Council. In contrast to the Hubbard case, however, a serious armed robbery was apparently not considered worthy of a press release by the local police.

"The residents of Middleburg and the surrounding area have been given little information regarding the status of the armed robbery investigation," Plescow continued.

"One of the many duties of the Town Police Department," she insisted, "is to protect and serve. I believe that part of serving is keeping the public informed..."

"I have talked with several Town residents and business owners who are very concerned about both of the above referenced incidents," Plescow told Council, "yet feel uncomfortable talking publicly about law enforcement practices."

Plescow closed her statement with an appeal to Council. "As a former appointed Town Council Member," she wrote, "I must say that I am embarrassed at the lack of Council involvement addressing these issues. You are charged with protecting the Town and its residents, please step up and carry out the duties to which you have all been elected."

Council Response

On January 13, as had been the case at its December meeting, Council issued no public statements about its views on the Hubbard arrest, Webber's conduct, or the answers to any of the questions raised by concerned citizens and business people about the matter since November 30.

The current rules of procedure for meetings of the Middleburg Town Council make it difficult, if not impossible, for questions raised during "public comment" to be answered directly, either while they're being made, or later in the Council agenda. Nor, by all accounts, have any of the members of the current Council faced issues similar to those raised by the Hubbard case.

In a late January email to Council, Middleburg Eccentric Publisher Dan Morrow requested that Council consider his January 13 remarks a formal complaint, and seek answers to all the questions raised, by all speakers, during the "public comment" portion of the Council's agenda.

Unanswered Questions

The events of November 29 and 30, and possibly events before and after, beg several questions, Morrow noted on the 13th, "...which I believe Council is honor-bound to ask, to insist be answered, and to make the answers made public."

What, for example, are the guidelines by which our Chief of Police decides whether a criminal complaint justifies any investigation at all, much less referral to authorities outside his jurisdiction?

Did Webber seek advice or counsel from anyone on Town Council, Town Staff, or the Town Attorney about what was planned for November 30 and whether or not he should cooperate? Why not?

Did anyone on Town Staff know what was planned for that day? Why not?

Did Webber ask whether or not his decision to issue a press release on the Hubbard arrest was appropriate? Why not?

With whom, if anyone, did he vet the release he issued? Why did he, personally, issue a press release on this case, but not on any other? Was the release misleading? Did it exaggerate the charges and imply guilt?

Did Webber further imply guilt by breaking his own rules commenting to a reporter on "an investigation still in progress"?

Did the events of November 30 do gratuitous harm, financially, psychologically, and spiritually to Dee Dee and her family? To their businesses? To the Town? To the department itself? To the press?

Did Webber deliberately seek to mislead the press and Town Council about the role he played in the setup and execution of the Hubbard perp walk? Why?

Was Hubbard REALLY dangerous? How? Was she a flight risk? Who said so?

Was the "public interest" in any way served? How?

Did our own police chief make any effort to convince his State Police colleagues to behave differently? How and to what effect?

Did any members of his own force suggest an alternative approach?

Did the Chief at any time say to State Police Inspector Mrak, "Not in Middleburg. Not in my jurisdiction. Not on my watch. Not using my officers. Not with my collusion and cooperation. And not to Dee Dee Hubbard." Why not?

In the absence of answers to these questions, Morrow noted, "There is, in my view, no excuse whatsoever for what appears to be the deliberate, gratuitous, mean-spirited, and unnecessary humiliation of one of Middleburg's finest citizens and my Editor in Chief."

Armed Robbery

In other news, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, the Middleburg Police Department, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service responded to reports of an armed robbery of a "contracted postal delivery person" in the Post Office Parking at around 6:00 PM on December 27.

According to the Sheriff's office:

"The victim, a 27-year-old Manassas man, reported he arrived at the post office around 6 p.m. As he was unloading his vehicle an unknown Black male approached him and brandished a firearm. An unknown White male was also at the scene. A cell phone was taken from the victim and he was locked inside of the rear of the truck. After approximately 15 minutes a passerby opened the door for the victim. The victim reported postal bags and undisclosed items were taken from the vehicle.

The first suspect is described as a Black male, 5'10" tall, medium build, weighing approximately 175 pounds. The suspect was wearing a hood and mask. The second suspect was further described as being a White male, 5'10" – 6' tall, with a thin build."

Investigation of the case is ongoing. Anyone with relevant information on the case should contact Investigator M. Bush of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division at 703-777-0475 or call the 24-hour U.S. Postal Inspection Service Hotline at 1-877-876-2455.

Christmas in Middleburg Resolution

Council unanimously approved a formal "Resolution of Appreciation" for the volunteers associated with the 2010 "Christmas in Middleburg" event.

Jim Herbert, who co-chairs the "Christmas in Middleburg Committee" with Dee Dee Hubbard, was given a copy of the resolution. Mayor Davis expressed her appreciation for the volunteers' work and noted that the event was a great success.