CHATHAM, Va. — After allegations surfaced that a Pittsylvania County supervisor made racist remarks to the county sheriff about another supervisor who is Black, the accused said it was one in "a series of false accusations."

At 3:37 p.m. on June 15, 2021, Supervisor William "Vic" Ingram (Tunstall) sent four text messages to Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor, ostensibly referring to Supervisor Charles Miller (Banister), the only Black member on the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors.

Miller was wearing sunglasses during the June 15 work session due to an optical procedure he had undergone earlier that day.

"I clearly, and on the record, spoke openly that my wearing of the dark glasses was due to medical procedures of dialysis and eye dilation within that day," Miller said. "I clearly spoke to all present, Ingram included, that I was, that day, very sensitive to light and needed to have the eye cover."

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request returned Oct. 12 showed Ingram sent a message saying, "And we welcome Ray Charles to the board."

Taylor reacted to the message with two laughing emojis and a smiling emoji with sunglasses.

"I'm gonna miss Ray," Ingram said in a text message minutes later. "Our own blind Adam. Ray is blindly leaving the building."

Ray Charles, a Black songwriter, was blinded during childhood and is perhaps best remembered for always wearing sunglasses. Blind Adam is a character created by Black comedian Jason Banks.

"The text was a very innocent exchange between myself and Sheriff Taylor about county business with a lighthearted comment about one of my favorite singers, the late Ray Charles, and a very funny comedian on TikTok by the name of Jason Banks," Ingram said. "There was nothing in the text naming Dr. Miller specifically."

Miller said he was "absolutely certain" he was the subject of Ingram's messages.

"No other board of supervisors members have ever worn dark glasses to a meeting in the three and a half years I have been on the board," Miller said.

The text exchange occurred during a board of supervisors meeting.

"I was frankly shocked that Mr. Ingram would take an opportunity to speak to anyone regarding my wearing the glasses, particularly his choice of Sheriff Taylor," Miller said. "This seems most odd."

When asked if he found Ingram's comments funny, Taylor told the Star-Tribune, "No."

"Our words that we say or use, to or about someone, are powerful and have, many times, significant consequences," Taylor said. "Our observations and thoughts in our comments of others should be encouraging, not upsetting. All of us should be mindful and endeavor to speak of others in a respectful way."

Ingram believes that, as long as his head is on the county chopping block, Taylor's should be too.

"If they're going to come after me, they're indicting Mike Taylor, too," Ingram said. "I do not dispute that I had a text exchange with Sheriff Taylor, but nowhere in the text of June 15 did I name Supervisor Miller. There was nothing racist or malicious about my comment. It was then followed by three emojis from Sheriff Taylor, one of a face wearing sunglasses and two laughing emojis."

Taylor did not respond directly when asked if he believed Ingram's comments were racist, but admitted the exchange was in poor taste.

"I feel that this is a teachable occasion," Taylor said. "Our acknowledgment of our human faults can motivate and bring positive results if we allow it."

The Star-Tribune unearths this local storyline in the immediate wake of a national scandal involving Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden, who made racist comments about NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black, over an email to then-Washington Redskins President Bruce Allen. Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert "Bob" Warren (Chatham-Blairs) sees a similitude here, pointing to the current state of affairs with American race relations in an interview with the Star-Tribune.

"On behalf of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, I extend my deepest apologies to our colleague Dr. Charles H. Miller, Jr., Banister District representative," Warren said. "We recently learned that Tunstall District Supervisor William “Vic” Ingram sent reprehensible and offensive text messages concerning Miller. These messages were sent during a board of supervisors meeting. Specifically, these comments are construed as racist to people of color and discriminatory to those experiencing medical difficulties. We condemn and repudiate any form of racism and discrimination on our board and within the county organization."

Warren suggested he would address Ingram's comments with each member of the board, which met Tuesday night for the first time since the text messages first surfaced. Supervisor Ron Scearce (Westover) condemned Ingram in an Oct. 13 email.

"I am appalled that a supervisor would show such a lack of empathy that is bordering on overt racism!" Scearce wrote. "I am calling on Mr. Ingram to make an official apology to Dr. Miller, and the sooner the better. The Tunstall District deserves better leadership!"

