An Open Letter to the Warren County Board of Supervisors

Re: Supervisor Henry's Conduct During and Following the August 18, 2026 Board Meeting

To my fellow members of the Board of Supervisors:

I am writing publicly because I believe this Board has an obligation to respond, and I do not believe that obligation can wait for the next regularly scheduled meeting.

On the evening of August 18, during member reports, Supervisor Hugh Henry singled out a member of the public in the audience during his board report, read aloud posts the man had made in a private Facebook group, and addressing the man directly from the dais, invited him to meet him in the parking lot after adjournment. The tone and manner left no ambiguity. It was heard as a threat. I do regret that neither myself or any of my colleagues had presence of mind to react to that situation, as it may have altered what followed the meeting, but I/we didn't. I was present and witnessed what follows.

When the Board adjourned, Warren County Sheriff's deputies escorted both Supervisor Henry and the man out of the building and to the parking lot. One deputy accompanied Supervisor Henry to his truck, two deputies accompanied the man to his vehicle. Supervisor Henry, still escorted by a deputy, then walked back toward the man standing in the vicinity of his car with the two other deputies, approximately 75 feet, and shoved him to the ground. The deputies were standing close enough to have escorted both men throughout, yet not close enough, or not positioned, to intercede before Mr. Henry shoved the man to the ground.

What I saw comports with what the Northern Virginia Daily reported: a sitting member of this Board initiated physical violence against a citizen, in a public school parking lot, following a public meeting, directly in front of law enforcement and a crowd of onlookers.

This was not an "altercation", a word that implies some rough symmetry between two participants. By every account, this was initiated by one person: a member of this Board, against a member of the public he had just named and confronted from the dais an hour before. Whatever grievance Supervisor Henry believes he had with this individual's online conduct, nothing in that grievance authorized him to put his hands on a citizen.

This Board has its own, separate obligation independent of any legal fallout from this incident. A member of this governing body used his position to identify a critic by name in a public meeting, invited him to meet him in the parking lot after adjournment, and then proceeded to assault him. That is a matter of this Board's own conduct and standards, and it does not require that any legal proceeding be underway to warrant a response from us.

It is worth asking what gave a sitting Supervisor the confidence to move from a threat made openly on the dais to acting on it in a parking lot, in full view of the public and of law enforcement, apparently untroubled by the prospect of consequences. I don't know the answer to that question. But residents are entitled to wonder about it, and I don't think this Board should pretend otherwise.

This incident should focus the county on the question of what disagreement is allowed to look like in a democracy, Warren County in particular. The freedom to criticize a public official is protected political free speech in the United States constitution. That protection does not depend on the criticism being fair, polite, or even accurate. A supervisor who is criticized, however crudely, does not get to answer with a threat from the dais and a shove in the parking lot. If this Board lets that stand without censure, we are not just failing to set a good example, we are telling every resident that criticizing this Board can carry a physical cost.

I am therefore asking the Board to do two things:

First, formally refer the matter directly to the Commonwealth's Attorney for independent review, so that the decision on whether any charge is warranted is made on the full record and not left to rest solely on whether the individual who was assaulted chooses to pursue it himself.

Second, take up a resolution of censure against Supervisor Henry that plainly and accurately describes what occurred — not as a mutual "altercation," but as an assault initiated by a sitting Supervisor against a citizen during a public meeting and followed through after the meeting. Censure does not require a criminal finding. It is this Board's own statement, to our constituents, that this is not how a member of this Board is permitted to treat the public we serve.

Respectfully,

Rich Jamieson, Ph.D.

North River District Supervisor

Warren County Board of Supervisors