Former Police Chief Asks Judge To Appoint Civil Lawsuit Guardian

BY DAN KEGLEY
Media General News Service

Former Chilhowie, Va., police chief Dwayne Sheffield has written a letter from prison asking a judge to appoint a guardian ad litem to represent him in a $30 million lawsuit against him and other current and former town of Chilhowie officials.

Sheffield also told Smyth County Circuit Court Judge Isaac Freeman he welcomes the civil action as “an opportunity for the factual truth ... to come to light” in a case that sent him and another police officer to jail. He also alleges two conflicts of interest on the part of the prosecutor in his criminal case.

In his June 17 letter to Freeman, Sheffield cited financial hardships, resulting from his incarceration, as motivating his request for legal representation.

Sheffield is serving a prison sentence of three years and two months on charges connected to a police department-sponsored charity haunted house in 2006 that also is at the center of the lawsuit.

Late last year Sheffield took an Alford plea to a charge of object sexual penetration in a deal to avoid prosecution on four related charges connected to the haunted house incident. The plea spared Sheffield to be prosecuted on charges of rape, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and sexual battery and child endangerment, according to court documents.

On June 6, a civil lawsuit, filed in Smyth County Circuit Court by Sarah Coalson, 18, identifies her as the victim of sexual assault at the haunted house when she was 17 by Sheffield and former Chilhowie police officer Brian Doss.

Doss is currently serving a 12-month sentence after pleading guilty to charges of felony child endangerment, which was amended from charges of abuse and neglect of a child; and sexual battery was amended to assault and battery.

“I have no income and my family and children have been forced to accept governmental assistance in order to survive,” Sheffield wrote from the Haynesville Correctional Center on Virginia’s Northern Neck.
Sheffield told Freeman that under the Code of Virginia, during his incarceration he is “considered ‘disabled’ and eligible for representation by a court appointed attorney at the expense of the plaintiff ...”

A guardian ad litem, or guardian of the suit, is an independent adviser to the court on matters pertaining to a lawsuit, rather than a legal advocate for the plaintiff or defendant.

Sheffield’s letter to Freeman opens with a denial of the lawsuit’s accusations Sheffield said were “ridiculous and fabricated” and “not only do I strongly deny the accusations, but find them very damaging. In fact, I successfully completed three polygraph examinations showing no deception, conducted by the Virginia State Police in Wytheville in November of 2006.”

A Virginia State Police spokesman said Monday the polygraph test results are exempted from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act within the Code of Virginia.

Sheffield also said in the letter a misunderstanding led to his entering the Alford plea, a legal maneuver allowing a defendant to maintain a claim of innocence while admitting the prosecution has evidence sufficient for a conviction.

He said he “only took that plea after having been threatened and misled by the prosecution. I, my children, and family now suffer daily as a result of my misinformed decision.”

DAN KEGLEY writes for the Smyth County News & Messenger.