A memorandum filed in a federal lawsuit on behalf of Martinsville sheriff’s Deputy Reva Keen claims she was signaled to remove Councilman Aaron Rawls from a March 25 city council meeting.
“Seeing that Plaintiff was not heeding Mayor [L.C.] Jones’ requests to fall in order, and receiving non-verbal signals from both the City Manager and Mayor indicating Plaintiff should be removed, Defendant Keen used her discretion and experience to approach Plaintiff and instructed him to leave the meeting,” reads part of the memorandum filed July 15 in federal court in Danville.
Keen is a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rawls in early June.
Her response contradicts statements made by City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides, who is also named in the suit, that she did not signal for Keen to remove Rawls.
“The evidence outlined above demonstrates that Defendant Keen was fulfilling this important governmental function when she escorted Plaintiff from the meeting after being signaled by Mayor Jones and City Manager Ferrell-Benavides to do so,” the memo reads.
Rawls’ complaint claims that “Keen did not act alone” but “acted pursuant to instructions from Ferrell-Benavides, who can be seen in a video of the March 25 Meeting giving Keen non-verbal signals for her to accost Rawls.”
The city manager’s response to the suit denies the allegation. Jones has also said he gave no signal to have Rawls removed.
Keen’s memorandum came after the June 27 deadline for Keen to respond to Rawls’ lawsuit. Both the memo and a request for an extension to file are in response to an entry of default that was filed July 1.
Ferrell-Benavides filed her response on June 27.
Keen’s request for an extension goes into detail about why she missed the deadline. It says she followed instructions from a superior acting on her behalf, and says she did not learn about the entry of default until days later.
“Defendant Keen was not at work from July 3, 2025, through July 7, 2025, for the Independence Day holiday,” it reads. “When Defendant Keen returned to work on July 8, 2025, she discovered a Clerk’s Entry of Default in her mailbox, though she did not know when it had been delivered.”
