The Hanover County Sheriff’s Office has asked a court to hear new evidence in an ongoing lawsuit to force the department to release the names and salaries of all its deputies. One of the founders of the police transparency database OpenOversightVA sued for the records in October 2023.
The Court of Appeals of Virginia initially ruled against the department in February 2025 and ordered it to fulfill the August 2023 public records request.
However, VPM News obtained Hanover Circuit Court documents that reveal the department intends to submit new evidence in support of its argument to withhold the names and salaries.
William Tunner, the department’s legal counsel, filed a May 29 brief stating his client wished to present new evidence that it should be allowed to withhold the names of deputies working undercover.
Tunner requested “a new and updated hearing to reflect the passage of time and change of circumstances.” The date of the new hearing hasn’t been scheduled, and as of Tuesday, Caddell has yet to respond to Tunner’s brief.
OpenOversightVA co-founder Alice Minium’s Virginia Freedom of Information Act request asked for “a roster of all sworn law enforcement employees on payroll with your agency as of today’s date.”
Other law enforcement agencies across the commonwealth had fulfilled similar requests from Minium, who was seeking to create a public database of Virginia officers.
However, Hanover’s sheriff’s office responded to Minium’s request with a redacted document that withheld the names of all deputies below the rank of captain, arguing that any of its deputies could be assigned to undercover operations and that revealing their identities could put law enforcement operations at risk.
Court documents show the sheriff’s department cited a VFOIA exemption which excludes undercover officers from disclosure requirements.
After the Hanover Circuit Court dismissed the case in 2024, Minium appealed. A three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals reversed the decision, finding that “by its own terms, [VFOIA] puts the interpretive thumb on the scale in favor of disclosure” and sending the case back to the circuit court.
Minium also sued the Chesterfield County Police Department after that body similarly withheld names of lower-ranking officers; her appeal of a September 2024 ruling in favor of CCPD is currently ongoing in the Virginia Court of Appeals.
The Virginia Supreme Court declined to hear Hanover’s appeal last September, finding the appeals court judgment contained “no reversible error.”
Tunner wants the circuit court to consider whether the undercover exemption “would apply to deputies who had not worked undercover in 2023, but have done so, or are doing so now.”
Since the court of appeals ruled, Hanover has provided Minium with additional documents pertaining to her initial request — but is still withholding the names of 27 officers, whose undercover statuses are unknown.
Tunner argues the court of appeals didn’t address the undercover exemption.
He added that the appeals court “did not preclude this Court from exercising what would ordinarily be its discretion to order a new trial.”
Minium’s attorney, Andrew Bodoh, submitted a brief alongside Tunner asking the court to deny Tunner’s motion and issue a judgment. He argues that a new trial would be unjust to Minium and the public.
Bodoh states that further delaying a judgment in this case places a financial burden on Minium, who “cannot draw on tax-funded resources, as the Sheriff can.”
And he argues that the court of appeals ruling found that the undercover exemption is “legally irrelevant” to Minium’s request.
“This court is duty-bound to proceed in accordance with that view, whether it is right or wrong, and that means it must deny the motion for a new trial and award judgment to Minium,” Bodoh’s brief reads. “This court has no discretion on this point.”
Disclosure: VPM News Director Elliott Robinson is on the board of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. A 2023 VPM News article about the Virginia Freedom of Information Act quotes plaintiff Alice Minium in her role as OpenOversightVA co-founder.
Robinson did not participate in the reporting, editing or production of this article. Questions about this article and VPM News’ overall editorial policy should be directed to Managing Editor Dawnthea M. Price Lisco.
