Collapse of NBA, NHL arena deal prompts recriminations, allegations of impropriety in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The majority owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, Ted Leonsis, told a crowd in December he had “goosebumps” at the thought of moving his NBA and NHL teams from Washington to Virginia, “if all goes as planned.”

It did not.

Leonsis' handshake deal with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to relocate the teams to a taxpayer-backed arena in Alexandria collapsed Wednesday, weeks after a bumpy slog of a defeat in the Virginia General Assembly. Leonsis, apparently not willing to wait for a second shot in Virginia, reemerged in Washington, which had offered his Monumental Sports & Entertainment a more than half-billion-dollar arena deal to stay.

The demise of the project, a top priority for Youngkin, set off an extraordinary round of bitter recriminations among Virginia officials and companies that were parties to the deal, including allegations of possible impropriety and slander. It also sparked fears about impacts to the state’s future economic development prospects.

“We made mistakes. I know the governor made mistakes. Monumental made mistakes. JBG made mistakes. And I’m sure the General Assembly made mistakes,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said of the key players.

The outpouring of blame began when Alexandria announced the negotiations were over Wednesday, in a statement that expressed disappointment in “what occurred between the Governor and General Assembly.”

Democratic leaders of the General Assembly blamed Youngkin.

“He mismanaged the process,” said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, who had agreed to sponsor legislation underpinning the deal. The legislation called for a quasi-governmental entity to issue bonds to finance most of the project, repaid through a mix of projected tax revenues recaptured from the development. Surovell's bill never made it out of his own chamber — due to opposition from one of his colleagues, powerful budget committee chairwoman L. Louise Lucas — even though a companion bill passed the House of Delegates.

House Speaker Don Scott faulted the governor for bringing the Legislature into the conversation too late in the game.

Youngkin told The Associated Press in an interview he believed “politics and personal agendas” in the Senate had derailed what he's called the single largest economic development deal in Virginia's history.

Leonsis, in a news conference with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, took a couple of jabs at Virginia. Meanwhile, JBG SMITH, a real estate company and partner to the deal as the proposed developer, unleashed.

In a statement, JBG CEO Matt Kelly questioned the motives of key Senate leaders including Lucas, who had stymied the legislation and gleefullycelebrated itsdemise on social media. Specifically, JBG questioned whether the arena was blocked as part of a “scheme” to benefit a competing developer, Comstock, that had been pushing for a northern Virginia casino. Kelly’s statement did so without mentioning any lawmaker or company by name, but while including enough context to make the criticism understood to people following the matter closely.

Kelly said the deal was derailed due to “partisan politics.” Without offering proof, he also suggested the outcome was influenced by “special interests and potential pay-to-play influences within the Virginia legislature.”

There was, in fact, an 11th-hour pitch to combine the casino and arena, Surovell said. But it was just one of a number of suggestions he made over the course of the session to try to salvage the arena deal, he said.

Lucas said on social media that “the incompetent losers behind the effort are out telling lies and conspiracy theories" instead of admitting their own failure.

Comstock CEO Chris Clemente told AP the idea of pairing the casino with the arena had been bandied about by lawmakers of both parties. He rejected the notion that there was any kind of coordinated attempt to hold off the initial arena deal in favor of an arena-casino pairing, calling JBG's statement “slanderous” and “ridiculous.”

Wilson, the mayor, said in an interview that Richmond's opaque legislative process erodes confidence. He cited the work of political consultant Ben Tribbett, who is paid by both Lucas and by Comstock, as creating an appearance of impropriety that casts doubt on whether the Legislature was acting in the public interest.

“I find the whole thing unseemly," he said.

Tribbett said that it’s not unusual for a consulting business to advise many kinds of clients, and that each of his clients’ interests are kept confidential.

“If you’re an architect, it’s not a conflict to work on multiple buildings. And if you’re a political consultant, it’s not a conflict to work with multiple political clients,” Tribbett said.

A number of other factors contributed to the Alexandria project’s demise, according to interviews with lawmakers and others close to the deal-making, who for months described the talks as chaotic, or worse.

Youngkin never enjoyed vocal support from Republican legislators, who mostly kept their heads down as the deal imploded. The project also faced well-organized local opposition.

Alexandria’s economic development director, Stephanie Landrum, said the failure to close the deal because of what she sees as politics will cause other prospective businesses looking to come to the commonwealth to question whether to come to Virginia.

