After a story published Sunday by Just The News accusing Lynchburg Mayor Stephanie Reed of bullying constituents whom she believes have wronged her, well as employing the same tactics against members of the Lynchburg City Council, The Virginia Star has received similar allegations from more Lynchburg residents.
Just The News reported that last November, Reed attempted to have Jacob Landrun, the son of Lynchburg GOP chair Veronica Bratton, fired from his job at Americans for Prosperity (AFP) for posting a meme to his personal Facebook page that was critical of her.
Jordan Bruckner, Reed’s former campaign manager and consultant confirmed that report, and said he was the person that stepped in on Landrun’s behalf to ensure that Landrun was not fired.
Three months prior to the Landrun incident, in August of 2023, three Lynchburg residents were invited by Reed to a meeting after Reed learned that they were speaking negatively about her, according to emails provided to The Star but a third-party source.
The three men whose presence the Mayor requested were Bill Hawkins, the Chairman of the Conservative Breakfast Club in Lynchburg, Gary Woodson, and Peter Cefaratti. The men regularly meet at their club and discuss religion and local politics.
During the meeting with the Mayor, to which Reed invited City Attorney Matt Freedman, the men recall being lectured about religion by the Mayor.
According to the three, Reed arrived with Freedman and without explanation for the purpose of the meeting said, “God has placed me in this position as Mayor” and that it was God’s will that she won the election. They say Reed continued in this vein for 20-30 minutes. She had a Bible with her, placed at the head of the table where she sat.
“It was like she was claiming the Divine Right of Kings,” Hawkins said.
The men claim that Reed demanded to know who her other critics were within the club, but that they remained tight-lipped.
As part of a wide-ranging interview with The Star on Monday evening, Reed did not deny saying these things. She did say there was more context to the story.
She said “there was a Christian element to the meeting.”
“I think I had my Bible there so we could reference scripture if necessary,” she said, further explaining that it was to help “talk about our obligations to each other.”
“But it wasn’t like an ‘I am being ordained by the Lord’ thing or anything ridiculous like that,” Reed said. “It was a humble conversation on my behalf.”
“We’re all Christians,” Reed said. “If you all have a problem with me, tell me here. What I’m hearing is that y’all have a problem with me and you’re going outside and talking about me to other people, which we’re not supposed to be doing, so let’s hash it out here.”
In early November, the men became spooked that Freedman may have audio recorded the meeting.
On November 30, Woodson sent an email to Freedman asking him if the meeting had been recorded.
Woodson also asked if Freedman normally accompanied Reed to private meetings.
That email drew an angry response from Freedman, who called it “ridiculous nonsense.”
“Mr. Woodson what is this?!” Freedman asked. “You introduce and represent yourself to me as to having a connection with Bluefield and Southwest Virginia (which if you are from Southwest Virginia, you know that makes us like family). You ask me questions regarding parliamentary procedure (which of course I’m happy to answer). Now, you’re questioning whether I secretly recorded a meeting with you, other citizens, and the Mayor?!”
“Come on Mr. Woodson,” he said. “Of course, I didn’t record it! In fact, I recall the Mayor saying in the meeting she didn’t want the meeting recorded! And yes, if the Mayor (or any other Councilmember for that matter) wants me present for a conversation/matter concerning their actions in their official capacities, concerns of citizens, or business of the City, then I will attend.”
“Mr. Woodson, I don’t know Mr. Hawkins or Mr. Cefaratti ‘from Adam’ as they say, but if you’re from Southwest Virginia, I expect better,” said Freedman. “Moving forward, don’t reach out to me with ridiculous nonsense please.”
“I’m Cc’ing City Council and the other appointees so they can see this response and your question,” Freedman finished.
Hawkins was CC’d on the email thread and responded to Freedman.
“I was shocked by your response to Mr. Woodson’s question, which I thought was a legitimate question in light of what has been happening in city government lately. Mr. Woodson CC’d me on the email which seems to have offended you,” Hawkins said. “Personally, as I said in the meeting, I didn’t care if it was recorded or not. However, from the email it is safe to say that it was a concern of Mr. Woodson’s and so he asked a simple question concerning that issue. He also asked if it was normal for you to sit in on a private meeting. I see nothing wrong with that question either. Since you responded so disrespectful to Mr. Woodson, and since you forwarded it on to city council, I feel I need to reply to those you have involved so everyone knows the facts.”
The facts, as stated by Hawkins, were that the Mayor accused his club of speaking negatively of Reed. He said that he certainly had not, and had not known of anyone speaking negatively of her. Hawkins surmised that a third party must have told Reed that people were speaking ill of her, but that he couldn’t control what anyone said about anything.
“I don’t believe in political censorship, so I am not sure what she wanted me to do, which I made her aware of and she agreed there was really nothing I could do,” Hawkins’ email said.
Reed told The Star that this email chain was “vaguely familiar” to her and that she might have been copied on it. She was indeed copied on it, as Freedman himself assured Hawkins, Woodson and Cefaratti in his email response to Woodson’s initial question.
She said that attorney-client privilege precluded her from saying anything else, despite the fact that the email chain included members of the public.
“I’m not sure how that works,” Reed later said regarding the attorney-client privilege.
Also in August of 2023, Reed is alleged to have threatened another resident of Lynchburg, Curt Deimer, with a libel lawsuit after he criticized her by claiming that she had not provided enough support to Lynchburg Registrar Dan Pence.
