When in doubt, manufacture a crisis.
Former Petersburg City Attorney Brian K. Telfair asked a city employee to buy a prepaid cellphone that he later used to make a phone call to himself — a call that Telfair told police was made by an unknown “redneck” caller who made racist threats to the mayor and two other city officials, according to court records.
The phony call led to the abrupt cancellation of a Petersburg City Council meeting in February 2016 after city officials received word that residents were upset about high water bills and other financial issues plaguing the city, according to court records related to Telfair’s pending misdemeanor criminal charge of lying to police about the supposed threat to city officials.
Documents in Telfair’s case file in Petersburg General District Court outline what appears to be much of the prosecution’s case against the former city attorney, who resigned in March 2016. Special prosecutor Benjamin H. Garrison provided the material to Telfair’s attorney in response to a pretrial motion for evidence against his client.
Telfair was scheduled to stand trial May 23, but the proceeding was continued on that day to Sept. 1.
The documents contain summaries of police interviews with Telfair and other city officials and employees about the events surrounding the last-minute cancellation of the City Council meeting on Feb. 16, 2016.
At the time, the city released a cryptic note about the cancellation, citing safety concerns. The next day, Telfair said that racial slurs and threats of physical violence against some members of the council and the administration prompted the cancellation.
Court documents allege that Telfair concocted the entire episode.
“Telfair stated he made the telephone call to himself that was reported to Petersburg Bureau of Police as a threatening phone call,” according to a police narrative in the court file of a Jan. 30 interview of Telfair by Virginia State Police special agents. “Mr. Telfair also stated that he made the telephone call to preserve the institution of the city.”
“While city attorney, he endured a lot of stress because the City Council members were at each other’s throats,” Telfair told investigators, according to the court file. “He was being blamed for the problem with finances even though he had nothing to do with the money and the mayor was not a leader. No person should have to go through what he went through.”
HT: Rufus