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BY PORTSIA SMITH
Caroline High School's football team lost most of its games this year, but head football coach Ben Boyd scored a personal victory in court yesterday when two felony charges he faced were dropped.
Boyd, 53, had been charged with forging a public document involving his employment application to Caroline County Public Schools. More specifically, he was accused of not disclosing a 1991 federal misdemeanor conviction for misbranding and illegally dispensing anabolic steroids.
But Judge Horace A. Revercomb III ruled during yesterday's pretrial hearing that he would not allow evidence of prior employment applications submitted by Boyd. The decision reversed an earlier decision the judge made, allowing them as evidence.
Without those applications, Commonwealth's Attorney Tony Spencer said, he didn't think he could get a conviction from a jury. He nolle prossed the charges, meaning they would be dropped.
"Mr. Boyd lied outright about his convictions on his 1997 application to Greensville County schools and again in his 1999 application to Gloucester County schools. When his attempts to conceal the truth were revealed in a 2006 newspaper article, Mr. Boyd realized that he had to lie in a more nuanced way, which is what he did in his application to Caroline County Public Schools," Spencer said. "Based on Judge Revercomb's evidentiary ruling, however, I cannot prove that Mr. Boyd lied intentionally on his 2009 application to Caroline Public Schools."
The hearing included motions from defense attorney Morgan Griffith that Revercomb recuse himself from the case because of his professional relationship with Caroline Sheriff Tony Lippa.
Griffith argued that Lippa had a personal motivation to bring these charges because his son-in-law was one of the 24 persons who applied for the coaching position. Since Lippa's office provides security for the judge, it could create an appearance of partiality.
Griffith alleged that Lippa made comments to the school superintendent that "he wouldn't want his grandbaby to have to move out of town because his son-in-law didn't get the job." Lippa denies making that statement.
He also alleged that Lippa contacted the State Board of Education to have Boyd's teaching license revoked. No action was taken on that matter, Griffith said.
"I fear in this case that because the sheriff has been so intensely involved in this matter," Griffith said, "this is a personal matter for the sheriff It's his [Lippa's] family. It's his son-in-law. It's his grandbaby. And I believe that makes it difficult for you to be impartial."
Spencer argued that Lippa's actions, whether true or not, didn't matter in this case.
"This case was never about Sheriff Lippa. This case is about Ben Boyd," Spencer said. "The only issues that matter are did Ben Boyd make a false statement on his application, and if so, did he do it with the intent to defraud or mislead? Whether the sheriff had a motivation or not is irrelevant."
The judge ultimately denied the request to recuse himself from the case, saying a jury would make the final decision in the case, not him.
But all of that became a moot point when Revercomb reversed an earlier decision to allow the prosecution to introduce two other applications in which Boyd wrote that he had no previous criminal convictions.
Spencer and Griffith were both surprised by that ruling, which led to the charges being dropped.
"We're just glad it's over," Griffith said. "I know Ben will be able to breathe a sigh of relief. You're never charged with a serious charge like this without worrying about it."
Boyd declined to comment after court, but Griffith said that Boyd, who just ended a 3-7 football season, will take some time to decide if he will continue working at Caroline schools.
"Clearly, it has not been a fun experience up to this point," Griffith said.
Griffith said Boyd had been offered an assistant coaching position at Ferrum College, but decided to take the head coach position in Caroline.
Lippa, who said he wasn't upset one way or the other about the outcome of the case, said he is disappointed that the defense attorney tried to turn the case on him.
"This case isn't about me, it's about what Boyd has done, and the only thing the defense attorney can do is try to put up a smokescreen," Lippa said last night. "The superintendent and School Board made a poor decision and they didn't do what they were supposed to do. Well, they got what they asked for. If the superintendent says he has a zero tolerance for drugs, then why would he hire a coach with a drug conviction?"
