Style Weekly
Henrico Cop: Prosecutor Hatched Plot to Fire Him
by Chris DoviA former Henrico County Division of Police narcotics investigator, disgraced and relegated to clerking in the records room, is suing the county for $1.6 million and his job back.
William G. “Trip” Hueston III charges in his lawsuit that Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Wade Kizer maliciously targeted him, a once-highly decorated police officer, and colluded with the department's police chief, Henry Stanley, to conduct multiple investigations and manufacture cause for Hueston's dismissal.
He filed the suit in Hanover County Circuit Court, where motions in the case are scheduled to be heard May 5.
What sounds like far-fetched conspiracy theories are far more than that, according to Hueston's lawyer, Ed Nuttle, whose court filing details allegations of an ongoing assault by Kizer on Hueston's credibility and employment.
“The complaint is very thorough,” says Nuttle, a former prosecutor in Northern Virginia. “Normally complaints aren't that fact-driven, but this case is so unbelievable that we felt it important to get it all in there.”
He says the evidence in the case — including a May 2005 letter from Kizer and evidence related to a polygraph Hueston and others were compelled to take — is damning.
Kizer was out of town at a conference and unavailable for comment. A lawyer for Stanley maintains that an expired statute of limitations, among other things, protects his client. Filings by Kizer's lawyer similarly seek to dismiss the case.
Hueston's complaints stem from the 2005 drug-related arrest of Curtis Armstead, and Hueston's subsequent disagreement with the commonwealth's attorney's office about whether to charge Armstead with a misdemeanor or a felony. In the end, Kizer accused Hueston of obstructing a grand jury. Three subsequent police investigations found no evidence that Hueston acted improperly, but Kizer steadfastly continues to refuse to prosecute any case in which Hueston is a police witness.
“Kizer and Stanley came to the unlawful mutual understanding that Hueston should be punished or otherwise harmed in his reputation and profession,” Hueston's lawsuit alleges.
Since falling under the dark cloud of Kizer's office, Nuttle says, Hueston has been fired, rehired, reassigned and ordered not to wear his uniform outside of police headquarters where he works.
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