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WOMAN, POLICE REACH SETTLEMENT IN LAWSUIT

Date: May 12, 2007 Section: CURRENT Page: NRV7
By: Shawna Morrison Roanoke Times

CHRISTIANSBURG A $40 million lawsuit against the town and members of its police department has been settled, though its terms are guarded by a confidentiality order.

Wendy Diane Hall Covington and her young son filed a civil suit in October, claiming that what began as spousal abuse became an abuse of power when a police officer who was involved with Covington's estranged husband intervened in a 2004 domestic dispute. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Covington claimed she was charged with abuse by Christiansburg officer Pam Semones even though Covington said her husband, Gary Covington, was the abuser; that Semones intercepted court paperwork when Wendy Covington tried to get a protective order against her husband; and that Semones placed Covington's son and her stepson with her estranged husband without a court directive.

The parties named in the suit -- Semones, former Christiansburg Police Chief Gary Brumfield and the town -- later filed motions to dismiss the suit. The suit also named unknown police supervisors.

Covington's attorneys, John Fishwick and Monica Mroz, released a statement Friday saying only that the case was settled after a Wednesday mediation session with U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski.

"It is a highly confidential resolution," Town Manager Lance Terpenny said. The parties involved were ordered not to discuss the terms of the agreement, he said.

Through a spokesman, the Christiansburg Police Department declined to comment. Police did confirm that Semones is no longer a town employee, though they did not say when her employment ended.

According to a brief report filed in court Thursday, the parties have settled the matter upon "mutually agreeable terms."

When the lawsuit was filed, Wendy Covington requested that a jury hear the case.

Covington alleged in the suit that the problems began Oct. 12, 2004, when Gary Covington beat her as she held her 22-month-old son in her arms.

When she called police, Gary Covington admitted to the beating and was arrested, according to Wendy Covington's suit.

Semones later arrived on scene and demanded that she be given control of the investigation, the suit alleged.

At a January hearing, Semones' attorney argued that she should be immune to a civil suit because the alleged events took place while she was acting as an officer.

Immunity doesn't apply, however, if a person's constitutional rights have been violated, which is what Fishwick argued on Covington's behalf.

Covington said she complained repeatedly to the police department about Semones' behavior but did not receive what she believed to be an adequate response.

Fishwick also said the town failed to discipline Semones in 1999 when it was discovered that she had married magistrate Terry Early and continued to apply for warrants from him.

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