Clark renews arrest complaint

BY JOHN BRICE 

FOR THE LAFAYETTE SUN

VALLEY — Valley resident Virgil Clark returned to the Valley City Council on Monday to again raise concerns about his December arrest by Valley police, a complaint he first brought to the council at its May 11 meeting.

Speaking during the citizen communications portion of the meeting, Clark said police pulled him over because his license plate was not visible.

Clark said he was then arrested after getting out of his vehicle and not following an officer’s order to get back in, resulting in the officer using force during the arrest. He told the council he is seeking reimbursement from the city for the money he spent to bond out, defend himself in court and retrieve his car.

Clark began by updating the council on his complaint since his first appearance.

“After my last visit here, I received a letter from the city denying my request for reimbursement on the $1,285 that I had to spend after my arrest and defending myself,” Clark said. “I wasn’t totally comfortable with the reasons it was denied. I don’t want to rehash everything that we went through the first time.”

After apologizing for showing a blurry photo of his license plate during his earlier appearance, Clark held up the plate itself.

“This right here is the tag. That number on that sticker clearly matches the number on this tag. So, that was visible to the officers,” he said. “This is what prompted them to pursue me at a highly excessive rate of speed to catch me over something like this. I was found innocent of the charges of obstruction of government operations. My lawyer’s defense was, ‘How did me getting out of my car stop her from writing me a ticket for this tag?’”

Clark also said he was dissatisfied with his conversations with Police Chief Stacy Shirey about the matter.

“Prior to that, I had two conversations with Chief Shirey — one over the phone and one where I came and sat down in his office,” Clark said. “I wasn’t really comfortable because I felt like he was defending her more than listening to all of the facts. We went into her family history, and he told me that maybe she was just having a bad day that day. But that didn’t give her a right or a reason to assault me during that time.”

Shirey responded directly to Clark’s statements.

“At the end of the day, when an officer gives you a lawful order, if it’s legal, ethical and moral, you have to abide by that order. That’s what this boils down to,” Shirey said. “That officer told him to get back in his vehicle, and he didn’t. It’s really simple.”

Shirey also cautioned that reimbursing people for costs related to their arrests would be a slippery slope.

“If we open Pandora’s box and start reimbursing people for fees when they dismiss a case — cases get sent to the administrative docket all of the time. It’s just pending,” he said. “Cases go through pretrial diversion; cases go through drug court. Those cases get done away with at the end. Are we going to go back and reimburse those people too because their case is now gone? I just don’t think that’s a good idea.”

In Other Business, the Council:

Set an Oct. 12 public hearing on rezoning property at 1646 River Road from C-3 (local business district) to R-2 (medium-density residential district).

Approved a consent agenda that included a public nuisance determination authorizing action against Larry Brown at 407 Spring St.; authority to impose weed liens on six properties; two licenses for public consumption of alcohol; a senior center agreement with East Alabama Planning; a budget amendment for senior center bus repairs; declaring a senior center bus surplus; and accepting bids for a surplus vehicle.

Approved the 2026-27 budget.

Voted to waive the right of first refusal on certain lots in the Crown Home development.