Loudoun County Residents Threatened by Social Media Group With Alleged Ties to Local Officials
“Say goodbye to your job f***** [middle finger emoji].”
Loudoun County has been ground zero for the parents’ rights movement and local officials have not handled it well.
WJLA News reports:
Loudoun social media group, some allegedly tied to elected officials, threaten residents
Some Loudoun County residents were threatened, and one even lost his job, after a social media group allegedly worked to dox them after the residents spoke out at school board meetings, according to documents a whistleblower sent 7News.
“I was taken back when I received a phone call from the sheriff’s department – a deputy – saying I was being threatened online,” Loudoun County resident Mark Winn told 7News.
The online threats happened in a Facebook group called the “Loudoun Love Warriors.”
The “Loudoun Love Warriors” group includes campaign volunteers, supporters, and staff for several Loudoun County elected officials, 7News learned after investigating the group members’ ties.
The “Loudoun Love Warriors” group includes people who appear to be associated with Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj, County Supervisor Juli Briskman, School Board Chair Ian Serotkin, school board member Brenda Sheridan, school board member Atoosa Reaser, school board member Erika Ogedegbe, school board candidate Anne Donohue, sheriff candidate Craig Buckley, and Chair Phyllis Randall. None of these elected officials personally made any threats.
Some of the people in the group are even paid by the elected official’s campaigns and work in their official offices.
Loudoun County Supervisor Candidate Puja Khanna, who is running in the Dulles district, appears to have been a member of the “Loudoun Love Warriors” group when the threats happened, and it also appears school board member Ogedegbe was a member of the group before the threats took place inside the group chat.
“I unsubscribed from the group after the election and as such don’t have any knowledge of any current conversations,” Ogedegbe told 7News in an email after 7News requested an interview with Ogedegbe.
A LOOK AT THE ALLEGED THREATS
After Winn spoke at a school board meeting in December 2022, one person in the “Loudoun Love Warriors” said they wanted to find Winn’s employer and hold the company accountable until he is fired. That same person and others wrote:
- “Mark Winn. I’m gonna find his employer.”
- “And holding that company accountable until he is fired.”
- “Lets make him unemployable by love or by force.”
- “Wish I had footage of every person who clapped for him and give them the same ousting that Winn is about to.”
- “I want to contact his employer to do just that. Ruin his livelihood.”
- “Say goodbye to your job f***** [middle finger emoji].”
- “I want every single person who clapped for that ousted en masse and their livelihoods ruined:).”
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Comments
So, what’s the legal crime for getting someone fired through bullying? Is it actionable in a Right To Work state?
Alternatively, what would be the actionable civil claim?
Tortious interference is one.
Depending on the state common law, interference with contractual relations. Possibly a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Depending on whether some of the perps were employed by the board in some capacity, a civil rights claim based on state action.
I will defer to the lawyers here, but how about § 18.2-499. Combinations to injure others in their reputation, trade, business or profession; rights of employees?
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter12/section18.2-499/
In addition to any civil claims, of course.
Not to mention criminal charges for stalking and harassment.
Prove this was at the behest of government officials, and you have a First Amendment violation.
Just filing a lawsuit against these cancel culture clowns would have a beneficial impact. Hit them with interrogatories and subpoena them to testify at depositions under oath. The discovery process alone, and the mere threat of an adverse judgment from a jury that has no use for cancel culture, would go a long way toward quashing this sort of misbehavior.
Some Virginia AG attention is needed here.
“I want every single person who [belongs to said Facebook group] ousted en masse and their livelihoods ruined:).”