Two families have been awarded $750,000 after a Virginia jury found that the owner of Lazy Cove Campground discriminated against them due to the race of one camper. The case stems from a 2020 incident when Amanda Mills and Angela Smith, who are white, planned a camping trip with their families. Angela brought her husband, Damien Smith, who is Black, and their 8-year-old son. Soon after their arrival, Mills received a call from campground owner Regina Turner, who said, “You didn’t tell me that your friend’s husband is Black,” adding, “Had I known, I wouldn’t have rented the lot to them.”
Turner also reportedly said, “I saw the son, but I figured everyone makes a mistake.” According to court documents, she later told another tenant that she had to be strategic in her response. “I can’t make them move now because if I give both of them moving notices now, they could take my park from me. I’m smart, you know, and I’ve got to use my head.”
Following the incident, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the Virginia Fair Housing Board filed a civil suit against Turner for refusing to rent and two counts of discrimination. The jury awarded $100,000 to each family in compensatory damages and an additional $550,000 in punitive damages. Attorney General Jason Miyares noted this award is the largest in Virginia Fair Housing history, more than tripling the previous record of $200,000 from 2011.
“It was like a sigh of relief, but at the same time, I’m still angry because we never should have had to go through this,” Damien Smith told The Washington Post. “It was 2020 at the time, and somehow we’re still getting judged by the color of our skin versus the kind of person we are.”
Turner’s attorney, Holland Perdue—who is also the mayor of Rocky Mount—has filed a motion to set aside the verdict. Turner defended herself by stating she never evicted the families and that while her late husband had refused to rent to Black people, “the campground now accepts all kinds of people.” She claimed she called Mills because she felt “betrayed.”
Link: NBC News
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