Conspiracy lawsuit against former Isle of Wight school board member dismissed – Smithfield Times

A federal judge has dismissed former Isle of Wight County school board member Michael Vines’ lawsuit against a prosecutor and a sheriff’s deputy.

Vines, who lost his board seat to challenger Jason Maresh in the 2022 election, filed the lawsuit last year accusing Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Deputy Kristopher Coughlin and Suffolk Commonwealth’s Deputy District Attorney Lily Wilder of “malicious abuse of process” in connection with their roles in two failed attempts to remove him from office before the elections. Specifically, Vines accused them of engaging in a “conspiracy” under the “pretense of law” by allegedly “using the ruse” of a criminal investigation to “gain an advantage in a civil proceeding.”

In 2022, more than 200 Windsor-area residents signed two separate recall petitions — one in March and the other in April — accusing Vines of making “wildly inappropriate comments at meetings and of abusive conduct” over his alleged failure to properly declare assets interest board members are required to file.

Wilder, who was appointed special prosecutor by the Isle of Wight County District Court to argue for the petition, worked with Coughlin to obtain a search warrant for Vines’ Dec. 13, 2021 economic interest affidavit, which was served on Isle of Wight County Schools on March 30, 2022 – the day after the first petition was dismissed and 16 days before Wilder was reappointed as a special prosecutor in the second case. Wilder, in an email to IWCS spokeswoman Lynn Briggs, requested a statement from Vines regarding what Wilder described as a “criminal investigation into the crime of forgery of a public document” and proposed issuing a search warrant for the uncensored version of the document after referring to “running against the clock ” when Briggs told her that state law clearly requires school departments to censor a board member’s signature and home address when releasing copies.

U.S. District Court Judge Jamar Walker, in his order dismissing Vines’ case, said Vines “appears to assert, without expressly stating it, that an illegal search occurred,” and Walker’s claim “fails because plaintiff did not have an objectively reasonable expectation of ‘privacy'” based on his economic interests by expressly stating that it was “publicly available.”

Walker also rejected Vines’ claim that he lost the 2022 election because Wilder “wasn’t concerned about the fallout from a bogus criminal investigation,” finding that Vines “had no right to a school board position.”

“It is common knowledge that public officials have no property or any recognizable rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in connection with their positions,” Walker wrote.

The arrest warrant accused Vines of “stating that he does not earn over $5,000 at work” by leaving his employment status and salary blank on the document, but after stating at a Feb. 8, 2022 meeting that he was an “IT manager” earning “over $100,000 per year.” Two dismissed motions to dismiss made the same accusation.

Although no charges have yet been filed against Vines, Walker’s order states that “there was reasonable cause to initiate an investigation.”

Coughlin, Wilder’s office, Vines or his attorney Steven Oser did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Smithfield Times.