The former president of the Chesterfield Branch NAACP is seeking payback after being accused of embezzling branch funds last year in a case that ultimately was dismissed.

LaSalle J. McCoy Jr. has filed a defamation suit in Chesterfield County General District Court seeking $25,000 in damages from branch treasurer Nicole Thompson-Martin for allegedly tarnishing his reputation with the misdemeanor charge.

The suit is the latest twist in a dispute over the Chesterfield NAACP’s financial records that led the national office to remove Mr. McCoy as branch president late last year and bar him from serving as secretary of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP.

Mr. McCoy has simmered since the em- bezzlement charge was brought in late Febru- ary 2019, and the suit filed Jan. 13 by attorney Mark S. Paullin on Mr. McCoy’s behalf makes that clear.

The suit claims that Ms. Thompson-Martin “knew or should have known” that the statements alleging Mr. McCoy stole branch funds that she made under oath in seeking a warrant for his arrest “were false (and) were made with reckless disregard for the truth ... and that (Ms. Thompson-Martin) made the statements with malice.”

Such statements “constitute libel per se in that they accuse (Mr.) McCoy of committing crimes of moral turpitude, to wit, larceny and fraudulent embezzlement,” the suit states.

The suit also alleges that Ms. Thompson- Martin made the statements for the purpose of causing Mr. McCoy to resign from his post as president rather than in good faith.

Mr. McCoy referred questions about the suit to his attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment.

Reached Sunday, Ms. Thompson-Martin said she had not been served yet with the suit, but would have no further comment.

An initial court hearing is set for March 2.

Ms. Thompson-Martin brought the embezzlement charge against Mr. McCoy in late February 2019, three months after winning election to her first term as the branch’s bookkeeper and money handler.

In the written complaint she submit- ted in seeking a warrant in February 2019, she alleged that Mr. McCoy used money from the branch for “illegal and unauthorized transactions.”

Ms. Thompson-Martin alleged that Mr. Mc- Coy had an unauthorized debit card tied to the branch’s bank account and used it to pay for dinners and for unauthorized cash withdrawals, and stated in the complaint that the branch had proof through bank statements that the amount stolen is above $250,” although the actual warrant she secured was for theft of less than $200, a misdemeanor.

Former Chesterfield Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Miles stepped aside from handling the case because of his membership in the NAACP. In late June, Erin Raney, a special prosecutor named to the case, declined to proceed and had the charge dismissed. Lack of evidence to support the charge was the reason given at the hearing.

After the charge was dropped, Mr. McCoy said there was no reason for him to be put through the ordeal. He said the money Ms. Thompson-Martin claimed was stolen was spent for NAACP purposes.

He also said most of the money came from a separate account that supports county youths competing in the NAACP’s ACT-SO educational program and had no relationship to chapter funds.

Mr. McCoy and Ms. Thompson-Martin have been at odds since her election in November 2018 as treasurer when he was elected to his sixth, two-year term as president of the branch. She was part of a faction that tried and failed to replace Mr. McCoy with another candidate.

Mr. McCoy did not immediately turn over the chapter’s financial records and bank account to Ms. Thompson-Martin and refused to do so after she obtained the warrant, ultimately leading to his removal from office.