Martinsville’s mayor and its former city manager each filed a federal lawsuit on Monday — the manager’s related to her firing last year, and the mayor’s centering on his removal from office for part of this year.
Aretha Ferrell-Benavides, whom the city council fired in August 2025, filed a long-promised suit against the city, alleging discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation. She also made allegations, including defamation by city council member Aaron Rawls and Sands Anderson — the law firm acting as Martinsville’s city attorney — in a case filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
In a separate lawsuit filed in Roanoke the same day, Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones alleges that Rawls and Sands Anderson defamed him. Jones was suspended from office in February after a city resident filed a recall petition in Martinsville Circuit Court, but a judge lifted the suspension and later dismissed the petition, ruling that it didn’t have the required number of signatures.
Both suits allege that Sands Anderson, whose fees both Ferrell-Benavides and Jones had questioned, made accusations that led to her firing and his suspension. The firm’s report to the city council in July 2025, the day after the council voted to give Ferrell-Benavides a raise, went against Virginia Department of Risk Management advice, which was to bring in outside counsel for such an investigation, her case states.
“The Firm’s conduct is central to the story, and its motive was self-interest,” Ferrell-Benavides’ lawsuit reads. She claims in the suit that the city has not paid her about $220,000 in severance that her contract required nor has it provided a copy of the Sands Anderson report. That report has yet to be made public, other than an almost completely redacted version.
A voicemail left for Sands Anderson attorney Stephen Durbin was not returned on Wednesday. Martinsville City Manager Rob Fincher declined to comment. Rawls, reached via his Facebook account, wrote that he had not yet read the lawsuits and blamed Jones and Ferrell-Benavides for their own troubles.
“I strongly believe the healthiest outcome for Martinsville is to see this through to trial,” Rawls wrote.
Ferrell-Benavides, put on administrative leave on July 24, 2025, was fired the next month. She had filed a complaint earlier in July with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defending her performance and charging discrimination. On March 18, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division notified Ferrell-Benavides of her right to sue.
A forensic audit conducted by Roanoke-based Brown Edwards, released to the city after Ferrell-Benavides’ firing, examined credit card purchases from Ferrell-Benavides and city employees, along with the city’s budget amendment process and hiring practices.
The audit found that the city manager logged more than $15,000 on a city-issued credit card, for which Brown Edwards could find no business purpose. Charges covered expenses ranging from hotel rooms to Uber rides. The audit says it shows “inadequate or non-existent internal controls as there are transactions that are in direct violation of the City’s purchasing card policy,” but the lack of paper trails does not prove fraud or abuse, it reported.
Fincher has said that the audit led to multiple city policy changes related to credit card use, the budget amendment process and hiring practices. A state police investigation continues.
Ferrell-Benavides’ suit alleges retaliation by Rawls and the city against her for using her First Amendment right; reputational harm, Virginia Human Rights Act discrimination and retaliation, whistleblower retaliation and breach of contract by the city; contract interference by Sands Anderson; and intentional infliction of emotional distress by Rawls.
She seeks compensatory and punitive damages, reinstatement, a hearing to clear her name and “reasonable” attorneys’ fees and costs.
Jones’ case alleges a civil rights violation of equal protection by Rawls and Sands Anderson and a civil rights violation of First Amendment retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress by Rawls. He is suing for personal injuries.
His suit states that Rawls carried the law firm’s false accusations “into the public arena.” Ferrell-Benavides claims that Rawls and Sands Anderson worked together against her.
