PETERSBURG, Va. -- Back in February, former Petersburg City Attorney, Brian Telfair was charged with filing a false police report.
Court documents stated Telfair told investigators he had received a racist threat over the phone on February 16, 2016 and a decision was made to cancel the City Council meeting that evening for safety reasons.
But upon further investigation, detectives obtained surveillance video for that same day, showing the Clerk of Council Nykesha Jackson purchasing a pre-paid cell phone, or burner phone inside a Family Dollar.
Jackson later stated that Telfair gave her money to buy the phone, according to the documents.
The cancelled meeting was expected to draw dozens of citizens concerned with the way Petersburg leaders were running the city and spending tax dollars. Many of those voters were upset over their water bills being delayed in delivery.
The court documents also reveal that Jackson received an email from then Mayor Howard Myers around 12:45 p.m. that day, telling her to send an announcement that the City Council meeting was cancelled that night.
But, detectives said Myers’ email was sent 17 minutes before Telfair claimed he had received the threatening phone call.
Brian Telfair in Feb. 2016
Court papers also showed that Telfair was shown a copy of the investigative report and it stated Telfair made the threatening call to himself that was reported to Petersburg Police, and he said he made the call to preserve the institution of the City.
CBS 6 reached out to Howard Myers and Nykesha Jackson regarding the documents. Both declined to comment. Myers said he may be a witness in the case.
We also reached out to Brian Telfair. He referred us to his attorneys, who said in a statement:
It seems as though Mr. Telfair has been targeted because of the knowledge he possesses surrounding some of the malfeasance in the city of Petersburg government over the course of his tenure there.
There is an effort to discredit and dismiss him as well as his previously voiced concerns about what was happening in Petersburg.
The ‘revelation’ from the court files curiously appears in the weeks leading up to one of his court appearances.
We trust that the local news media will make an effort to shed light upon the fact that the court file in question contains only allegations against Mr. Telfair and not any response from him or other exculpatory evidence.
Mr. Telfair certainly looks forward to his day in court... both for this allegation and for the action he is contemplating taking against those officials who have misrepresented the facts and circumstances in an effort to defame him and otherwise cause significant injury to his reputation within the community.
Telfair is due back in court on September 1.
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