PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. – After sending text messages interpreted as racist and discriminatory, Pittsylvania County Supervisor Vic Ingram is calling the censure against him a political attack by his colleagues.
A series of text messages sent by Pittsylvania County supervisor, Vic Ingram in June ridiculed the appearance of fellow supervisor, Dr. Charles Miller. The text messages are what prompted the Board of Supervisors to censure Ingram at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“We recently learned that Tunstall District Supervisor William ‘Vic’ Ingram sent reprehensible and offensive text messages concerning Miller,” said Chairman of the Board, Bob Warren.
According to Ingram, the texts were sent from him to Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor. The texts compared Dr. Miller to performer Ray Charles and a comedian’s sketch character on social media, Blind Adam. At the time, Dr. Miller said he was wearing dark sunglasses because of a medical procedure.
In an interview Wednesday, Ingram said he had no malicious intentions making those comparisons.
“In my opinion, I don’t think that I owed him an apology because it was nothing racist, it was nothing malicious about it. But he says as a minister of the gospel he should have come to me and said, ‘Brother we have a problem. Let’s you and me talk about it.’ He went to the newspaper and started this whole ball rolling,” said Ingram.
Ingram said the move by the board to censure him and release these text messages was politically motivated.
“I’m not going to go along just to get along, but this is the most horrendous, slanderous attack I have ever had in my life,” he said.
The censure formally shows the board’s disapproval of Ingram’s behavior. On Tuesday night, Dr. Miller said censuring Ingram is the right decision, but he doesn’t plan on holding a grudge.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to continue to try and work together and be a cooperative person on the board,” said Dr. Miller.
10 News has reached out to Sheriff Taylor for comment on his involvement in the thread of text messages, we have not heard back. We also reached out to Pittsylvania County to see when these text messages were brought to light. We have not heard back.