The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s race intensified Sunday when incumbent and last-minute write-in candidate Tony Spencer alleged at a Lake Land’Or candidate forum that opponent John Mahoney had offered him a plum job in exchange for Spencer agreeing to “bury” an investigation into a Caroline County Sheriff’s Office sergeant.
Mahoney, however, denies that any such agreement was made and that the “deal” was no more than Spencer requesting a job once he realized that he was unlikely to win re-election.
The two men’s accounts of what occurred between them over the past five months differ on a number of points. Virtually the only point of agreement concerns a June 7 meeting between Spencer, Spencer’s wife Danielle and Mahoney at a Denny’s to discuss the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s race and potential employment for Spencer.
Both men concur that the meeting happened—but that’s about all.
“Spencer articulates this as a deal,” Mahoney told the Progress. “In my view, this was his informing me of a decision not to run and applying for a job.”
In his account, Spencer was in a tight spot, recently having been accused by local attorney Melissa Danjczek of assault after trying to wrest a DUI manual from her in the courtroom—charges he was cleared of Oct. 7—and embroiled in ongoing conflict with the CCSO.
“Mr. and Mrs. Spencer acknowledged that Tony was in trouble and that it was useless for him to run against me,” said Mahoney.
In particular, said Mahoney, Spencer was consumed by his quest to prove that CCSO Sgt. Marshall “Mac” Ellett was guilty of fabricating evidence in the case of Cooper v. Lippa, which involved a local woman, Jessica Cooper, and Caroline Sheriff Tony Lippa. That case was settled in federal court on March 30, with all charges against Lippa dropped and Cooper receiving a $185,000 settlement, but Spencer insisted he had received new information about Ellett that needed investigation.
In conversation that took place as early as May 28, said Mahoney, “I gave the opinion that there was not enough there to attempt to ruin a man’s reputation. All of this was vitriol and Tony Spencer’s anger over the Jessica Cooper lawsuit.”
Nevertheless, he said, “I told Mr. Spencer at that time that if he believed there was wrongdoing, the proper course of action would be to either report it to the State Police or a special prosecutor.”
Mahoney stated that although he told Spencer at the June 7 meeting that in order for the two men to have “a successful relationship,” Spencer “would have to take steps to rehabilitate himself in the public eye,” he never told the other man to “bury” the Ellett allegations.
Spencer disputes this account wholeheartedly, frankly telling the Progress, “He is lying.”
“Mr. Mahoney said that it is a part of our deal that you bury that,” videotaped footage records Spencer telling the audience at Sunday’s candidate forum. “You do not go to anyone and report about that wrongdoing by Sgt. Marshall M. Ellett. And I agreed to it. I sold my soul.”
Mahoney, Spencer told the Progress, in fact engaged in “willful blindness,” telling Spencer that he did not want to see the evidence related to Ellett’s alleged wrongdoing.
The Denny’s exchange, said Spencer, was heated, and the outcome did not sit well with him. He accepted the “deal,” he said, because it would allow him more time to spend with his family.
For the next three weeks, he said, “I struggled with my conscience.” On June 29 he contacted the Ethics Counsel of the Virginia State Bar Association, which directed him to disclose his information to the defendants in every case since December 2010 in which Ellett was a witness.
On July 9, Spencer said that he informed Mahoney that he had contacted the state bar association, and that Mahoney responded, “That’s where you made your mistake.”
Mahoney, said Spencer, never explicitly told him that the deal was off, but “it could not have been clearer.”
For his part, Mahoney told the Progress, “I never withdrew the offer, and he never spoke to me about it.”
In August, Spencer released a 43-page letter to attorneys and news outlets in the region containing a new volley of allegations against Ellett.
Mahoney told the Progress that prior to the release of the letter, Spencer telephoned him to inform him he intended to report the allegations and asked if Mahoney planned to tell him not to do so. Mahoney said that he replied, “Absolutely not” and told Spencer that if he believed there had been wrongdoing, he should take appropriate action.
“That’s all fabrication,” said Spencer when asked about the exchange. “We did not have that conversation.”
Spencer characterized himself as consumed with his special prosecutor assignment in the James Kessler–Claudine Gifford murder trial throughout the summer, and then the Ellett allegations, and said that he did not consider a reelection bid until late September. He announced his candidacy Oct. 26.
Mahoney, speaking to the Progress Nov. 2, seemed clearly angry at the turn of events, stating, “It is extremely interesting and troubling to me to wait until 48 hours before the election to start skewing his misrepresentations of the truth.”
When asked if he would have campaigned differently had he known Spencer intended to throw his hat in the ring, Mahoney replied that he “absolutely would” and likely would not have closed his private practice and purchased a house in Caroline.
Furthermore, he said, “I reserved many opportunities to point out the truth about Mr. Spencer’s tenure, particularly during the past four years.”
When pressed for examples, Mahoney pointed to Spencer’s “behavior in the courtroom, his contemptuous attitude toward his judges, his disrespect toward personnel” and “his broken-down relationship not just with the sheriff but with the rank-and-file deputies.”
The tensions between the two men were heightened by the candidates’ forum at Lake Land’Or Sunday, which Mahoney said he was not invited to.
Organizer Nichole Wolter, however, said that Mahoney wasn’t targeted in any way, and that not all candidates were personally invited because of time constraints. Spencer forwarded a message to the Progress from just after midnight before the event in which he asked Wolter about Mahoney’s attendance.
Wolter in fact appeared bewildered by the flood of controversy generated in the wake of the forum.
“I just figured it would be a nice thing for the residents to have their questions answered,” she said.
-CP Reporter Sarah Vogelsong
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