Last Friday, a series of events unfolded that leaves many questions unanswered. At a "Town Hall" function in Ringgold, VA attended by Obama Administration Secretaries Chu and Vilsack and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA), a series of events began to unfold involving Nigel Coleman, the Danville Tea Party Chairman.


Here is what Nigel reports as happening in a letter to Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims:

· On Saturday, July 19, 2009, members of the Danville Tea Party attended a public function for Congressman Perriello and Obama Administration Secretaries Chu and Vilsack. Our plan was to ask some very direct questions related to the current healthcare reform bill being debated in Congress.

· Danville Tea Party vice-chairman Bobby Conner and I rode together and met Patricia Evans and some other members and stood close to the front so we could get a chance to ask a question.

· After a few minutes, what we believe to have been two Secret Service agents were standing next to us. There was also a uniformed police officer behind us. It seemed to a couple of us that they were all staring at us.

· Realizing that we would not be allowed to ask a question of our Congressman at a supposedly “town hall” meeting, we decided to go to our cars and get signs which we intended to hold up at the exit from the farm. But as soon as we got the signs, a county sheriff’s deputy pulled up in a white SUV and a another deputy on foot told us that the owner of the property, Buddy Mayhew, wanted us to leave immediately and that we were not welcome.

· We complied with the officer’s instructions without a word of protest. We left and everyone met up at a restaurant nearby to discuss what happened during the day and decide what to do next. As we were leaving to go home, Bobby was the first to notice an unmarked police car and officer calling our license plate numbers in over his phone.

· That was unsettling enough. However, on Monday morning the police action escalated when the Virginia State Police showed up unannounced on Bobby’s doorstep and proceeded to question him regarding our presence at Saturday’s event, specifically something about a note one of our group passed to another asking him to take his picture with Rep. Perriello if the opportunity presented itself.

This raises several questions. How did the State Police become involved in this matter? Why did the State Police go to Bobby Conner on Monday? And is there a connection between Congressman Tom Perriello and the police on the events that have transpired?