When our new construction home collapsed, I thought it was an isolated failure. But the deeper I followed the paperwork, the older the story became — stretching from colonial Virginia’s land hierarchies to the polished corridors of today’s General Assembly. What looks like civility here isn’t just tradition. It’s an ecosystem for maintaining control over land, law, and leverage.
Our case began with one contractor and led to a state licensing board willing to revise its own record of events.
Public documents show that Virginia’s Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation quietly substituted one company’s licensing data for another — transforming an unlicensed subcontractor into a properly credentialed business after the fact.
Five years later, the builder acknowledged using that subcontractor outside the bounds of the law, but by then the clock had already run out. In Virginia, time limits are brief, and those limits didn’t shorten themselves. They were written that way by the same professional circles that draft legislation and argue it in court.
The officials responsible for oversight faced no inquiry. Leadership within DPOR, now connected to the offices of the Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor, declined to reconcile the record, even when sworn statements and agency files conflicted with their conclusions.
Cases that appear to warrant enforcement fade into the background, following the same choreography: delay, redaction, reinterpretation. And through it all, the same names quietly remain in charge of the regulatory process.
Among them is Delegate Carrie Coyner, founder of the firm Rudy Coyner, whose footprint appears in both construction disputes and nonprofit dissolutions. Coyner also emerged as the public source in the Jay Jones text controversy, part of what appears to be an expose three years in the making, as Coyner never reported at the time of the text conversation.
Not only is this unusual behavior for a mandated reporter like Coyner, if Jones steps aside, then thousands of early votes are lost. It would be an election won by default, not selection.
Each thread leads back to a single way of doing things that Republican representatives are collectively calling the Virginia Way. The only problem is that we can trace the Virginia Way back to colonial segregation and Douglas Freeman. Odd choice for a campaign slogan.
That’s the modern echo of The Virginia Way — a phrase invoked today as heritage, but born from an era when order was prized above equality. It was never just about manners. It was about maintaining segregation and hierarchy, politely.
Why It Matters
Virginia’s culture of politeness isn’t harmless. It’s procedural armor — one that protects institutions, shortens the statute of accountability, and leaves consumers chasing justice that expires on a deadline.
This episode lays the foundation for what comes next: how the networks behind politeness have become Virginia’s modern machinery of control.
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Sources and Further Reading
Primary Source Material
Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR)
Contractor licensing records, case files, and disciplinary correspondence, 2020–2024.
FOIA responses confirming administrative modifications to contractor license data and investigatory summaries.
Correspondence and denials citing Governor’s Working Papers Exemption under Va. Code §2.2-3705.7(2).
Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC)
Business entity registrations and amendments for LASR Construction LLC (Entity ID 11124972) and LASR Construction Services LLC (Entity ID 11358084).
Incorporation and registered agent filings prepared by Kerry Brian Hutcherson, then attorney at Rudy Coyner.
Court Records and Depositions
Testimony of Adam Gregoire (Covenant Building & Design / Yellowstone Construction) in civil proceedings acknowledging subcontractor use.
Sworn affidavits of subcontractor identifying unlicensed activity.
Discovery exhibits including Buildertrend/CoConstruct records evidencing work performed by LASR Construction LLC prior to licensure.
FOIA Communications
Emails between DPOR, the Office of the Governor, and the Office of the Attorney General regarding limitations on disclosure.
Records referencing contact by General Counsel for the Governor seeking rescission of consumer FOIA requests.
Supporting Public Reporting
Axios Richmond
“EnRichmond Files Reveal Financial Irregularities Before Collapse” (June 6, 2023).
https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2023/06/06/enrichmond-files-financial-records-collapse
WTVR CBS 6 Richmond
“Internal Docs Reveal New Details in EnRichmond Foundation Collapse” (April 26, 2023).
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/internal-docs-enrichmond-update-april-26-2023
The National Review
“Virginia Delegate Jay Jones’s Texts Raise Questions About Civility and Violence in Politics” (2024).
(Referenced for analysis of quotation, attribution, and the public disclosure of Delegate Coyner as source.)
Public Business Records and Campaign Filings
Contributions and financial disclosures connecting development interests to political campaigns within Chesterfield, Henrico, and Hanover Counties.
Cross-referenced with Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP.org) datasets, 2018–2024.
Historical and Academic References
Douglas Southall Freeman, “The Virginia Way”
Published writings and collected essays (1925–1953).
University of Richmond Archives / Unfolding History Collection.
https://unfoldinghistory.richmond.edu/article/douglas-southall-freeman
Encyclopedia Virginia
Entry: “Freeman, Douglas Southall (1886–1953).”
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/freeman-douglas-southall-1886-1953
Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Code of Virginia § 2.2-3700 et seq. — particularly §§ 2.2-3704 and 2.2-3705.7 on exemptions and working papers.
Virginia Contractor Licensing Statutes
Code of Virginia § 54.1-1100 et seq. — Regulation of Contractors.
§ 54.1-1115: Prohibited Acts; Penalties.
§ 18.2-200.1: Obtaining Money by False Pretenses in Construction Contracts.
Interviews & Correspondence
Direct Communication
Email and phone correspondence with journalists, state officials, and agency representatives (2022–2025).
Conversations with affected homeowners across multiple counties citing similar regulatory responses.
The Virginia Consumer Archive
Internal documentation and evidence catalog compiled by Andrea Driffill (2020–2025).
Includes correspondence logs, deposition transcripts, and FOIA request tracking spreadsheet.