“I can see the lies you…spread about me…I owe no explanation to you,” Reed allegedly said in an email to Deimer, according to The Star’s source. “Spreading rumors is a vicious thing to do…. I think the legal term for lying about a person in writing is libel? Have a great day.”
Asked about this exchange, Reed tacitly acknowledged that she did make such a threat, but did not comment further on who she made the threat to.
Deimer had a prior run-in with Reed at a City Council Meeting where she threatened to have him thrown out for shaking his head at her. Reed would only speak off the record about this specific incident.
Woodson had another apparent run-in with Reed in June of this year.
Reed apparently walked out of a Sunday church service with her husband when Rep. Bob Good (R-VA-05) was invited to speak. Reed had endorsed his primary opponent, State Senator John McGuire (R-District 10) who later won that primary election.
After Woodson mentioned that incident to a friend, he received a sharp text from Reed.
“Gary- this is Stephanie Reed I am hearing you are AGAIN spreading gossip that Dale and I walked out of church in response to something Jonathan said last week at church,” the text said. “Did we tell you that we did that? Or did people assume that since we walked down the aisle at church. QUIT GOSSIPING!!! Shame on YOU !!!– DON’T YOU DARE QUOITE [sic] SCRIPTURE one more time out of THE SAME mouth YOU SLANDER ME WITH!!!!”
This information is surfacing, or resurfacing according to Reed, amidst what has been billed as an attempt to intimidate fellow members of the City Council with the help of Freedman.
Two members of the City Council, Jeff Helgeson and Martin Misjuns, called a July 3 meeting of the Council to discuss an ongoing saga between Reed, the City Attorney Matthew Freedman, and former City Council candidate Peter Alexander.
Alexander sued Vice Mayor Chris Faraldi after a contentious primary that Alexander lost. The suit claimed that 125 absentee ballots weren’t counted, which could have impacted the outcome of the election.
Freedman reportedly sent a memo to the City Council by email discussing representation of Faraldi, and said that the email was subject to attorney-client privilege, and that anyone on the Council who mentioned it was liable to be censured. The city attorney cannot represent political candidates, so the memo struck Hegelson and Misjuns as odd.
The City Council says it is defending a member of the Council, not a political candidate.
“It’s pretty clear that the city attorney and the mayor are trying to use attorney-client privilege to shield some deception about what they were attempting to do, getting the city involved where it’s not supposed to,” Misjuns reportedly said. He said it was “cronyism, trying to use the city’s legal resources to represent a political candidate.”
The July 3 City Council meeting never officially occurred due to lack of quorum, but Reed, Hegelson and Misjuns found themselves together in the City Council chamber.
After the adjournment of the gathering, Hegelson and Misjuns held a press conference in an attempt to tell the story of Reed, Freedman and Faraldi.
In response, Reed had a very public fit, captured on video by a local news station.
She said that the press conference was not legal, and demanded that police officers escort everyone out of the chamber. She also demanded that the press leave.
“You did not request this press conference. You did not reserve the chamber for a press conference. You did not go through the clerk of council that you’re supposed to,” she said during the kerfuffle. “You need to go outside the chamber right now.”
She later took it upon herself to apologize to Lynchburg residents on behalf of Misjuns, Hegelson and the rest of the City Council.
“I’m so sorry to our citizens. I don’t know what to do about this division. It is embarrassing to our city. I apologize for all of our city employees that are embarrassed to even be affiliated with this. I’m sorry to our citizens that are embarrassed,” said Mayor Reed.
Hegelson told Just The News that the event “was embarrassing – embarrassing for her, embarrassing for the city,” and that Reed was “trying to shut down the press, and trying to tell duly-elected council members they can’t have the press conference.”
“She thought she could call for officers to kick the press out and prevent us from speaking to the press – a violation of the right to the First Amendment,” he said, adding that the Council normally speaks to the press after meetings.
Reed told The Star that press conferences inside the Chamber are normally reserved for emergencies, and that the public would become “numb” if press conferences were held there after every Council meeting, this making them less likely to listen to important emergency press conferences.
She also said Misjuns and Hegelson hadn’t reserved the Chamber for a press conference.
She also explained this at the following City Council meeting on July 9.
After the July 9 meeting, Peter Cefaratti accused Reed of intimidating his wife Cora, who he says Reed singled out because she shook her head as Reed spoke.
“It was inappropriate for her to call out my wife and embarrass her like that, we don’t lose our first amendment rights to peacefully express our opinions to the government,” Cefaratti told The Star’s source.
Reed did acknowledge that she singled Cora Cefaratti out, but that she did not mean to intimidate her.
“So, she was shaking her head and I was emphasizing emergencies, she was shaking her head, so I said, ‘Cora, emergencies,'” Reed told The Star. “Because I know her, I know Cora, I know all these people that were sitting there. So I said, ‘Cora emergencies,’ and I said her name. I was just emphasizing. I didn’t call anyone to come get her, I didn’t say kick her out. It’s ridiculous.”
Tuesday afternoon, there will be a City Council meeting during which Freedman will decide whether Hegelson and Misjuns should be censured over sharing his memo regarding his potential representation of Faraldi.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
Photo “Lynchburg Mayor Stephanie Reed” by Stephanie Reed.
