News Releases

ICYMI: Attorney General Jones Secures More Than $800,000 for Families Following Historic Victory in Fair Housing Case   

RICHMOND, Va. -- Attorney General Jones announced that his office successfully collected and returned more than $800,000 to Virginians impacted by discriminatory housing practices. On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, Attorney General Jay Jones presented the Mills and Smith families restitution payments of more than $400,000, which is the largest payout to individual complainants in the history of the Virginia Fair Housing Office and Office of the Attorney General.   

PRESS RELEASE: Attorney General Jones Awards More Than $800,000 for Families Following Historic Victory in Fair Housing Case   

“Every Virginian deserves access to safe and affordable housing, and they deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity. This case and the egregious discriminatory actions endured by the Mills and Smith families are heart wrenching and unacceptable,” said Attorney General Jones. “I am proud to bring much overdue and deserved relief, and I want to thank the public servants in both the Virginia Fair Housing Office and the Office of the Attorney General whose dedication and tenacity brought this precedent-setting conclusion into reality after six arduous years.”   

Cardinal News: 6-year legal battle ends with restitution for families who claimed discrimination by Smith Mountain Lake campground 

Two families marked the culmination of a six-year fair housing legal battle with a Smith Mountain Lake campground with tears and restitution in the attorney general’s office Wednesday.  

Damien Smith said that the experience felt like an uphill battle. 

“It seemed like we would never get over the top, but we finally did. We’re really thankful for it, too,” he said. “Now, we know it’s done.” 

“We did it, we saw it through,” said Angela Smith, his wife. 

[...] 

“To be hated on for the color of my skin was just ridiculous,” Damien Smith said Wednesday. 

Amanda Mills added that the group had experienced harassment from Turner and ostracization from other campers as a result of Turner’s behavior. But it was the comment about the Smiths’ son that motivated the two families to file the complaint. 

[...] 

As of Wednesday, Turner remained in custody at the Western Virginia Regional Jail, and the Smith and Mills families had received restitution of roughly $417,000 each — the full amount, with interest, that the jury awarded in 2025.  

They said they plan to use the money to care for their families and to go on a relaxing vacation with any funds left over.  

“The biggest piece for us was finally seeing that property sold. That was the piece that made us happier than anything, was to know that she no longer owned that property so therefore that meant she could never do that to anyone else ever again,” Angela Smith said. “There’s been so many situations over the past six years where we felt like it was one step forward and two steps back.” 

She added that she plans to use this experience to help others navigate the fair housing complaint process if they feel they have experienced discrimination.  

Attorney General Jay Jones told the families Wednesday that they are an example for people across Virginia that no one has to put up with housing discrimination.  

“For you all to see this through, it really does mean a lot to us but it really does speak volumes to the power of this office and the power of our partnership with folks at Fair Housing so that this doesn’t happen again,” he said.  

Jones met with the families along with Liz Hayes, Virginia’s Fair Housing director; Angela Keefe-Thomas, a fair housing investigator; Helen Hardiman, deputy attorney general for the public advocacy division; and Palmer Heenan, senior assistant attorney general and section chief for the office of civil rights. Hardiman and Heenan had launched the lawsuit under former Attorney General Mark Herring in 2020, in partnership with the Virginia Fair Housing Office. 

The group debriefed in a conference room in the Barbara Johns Office Building at the end of the yearslong legal battle that spanned three different attorneys general. 

Virginia Mercury: Restitution delivered for Virginia families in 6-year housing discrimination case 

Damien and Angela Smith and their friends Amanda and Michael Mills said Wednesday they feel a sense of relief at the conclusion of their years-long housing discrimination case. Each couple has received nearly $420,000 in restitution, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones announced this week 

The families had retreated to a Smith Mountain Lake property in 2020, where they faced harassment and racially derogatory comments by owner Regina Turner. 

[...] 

Looking back on how the case began, Damien Smith, a Black man, said he’d been in the car when his white wife and their friends toured the site. Turner didn’t notice him. 

