A back-and-forth of protective orders between Lynchburg City Council member Marty Misjuns and a vocal critic will reach a head on Tuesday, following a chain of threat accusations and temporary removal of Misjuns’ right to carry a gun.
Over the past year, Lynchburg City Council has been embroiled in a series of controversies involving infighting between two factions among the Republican majority that led to the council voting 5-2 in November to censure Misjuns for “disorderly behavior and misconduct,” a censure he’s since appealed to court.
Gary Taylor has been a regular commenter at those council meetings, delivering scathing criticisms of Misjuns and other prominent Republicans in and around the Hill City.
Religiously charged threats on social media — previously anonymized but confirmed through court documents to have been penned by Taylor — have made the rounds through a Lynchburg Republican City Committee news release and discussion at meetings by Misjuns. In them, Taylor said he is “glad to execute all Moral (immoral) majority members!” and “I am fine with executing racist[s]!”
While a special prosecutor declined to press charges against Taylor after a police investigation into those threats, Misjuns and committee chair Veronica Bratton obtained protective orders against Taylor in mid-December. Those protective orders prohibiting Taylor from contacting them within a 100-yard perimeter and have set off a line of legal dominoes.
Misjuns and Bratton both accused Taylor of violating the protective orders at the end of December by mentioning them on social media, “followed by threats of violence,” according to court documents, and through attendance at a conservative breakfast meeting.
There, on the morning of Dec. 27, Taylor said he had showed up for some politics and pancakes when he saw Misjuns walk into the Lynchburg IHOP. Claiming that he’s a regular of the weekly meeting and Misjuns isn’t, Taylor said the other man sat right in front of him despite plenty of other seats on the other side of the restaurant.
Misjuns said in court filings that he texted the leader of the meeting about the conflict over the protective order, and Taylor left after being approached by the leader. But since that exit occurred about 15 minutes after his arrival and not immediately, Misjuns contended it constituted a violation of the protective order.
For his part, Taylor claimed in his testimony that the encounter was a set-up and a show of “non-verbal harassment” intended to silence his political activism either through criminal charges related to the protective order or bodily harm, since Misjuns “carries a weapon with him at all times.”
In turn, he obtained a preliminary protective order on Jan. 19 against Misjuns in Bedford County, where Taylor lives. The order temporarily required Misjuns to surrender his concealed carry permit and forbade him from transporting any firearms, but it expired Thursday when General District Judge Randy Krantz concluded that Taylor didn’t have grounds to make the order permanent.
“I think I have reason to believe I fear for my life,” Taylor said in making his case.
He used the same reasoning from the IHOP encounter in requesting to dissolve or modify Misjuns’ protective order against him in Lynchburg. That request, along with his alleged violations of the orders against Misjuns and Bratton, will be heard in Lynchburg court on Tuesday. In listening to Taylor’s claims of entrapment, the Bedford judge commented that a protective order is “a shield, not a sword” and “is not for a gotcha moment.”
Misjuns has declined comment on the matter.
As part of separate proceedings, Jan. 31 marked the due date for Misjuns’ fine to the city council following his censure for bad behavior. His appeal of the censure in Lynchburg Circuit Court met with a response from the city in late December calling for the case to be dismissed. Court records indicate no hearing has been held — among the city’s claims is one that the venue is improper for the appeal — and it’s unclear where the fine stands.