Reston Founder's Widow, Cheryl Terio-Simon, Faces Assault Charge For Scuffle At Meeting

Updated (Jan. 26, 2022, 4:15 p.m.): Cheryl Terio-Simon was found not guilty on the misdemeanor assault & battery charge on Dec. 15, 2021 in Fairfax County District Court. For more.

RESTON, VA — Cheryl Terio-Simon, the widow of Reston founder Robert E. Simon, was cited for simple assault on Oct. 31 in connection with an incident that occurred the night of Oct. 27 outside of the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne, according to police records.

Senzel Schaefer, who stepped down as the president of the Lake Anne of Reston, a Condominium Association in September, filed a report with the Fairfax County Police Department on Oct. 30. Schaefer's report claimed Terio-Simon threatened and grabbed her as she used her cellphone to record a video of the election tally held outside on Lake Anne Plaza.

During a phone interview with Patch, Schaefer said she was rattled by the confrontation.

"It throws off your sense of like reality, like security," she said. "You're not expecting to be accosted."

The confrontation was not the first time the women have disagreed. Schaefer was the target of two lawsuits filed by Terio-Simon and others over reforms she sought to bring to reform how the association operated.

An officer from the Reston District Station told Schaefer he had notified Terio-Simon of the simple assault charge on Oct. 31. Under the Code of Virginia, simple assault is a class 1 misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 12 months confinement in jail and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

In addition to viewing a copy of Schaefer's video, Patch requested an incident report from the Central Records Office of the Fairfax County Police Department. Since the case is considered an active criminal investigation, FCPD was restricted on how much information it could release.

The report confirmed the date of the event as Oct. 27 and that a report was made to police on Oct. 30. In addition, the report described the criminal activity as "Assault-Simple, not Agg."

Patch reached out to Terio-Simon for comment by phone and left three messages and sent two emails, but she has not responded.

Related: Lake Anne Residents Ask County To Intervene In Election

The LARCA board met Oct. 27 at the community center for its annual board election. Lake Anne property owners had been notified in advance of the meeting and could cast their ballots either in-person or online. For the next four hours, the board collected and tabulated votes.

When RCC representatives told LARCA members they needed to vacate the building because the community center was closing at 10 p.m., the board opted to move the meeting out onto the plaza, rather than adjourn.

Schaefer joined several other people who had stayed to watch the proceedings, which she recorded with her cellphone.

At some point after the meeting moved outdoors, Terio-Simon arrived on the plaza. As a member of the Simon Trust, Terio-Simon is the owner of the property on the plaza occupied by the community center.

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What The Video Shows

According to the time code on Schaefer's cellphone video, Terio-Simon is seen talking to a group of people at 10:33 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 27, when she turns her head and sees Schaefer recording a video with her phone.

"I was holding my camera in my left hand," Schaefer said. "I was just videoing kind of like the entire area."

In the video, Terio-Simon walks directly toward the camera. "You just watch yourself, lady," she says. "I'm sorry?" Schaefer asks, turning the camera to the side. But then, the video image jerks back, seeming to show Terio-Simon pulling at the phone.

During a Nov. 1 phone interview, Schaefer told Patch that Terio-Simon at that point grabbed the wrist of her arm holding the cellphone.

"Get off of me," Schaefer says, in the video.

"You," Terio-Simon begins to say, wagging a finger at Schaefer.

"I feel her breath on my face and I pull my hand away from her," Schaefer told Patch. "And you see, the camera goes blurry, like the picture goes blurry and she continues to assault me."

At this point, according to Schaefer, Lake Anne resident Karen Jarvis stepped up behind Terio-Simon to intervene.

"Cheryl, please don't," Jarvis says on the video. "It's not worth this."

"You're not worth it," Terio-Simon says, looking directly at Schaefer.

Several people then help lead Terio-Simon away.

"She has no business taking pictures of anybody without their permission," Terio-Simon says to Jarvis, in the video. "Really." The last remark is directed at Schaefer, who is still recording with her cellphone.

The video then shows LARCA President Jason Romano making a motion to adjourn the meeting until 6 p.m. on Friday. The board announced the winners of the election the following Tuesday.

Once the Oct. 27 meeting broke up, Schaefer and her husband, Michael, joined a few other Lake Anne residents at Kalypso's Sports Tavern. She shared the video with the group and discussed what had happened to her.

Over the next couple of days, Schaefer and her husband discussed whether she should report the incident to the police.

Related: New Lake Anne President Aims To Chart New Course For Community

On Saturday, Oct. 30, after Schaefer had run some errands and had time alone to think, she came to a decision.

"I called Michael and I said, 'I think I'm going to go to the police station and report this because I have kids,'" she said. "For the first time in my life at Lake Anne, I don't feel comfortable walking home at night."

Two sources, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern over retaliation, confirmed the contents of the video. One of the sources said they witnessed the incident and had been using their cellphone to record audio of the night's proceedings, both inside and outside the community center.

Concerns Raised Over Board Election

Shortly after Schaefer became the LARCA president in 2019, she introduced several measures to bring more transparency to the board's actions. The measures included making board meetings accessible by Zoom and authorizing an expenditure of $20,000 to hire auditors Ernst & Young to review the condo association's books.

The audit revealed the appearance of insider dealing in connection with an improvement project approved by the previous board, as well as an insufficient bidding process for contracts. In addition, residents did not have an opportunity to vote on an expenditure over $25,000, which is required by the community's governing documents.

The decision to hire an auditor drew the ire of several residents, including Terio-Simon, who filed a lawsuit against Schaefer and the board.

Although the lawsuit was eventually dismissed, Schaefer found herself the target of another lawsuit and calls for her resignation after she allowed the vote of a disenfranchised voter to change the outcome of the 2020 board election. The second lawsuit ended after Schaefer agreed to step down in September 2021.

Fairfax County, which operates the Reston Community Center - Lake Anne, has a lease-to-buy agreement with the Simon Trust for the property, which is the largest commercial space in the plaza. If all terms of the agreement are met, the county would be able to claim the title for the property on April 30, 2039, by paying the trust $1.

In September, Schaefer started a petition expressing concerns about the upcoming election. All property owners in the condominium association are able to cast a vote in the annual election of board members. However, not every property owner's vote is equal.

Voting is divided proportionally, which means the vote of a member who owns a large commercial property on Lake Anne Plaza counts proportionally more than the vote of a member who only owns a residential unit. The space occupied by the RCC is the largest commercial property, so its vote counts as 7 percent compared to 1 percent or below for a residential property owner.

The petition, which was signed by 43 LARCA property owners, and a letter were sent to Hunter Supervisor Walter Alcorn and other members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in September. The letter claimed that Terio-Simon, as the landlord of the RCC property, used the 7 percent vote to tip the outcome of the 2020 election.

In the letter, the 43 property owners said the 7 percent vote created an "unequal balance of power and potential conflict of interest" in the then-upcoming election. Further, this unequal balance was "especially unfair to our minority commercial owners, burdened with assessments." The letter and petition called on the county to withhold its proxy during the Oct. 27 vote.

In response, Alcorn forwarded the letter of concern about the minority condominium owners to the RCC board for its consideration.