The former city manager of Martinsville has amended her lawsuit involving the locality to aim one of its claims against a city council member and law firm instead of the city itself.

Former City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides redirected one count of her lawsuit – that she was retaliated against as a whistleblower – from the city to Councilman Aaron Rawls and the law firm that previously acted as city attorney, Sands Anderson.

The city was a defendant on six counts of the eleven-count lawsuit and now is the defendant on five, whereas Rawls and Sands Anderson were on three counts and now are on four.

The latest legal filings in the litigation also show that an attorney who was representing Ferrell-Benavides and Mayor L.C. Jones alike is now just representing Jones in his lawsuit against Rawls and Sands Anderson, which he filed in June for counts including defamation and First Amendment retaliation.

Mark Krudys, the attorney who no longer represents Ferrell-Benavides, filed the amended complaint Sept. 7 to remove the city from the whistleblower matter before filing the motion to withdraw as attorney Sept. 9. Krudys did not respond to a request for comment. Jones confirmed that Krudys is still his attorney but did not respond to a further request for comment.

Verbena Askew of Newport News is still acting as Ferrell-Benavides’ attorney, and Justin Gelfand of St. Louis was added as Ferrell-Benavides’ additional attorney, replacing Krudys. Gelfand is a former federal prosecutor with experience in high-stakes litigation, according to his law firm’s website. 

Askew and Gelfand declined to comment, but Cardinal News later received an email from former council member Lawrence Mitchell, who said he was asked to respond. Mitchell said removing the city as a defendant on the whistleblower retaliation count “is a matter of legal strategy.”

Mitchell also said Krudys withdrawing as Ferrell-Benavides’ attorney was “best for both parties,” referring to Ferrell-Benavides and Jones.

The latest legal filings come as Jones seeks reelection.

Ferrell-Benavides sued the city in June for counts including discrimination, retaliation and breach of contract – the only count that the city did not file to dismiss last month. Her lawsuit is part of a thicket of litigation that’s ongoing in the city as it tries to move forward from her tenure. Ferrell-Benavides was fired by the council in August 2025, and the city released reasons for her firing in July, including questionable hiring practices, retaliation against city employees and buying Jones a hot tub using city funds. A few months after allegedly receiving a hot tub, Jones voted for Ferrell-Benavides to receive a salary increase of more than $30,000.

In Rawls’ lawsuit, a judge denied Ferrell-Benavides’ and Jones’ joint motion to consolidate depositions or discovery.

Rawls sued Ferrell-Benavides and Deputy Sheriff Reva Keen in July 2025 on counts including a violation of his First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights after Keen escorted Rawls out of a March 25, 2025, city council meeting.

Ferrell-Benavides and Jones, whom Rawls did not sue, filed a joint motion on July 28 for each witness in the three suits to only be deposed once because the three “arise from a common factual core,” with overlapping witnesses, documents and events, the motion states.

Kailani Memmer, a United States magistrate judge, denied the motions to consolidate depositions or discovery, according to Memmer’s order that she filed on Aug. 27.

“The court does not find the requested stay or consolidation of depositions outweighs Rawls’s ability to proceed his case without delay,” Memmer wrote in the order.

Rawls’ lawsuit was filed more than a year before Jones’ or Ferrell-Benavides’ suits.

In Ferrell-Benavides’ lawsuit, she filed three memorandums in opposition to the three defendants’ motions to dismiss the lawsuit in August. Rawls and Sands Anderson filed motions on Aug. 11 to dismiss the lawsuit, and the city of Martinsville filed a partial motion to dismiss, excluding Ferrell-Benavides’ claim of breach of contract.

In Jones’ lawsuit, he filed memorandums in opposition to Rawls and Sands Anderson’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.