(The Center Square) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin granted an absolute pardon to a Loudoun County father who was sentenced to a trial by jury for his behavior at a school board meeting in June 2021.
Just weeks before, on May 28, 2021, Scott Smith had been called to Stone Bridge High School, where school officials notified him that his then-freshman daughter had been sexually assaulted in a bathroom by a male student wearing a skirt.
The well-attended school board meeting was held to discuss schools’ policies regarding transgender students. Smith got into an argument with another woman at the meeting, who claimed she did not believe his daughter had been assaulted.
Police officers had crowded around Smith during the altercation; as he leaned forward with a clenched fist at his side, an officer grabbed Smith’s arm. Smith attempted to free himself from the officer’s grasp and struggled as officers approached him to arrest him. He was convicted of disorderly conduct and was to be tried on appeal by a jury later this month.
Youngkin’s pardon wasn’t the first time Smith’s case captured the attention of the state. Sen. Bill Stanley of Franklin County represented Smith. On his first day in office, Youngkin issued Executive Order Number Four, authorizing Attorney General Jason Miyares to “conduct a full investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools” as a result of the case and the subsequent sexual assault the male student committed five months later, at another Loudoun County high school.
“Upon careful deliberation and review of the circumstances of the matter, I have decided it is just and appropriate to grant this absolute pardon that reflects Scott Thomas Smith’s factual innocence of Disorderly Conduct,” Youngkin wrote.
“While we did not seek a pardon from Governor Youngkin, and while we were very confident that we would have been able to prove that Scott Smith was innocent of the criminal charges placed against him if the matter had gone to trial, we are nevertheless grateful that the governor also recognized the wrong done to Scott by the judicial system, and that he has now taken this bold step of action to right that wrong by this pardon,” said Smith’s attorneys in a statement.