Miller also called on Ingram to apologize not only to himself, but to others.

"I request a formal written apology," Miller said. "He should also apologize openly to the board of supervisors and African-American community, in writing. I feel that he should immediately and completely disavow his comments, clarify why he chose to speak to the sheriff, and also clarify why he chose to refer to me as Ray Charles and as Blind Adam."

Miller said he was unsure what the basis of the reference was, admitting he questioned whether or not it was racist or simply in poor taste. In a letter sent privately from Miller to Ingram, Miller said he had chosen not to believe the comment was racist, but that he was worried the Black community would think otherwise.

"Was this an attempt at a racial slur?" Miller questioned in his interview with reporters. "How do his words further harmonious interactions within the board, between the police department and for the county? Did he see my medical condition as trite or funny?"

Miller said he became aware of the private text conversation on Tuesday, Oct. 12, after a board meeting. County employees, whom Miller would not name, became aware of the conversation. Ingram noted that he did not share the conversation with anyone, suggesting either Taylor shared messages with county employees or that his conversation with Taylor was being monitored internally.

"There seems to be a lack of care and consideration for the medical matters of others," Miller said. "Any person, regardless of ethnicity, should not be highlighted in any way for their necessary use of a medical accommodation. Imagine making fun of the school board member who utilizes a wheelchair – as he is a European-American, would he have done the same thing in reference to him?"

Notwithstanding his disapprobation of Miller's conduct in the course of official business, Ingram has maintained his support for Miller's string of pet projects, many of which have sought to highlight Black success in Pittsylvania County.

"He’s missed meetings and has come in late, and when he shows up sometimes he takes a nap," Ingram said. "Regardless, I’ve have tried to work with him and support him. I verbally supported his efforts to have an African-American memorial built somewhere in Chatham. I also supported his motion supporting the naming of two bridges after prominent [Black] citizens, Clyde Banks and William Pritchett, and attended both of the dedication services."

"A witch hunt"

Ingram, who defeated incumbent Tim Barber in the 2019 General Election by a margin of 143 votes, said it wasn't long after he was sworn in on Jan. 2, 2020, that County Administrator David Smitherman and other board members launched a campaign to banjax his reputation by any means necessary. He called this series of events "a political hit job."

"From March of 2020 right up until now, my fellow board members have been on a witch hunt lead by David Smitherman in an attempt to destroy me and my political career," Ingram said. "This has caused much division and turmoil, which has impaired us collectively as a board to carry out the people’s business."

Ingram said his relationship with both Miller and Warren soured at the board of supervisors' work session on May 18, 2021, when he requested adding two resolutions to the agenda that would move the needle on renaming a pair of bridges in Pittsylvania County after Troopers Henry Brooks, Jr., and Henry Harmon, who both suffered fatal injury in the line of duty while serving Pittsylvania County. Warren had pulled the motions from the agenda.

"All this resolution would have done was express to the state transportation board that we as a board requested that they name these two bridges after these two troopers," Ingram said. "Since these men died while employed by the state, there would be no cost to the county."

Dels. Les Adams (R-16) and Danny Marshall (R-14) supported the dedications of the two bridges, one on Route 29 in Motley and one on Route 57 in Chatham, with Marshall stating, "If these two men aren’t worthy of having a bridge named after them, no one is." A verbal contest ensued between Ingram and Warren, with Warren claiming Ingram had not correctly navigated the channels of the neoteric Naming Committee.

Prior to the work session, Ingram had conferred via email with Supervisors Tim Dudley (Staunton River) and Miller, due to the locations of the two bridges in their respective districts in the county. Miller said at the meeting that he had responded to the email.

"I double-checked my email account and found no such response," Ingram said. "I even went a step further and asked Information Technology Supervisor Scott Budd to look at my email account to see if I missed a response from Supervisor Miller. He immediately came back and notified me that neither Miller nor Dudley had responded. At this point, I knew that Supervisor Miller had lied and there was no defending his untruthfulness."

