Smith Appeal of Disorderly Conduct Conviction Heads to Jury Trial

BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.com

The case of Scott Smith, the man whose arrest at a Loudoun County School Board meeting in June 2021 garnered national attention, will appeal his conviction for disorderly conduct at a jury trial in September.

He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors, following an argument with another attendee of the June 22, 2021, School Board meeting. Smith’s daughter was the victim of a sexual assault in a high school bathroom, the first of two girls assaulted by the same student, resulting in a long-running scandal, an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General, and led to the School Board firing Superintendent Dr. Scott Ziegler.

Smith in August 2021 was convicted in General District Court of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and sentenced to 10 days in jail, all suspended contingent on a year of good behavior. Smith ap- pealed, and the charge of resisting arrest was subsequently dismissed because of an error in paperwork.

On Thursday, Smith’s attorney, William Stanley, who represents the 20th Senate District in the General Assembly, sought to have the disorderly conduct charge thrown out before the appeal is argued.

Stanley argued Smith’s actions leading up to his arrest no more tended to violence than many other people’s behavior at that raucous meeting, and so did not meet the legal standard for disorderly conduct. Stanley pointed to testimony that the woman with whom Smith argued approached him first, calling his daughter a liar and threatening to ruin his business. Smith leaned toward the woman, clenching one fist at his side, and called her an expletive.

Stanley said that amounted to protected free speech.

“While Smith was at an intense School Board meeting that was discussing a policy issue that had a direct impact on the School Board policy that caused the harm to his daughter, he was no agitator, but rather he was only responding to a provocateur who was saying horrible things to him about his family,” Stanley’s motion argues.

The motion to dismiss the case noted a deputy’s testimony that other attendees “cheerfully encouraged physical altercations.”

“Smith cannot be convicted of disorderly conduct simply because he had a heated disagreement with a woman in public,” Stanley wrote.

Judge James Howe Brown denied that motion, sending the appeal to trial set for Sept. 25. Smith has requested a jury trial.

“I think he’s lucky he didn’t get slapped, never mind arrested,” Brown said.

“The problem with our justice system across our land is it’s no longer fair. It’s not fair,” Smith said after the hearing. “I’ll keep fighting this and I will win. But in the meantime, it’s just more pain on me and my family. It just holds back our healing, it’s ridiculous, our governor needs to step up and do something.”

“How the f— does a judge say I deserve to be slapped?” he added.

“Enough is enough. They need to stop attacking us. We did nothing wrong,” Smith’s wife Jessica said. “All we did was speak out because our daughter was raped at school and nobody did anything.”

Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen is prosecuting the case after Circuit Court Judge James E. Plowman disqualified Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj. n