But Greg LeRoy, executive director of incentives watchdog Good Jobs First, said it’s laughable to think that turning away a sports team seeking public financing will hurt the state’s business climate.

“Other regions would kill for a business climate like northern Virginia’s," said LeRoy, whose organization opposed the deal.

Youngkin said Virginia deserved better than the way things panned out, but he understood why Leonsis moved on.

“Eventually you’ve got to go negotiate something else. And, boy, did D.C. provide him with a remarkable alternative,” he said.

FILE - Ted Leonsis, left, owner of the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team and Washington Capitals HNL hockey team, shakes hands with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin as they announce plans for a new sports stadium for the teams, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Alexandria, Va. Negotiations to lure the Capitals and Wizards to northern Virginia have “ended” and the proposal to create a development district with a new arena for the teams "will not move forward,” the city of Alexandria said in a statement Wednesday, Mach 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Fans stand for the national anthem in the Capital One Arena before an NHL hockey game between the Washington Capitals and the New Jersey Devils, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in Washington. The NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals are staying in the District of Columbia. Owner Ted Leonsis and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the development at a news conference at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - The New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards play in an NBA basketball game in Washington, Dec. 19, 2017. The NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals are staying in the District of Columbia. Owner Ted Leonsis and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the development at a news conference at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Tenally, File)

FILE - Capital One Arena is shown before an NHL hockey game between the Washington Capitals and the New Jersey Devils, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in Washington. The NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals are staying in the District of Columbia. Owner Ted Leonsis and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the development at a news conference at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team and Washington Capitals NHL hockey team, speaks during a news conference at Capitol One Arena in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Ted Leonsis, right, owner of the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team and Washington Capitals NHL hockey team with Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, center, and DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, left, during a news conference at Capitol One Arena in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Ted Leonsis, right, owner of the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team and Washington Capitals NHL hockey team, speaks during a news conference with Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, left, and DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, center, at Capitol One Arena in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — There was “no need” for five Memphis police officers to punch, kick, and hit Tyre Nichols with a baton on the night he was fatally beaten after a traffic stop, their former supervisor testified Thursday in the federal trial for three of the officers.

Dewayne Smith told the court he was a Memphis police lieutenant who supervised Scorpion Unit One, which included Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith. He testified that the officers did not tell him that they had beaten Nichols when he spoke to them at the scene after it happened.

Dewayne Smith said he went to Nichols’ home nearby to determine if Nichols used drugs, after officers told him, without evidence, that Nichols was high when they pulled him out of his car.

The former supervisor said he also speculated that Nichols could have been on a hallucinogen or PCP and in a state of “excited delirium” — a controversial diagnosis sometimes used to justify excessive force — because he overpowered larger officers who hit him with pepper spray.

Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body. According to the autopsy, only low amounts of ethanol — or drinking alcohol — and tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, were detected in Nichols’ system. THC is found in marijuana.

Dewayne Smith watched video of the beating with jurors, who have seen it several times during more than a week of testimony. Asked if the beating was consistent with his expectations of his officers, Smith told Prosecutor Kathryn Gilbert, “That wasn’t called for."

Smith became the officers' supervisor in late 2022, he said. He was allowed to retire in March 2023 “in lieu of termination,” he said.

Prosecutors have said Memphis police would punish people with force for running away from them, a practice known as a “run tax” or a “street tax.” Under cross examination, Smith told Michael Stengel, Haley’s defense lawyer, that he never had complaints of his team using the practice.

Haley, Bean and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstructing justice through witness tampering.

The Memphis Police Department fired the three, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.

All five were members of the Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. The unit was disbanded after Nichols' death.

The Associated Press analyzed what the officers claimed happened on the night of the beating compared to video of the incident. The AP sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras.

The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.

FILE - This combo of images provided by the Memphis, Tenn., Police Department shows, top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and bottom row from left, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. (Memphis Police Department via AP, File)

FILE - The image from video released on Jan. 27, 2023, by the City of Memphis, shows Tyre Nichols during a brutal attack by five Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. (City of Memphis via AP, File)

FILE - The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

Former Memphis police officer Tadarrius Bean arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley leaves the federal courthouse after the first day of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Former Memphis police officer Justin Smith leaves the federal courthouse after the first day of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)