On or about June 29, two weeks after the notorious text message exchange, Ingram reported learning that Budd was suspended from his role indefinitely after conducting the audit of Ingram's email inbox at his own request.

"It was obvious that they were trying to manipulate and pressure Scott into saying something that wasn’t true," Ingram said. "Scott later met with Smitherman, who allowed him to return to work and cautioned him about further requests by board members."

Ingram said he was forced to take direr action after he became panicked by the idea of a federal investigation, which he said Smitherman implied.

"With his misleading tone that a federal crime had been committed, I knew that I must address his false and misleading comments," Ingram said.

On July 21, at Ingram's request, Commonwealth's Attorney Bryan Haskins commissioned Special Agent Nan McGuire of the Virginia State Police to conduct an investigation into the Virginia code and determine if a violation had been committed. Ingram and McGuire met on Aug. 13 in Rocky Mount.

"I later received a phone call from the agent stating that since I had not committed a criminal violation that no further investigation would be conducted," Ingram said.

After the investigation concluded, Ingram submitted a FOIA letter to Pittsylvania County Attorney J. Vaden Hunt, requesting documentation of the complaint lodged against him. The request was unfulfilled. Ingram submitted a second letter Oct. 4, which garnered the same result. He now plans to file a writ of mandamus in circuit court, at the advice of Virginia FOIA Council Executive Director Alan Gernhardt, with hopes Hunt will be ordered by a judge to comply with his request.

"Sadly, my thoughts of Supervisor Miller is that he is being led blindly by members of this board, mainly Warren and Scearce, with Smitherman in the shadows," Ingram said. "He doesn’t understand that they used him to claim that he authored a letter of false and misleading information about me. They have patronized him to secure his vote to promote their specific agenda."

Suspicious motives

Ingram directly addressed his final text message in the June 15 exchange with Sheriff Taylor, which reads, "I'm gonna miss Ray, our own Blind Adam. Ray is blindly leaving the building."

Ingram stated, "My thought process was when I see a person wearing sunglasses in a building is that they are just trying to be cool. If they were blind, which is no laughing matter, it would be evidenced by a white cane and possibly assistance by another person."

Ingram asserted that the Naming Committee and landmark naming policy were enacted solely to "slam on the brakes" as Miller moved forward with other naming initiatives.

"Now, approximately two weeks before the election, Supervisor Miller in his bid for reelection wants to use a 4-month-old text to call me a racist," Ingram said. "Sadly, when you look at the text, Sheriff Taylor is equally liable with his response. It’s obvious that the masterminds behind this attack didn’t realize the collateral damage that would include our Sheriff who just completed 45 years of service."

Ingram has for several months publicly endorsed the campaign of Jessie Barksdale, a former Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors chairman and candidate running against Miller in the Banister District, which he said is another motive behind the "attack."

"We must also take into account that I have supported Supervisor Miller in the naming to two bridges of prominent Black citizens, but he refuses to even consider naming two after two men who gave their lives while serving the citizens of Pittsylvania County," Ingram said. "The whole bridge debacle makes our board and some select members as look as anti-law enforcement."

Ingram, notably, works as a licensed private investigator after a career in law enforcement. An Aug. 18, 2020 letter from Warren, Scearce and Miller, which Supervisor Ben Farmer (Callands-Gretna) refused to sign, asserted Ingram's "private investigator skills...are disrupting the positive working atmosphere and relationship with/among county employees."

In Miller's letter to Ingram, he said he does not hold grudges in an unforgiving spirit and desires only to work together for the good of the county.

"There was no malicious or racist intent in the text," Ingram said. "It was private and not meant to the general public. If there is anyone who does in fact feel offended, I will offer a sincere apology and or issue a joint apology with Sheriff Taylor. I have spent my life trying to help people – I’d never want to hurt or offend anyone in any way."

Taylor ultimately stated that he reacted positively to Ingram's comments out of respect for Miller.

"My response was my perception of Dr. Miller, as I’ve always perceived him to be, as someone relaxed and calming influence in what many times are contentious settings," Taylor said. "In working with Dr. Miller on county matters, I find Dr. Miller as a person of inspection. He is articulate in his comments when making his point, of which I respect."