Portsmouth paying Louise Lucas $300,000 to settle Confederate monument protest lawsuit

A $6.75 million lawsuit filed by State Sen. Louise Lucas against former Portsmouth police chief Angela Greene and Sgt. Kevin McGee was settled last month.

Portsmouth will pay Lucas $300,000 to release the defendants and the city from future liability, according to Burle Stromberg, the interim city attorney. The suit was settled in mediation Dec. 23, according to court documents.

Lucas, a longtime Democratic state senator representing the 18th District, said she was pleased with the settlement and plans to donate the money. The funds likely will come out of the city’s risk management fund, Stromberg said

“I also understand that any settlement from a locality impacts their ability to fund critical programs in our community,” Lucas said in a statement Friday. “That’s why I am pledging that I will be donating the entirety of what I receive in the settlement to the charitable efforts in our community I have been involved with for so many years.”

The lawsuit stems from a protest at Portsmouth’s Confederate monument in June 2020, when the structure was vandalized and a man seriously injured. Two months later, Greene announced felony criminal charges against Lucas and 18 others, including NAACP leaders, public defenders and a Portsmouth School Board member.

A judge later dismissed all charges in the case. Greene was fired the same day.

Lucas served Greene and McGee, the police officer who filed charges against her, with the suit in November 2021, alleging malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and gross negligence. It also accused Greene of defamation.

Ali Sullivan, 757-677-1974, ali.sullivan@virginiamedia.com