“I told Angie ‘I’ll give it a try, but typically, you know, Black people in campgrounds in the South don’t mix,’” he explained. “I don’t think if (Turner) had seen me that night she would have let the sale go through.” 

Amanda Mills said after the sale, Turner called her and expressed frustration at learning of Damien Smith’s race. She said wouldn’t have approved of the couples on her campground if she’d known, Mills recounted.  

Though Turner had initially seen the Smiths’ mixed-race son, she relayed to Amanda Mills that she’d assumed he was a “mistake from (Angie Smith’s) past.”  

“No child of any nationality, any race, is a mistake,” Amanda Mills said. “For someone to truly feel that way, so deep in their heart, it just shows how much room for improvement there is in this world.” 

The families said Turner pressured them to leave and refused to return their rental fees or allow them to sell their campers on site.  

“We ended up having to tear down decks and pull the camper out of there in order to get it sold for a much lesser value than what it was if it was on the water, and much less than what we paid for it,” Angela Smith explained.  

Turner’s comment about the Smith’s son disturbed the couples deeply and spurred the Smiths to file a complaint with the Virginia Fair Housing Board.  

Damien Smith was skeptical that it would yield justice but the case’s outcome represents the importance of “sticking to your guns,” he said.  

It’s arduous to pursue legal remedy for these types of wrongs, Helen Hardiman, a lawyer in the Office of the Attorney General, noted, adding that the rigorous process sometimes deters people from taking action.  

The Smiths and Mills had to make about a dozen court appearances over the years and continued to encounter Turner in that process.  

“(They) had to disrupt their lives and place themselves back in what I would imagine is pretty emotionally frustrating space to be in the same room with a woman who had discriminated against them all those years ago,” Hardiman said.  

The long running case, first undertaken by former Attorney General Mark Herring, continued by former Attorney General Jason Miyares, and now concluded through Jones, resulted in the state’s largest payout to individual complainants in the history of the state’s attorney general office and fair housing office.  

“Justice was slow here — delayed but not denied,” Hardiman said. 

Richmond Times Dispatch: Va. families impacted by racist campground incident get $800,000 payout 

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones secured the largest payout to individual complainants in the history of the Attorney General's Office, his office announced Thursday. 

The owner of Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook had to pay $800,000 to two Virginia families impacted by the racist practices of the campground owner, Regina Turner. 

Turner had rented lots to families at Lazy Cove Campground for decades, but in 2020, she took steps to evict two families after learning that one of the campers was Black, saying she would not have rented to them if she had known. 

[...] 

The Attorney General’s Office initiated special action proceedings for Turner's properties in order to get the funding for the court-ordered damages after Turner failed to comply with multiple court orders and refused to pay. Last month, Turner was ordered to serve 30 days in jail after she failed to comply with orders. 

Roanoke Times and Martinsville Bulletin: Families get $800,000-plus in Franklin County housing discrimination case 

Checks for more than $800,000 were awarded Wednesday to two families who were barred from a Smith Mountain Lake campground because one of their members was Black. 

Meanwhile, the former owner of Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook is serving a 30-day jail sentence, after a judge recently found her in contempt of court for refusing to pay the damages awarded last year by a Franklin County jury. 

Regina Turner, 75, was ordered to pay punitive and compensatory damages to the families in what Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said was the largest fair housing payout to individual complainants ever obtained by his office. 

[...] 

The jury imposed an additional $550,000 in punitive damages to punish Turner’s “egregious actions and serve as a deterrent against future discrimination,” the office said when the verdict was delivered in February 2025. 

The Virginian-Pilot: Virginia families impacted by racist campground incident get $800,000 payout 

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones secured the largest payout to individual complainants in the history of the Attorney General’s Office, his office announced Thursday. 

The owner of Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook had to pay $800,000 to two Virginia families impacted by the racist practices of the campground owner, Regina Turner. 

Turner had rented lots to families at Lazy Cove Campground for decades, but in 2020, she took steps to evict two families after learning that one of the campers was Black, saying she would not have rented to them if she had known. 

Published on: September 8, 2026

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