Text exchange between Hopewell mayor, sheriff suggests serving GoFundMe suit at meeting
HOPEWELL – The city’s mayor is suggesting that Ward 7 Councilor Dominic Holloway, who has yet to be served with papers suing him for mismanagement of a GoFundMe account he started for the family of a murdered Hopewell child, be handed those papers by the sheriff's department possibly during the next council meeting.
In a text conversation with Sheriff Travis Stanley – a copy of which was obtained by The Progress-Index – Mayor Johnny Partin Jr. said he would “welcome” the papers being served on him at the meeting Tuesday night. In the conversation, Partin tells Stanley that he was “sorry y’all have to deal with his foolishness” and added that Holloway spends several hours every day on the second floor of the Municipal Building in council’s designated office space.
Last June, Brionna Taylor, the mother of 8-year-old P’Aris Mi-Unique Moore who was shot to death Dec. 30, 2022, in Hopewell, sued Holloway for $5,600. She claims Holloway took that money to pay child support he owed. Taylor has made two attempts to serve the warrant on Holloway but in both instances, Holloway’s home address was incorrectly identified and the papers not served.
In Virginia, it is the responsibility of the plaintiff to make sure the service address is correct. The first warrant had Holloway’s service address as 209 E. Cawson St., which is the Appomattox Regional Library’s downtown Hopewell branch. The second address was 3900 Oaklawn Blvd. but that address does not exist.
Holloway’s address of record with the city is 3400 Oaklawn Blvd.
The case was set to be heard Aug. 2 in Hopewell General District Court. However, since the warrant had not been placed in Holloway’s hands, neither Holloway nor his attorney showed up. General District Judge Peter Eliades then ordered the suit continued to Sept. 6. After that ruling, Taylor obtained the correct address.
In the text exchange from Aug. 2, Stanley tells Partin he has previously served Holloway papers “so I know he can be found.” Normally, the sheriff said, his department tries to serve papers to city leaders or department heads “discreetly to avoid any embarrassment.”
“But if he is playing games, we would forgo that discretion and publicly humiliate him before I’ll let my deputies be thrown under the bus,” Stanley wrote.
Partin originally suggested service any weekday at the Municipal Building.
"It is easy to find him in the city clerk's office every day," Partin told Stanley in the text. "He spends at least 4-5 hours on the 2nd floor between the clerk's office and [city] manager's office. I hope this helps."
After Stanley's comments about playing games, Partin responded, “I was going to say you can serve on August 8th if you’d like to. We have a City Council meeting.”
As of Friday afternoon, there was no record of the warrant’s successful service.
He concluded the exchange with, “If [Holloway] keeps trying to avoid y’all and embarrass your deputies, bring it to a City Council meeting. I welcome it.”
Both Partin and Stanley verified the authenticity of the text exchange to The Progress-Index.
Partin said he recommended serving the papers at the Aug. 8 meeting because "the family needs closure, and this issue needs to be resolved as quickly as possible."
"After learning about the continuance that was given and being told that the deputies were having a hard time serving Councilor Holloway, I reached out to Sheriff Stanley," the mayor said. "I told Sheriff Stanley that Councilor Holloway is normally in the City Clerk's Office and City Manager's Office for approximately 4-5 hours a day from what I am told. If your deputies are unable to serve them, then I welcome you and your deputies to our City Council meeting on Aug 8.".
Holloway has repeatedly turned down offers to comment on the lawsuit.
The City Council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Councilors will convene at 6 p.m. to go into closed session, followed by a 7 p.m. work session preceding the regular meeting's start.
Even if Holloway had appeared in court last week, it was likely that the case still would have been continued. Eliades said he and his four Sixth Judicial District colleagues are recusing themselves because Hopewell City Council provides a portion of the court’s funding. The Supreme Court of Virginia would have to appoint a judge from outside the district to hear it.
The GoFundMe lawsuit is not the only legal issue for Holloway.
A Chester woman is suing him for $4,000 plus attorney fees and court costs over a disputed loan. Britney McDaniel claimed Holloway and his wife approached them for the money last December so he could close out election fines he aggregated during his 2022 councilmanic run. Holloway allegedly maintains that the money McDaniel gave him was a gift, not a loan.
McDaniel’s warrant also had “3900 Oaklawn Blvd.” as Holloway’s service address. She told The Progress-Index last week she planned to reissue the warrant with the correct address.
A hearing on that case is set for Aug. 16, also in Hopewell General District Court.
More: Hopewell council approves $988,000 contract with Robert Bobb Group
More: Working 'fun for me': 93-year-old AdvanSix engineer Bill Salot still going after 70 years
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell officials discuss GoFundMe lawsuit service on councilor
