Archive for the 'Crime' Category

County Renewing Illegal Sign Crackdown

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 28, 2012 in Crime and Government. 14 Comments

Albemarle County is renewing their efforts to wipe out signs illegally posted in the highway right-of-way, they announced in a press release today. County law prohibits businesses from sticking signs up in the median of highways and along roadways—not only is it ugly litter, but they’re distracting to drivers, they block drivers’ line of sight at intersections, and each sign is an obstacle for VDOT crews when mowing along the roads. And, of course, they’re all trash—somebody has to pick them up and throw them away eventually, and that’s coming out of your and my tax dollars. The county first cracked down on them in 2007, then turned up the heat in 2009 after striking a deal with VDOT (who generally owns the land on which the signs are dumped) that would allow them to fine the sign spammers $100/apiece. Albemarle says that their 2009 effort paid off…for a while. Then the same companies went right back to sticking their signs up in the public right-of-way. The county is stepping up enforcement, effective immediately.

In my experience, the Mountain Kim Martial Arts (a chain that sells a sort of karate lite, for kids) is the worst offender in town—for years now they’ve put their signs up along school bus routes and near elementary schools, presumably to advertise directly to children. I’d love for media outlets to call some of the worst offenders and ask them why they feel that the law doesn’t apply to them. NBC-29 did that during the 2009 sweep, and some of the businesses actually complained that it wasn’t fair that they should have to pay to advertise legally.

Burglar “Sudued” Straight into the ER

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 16, 2012 in Crime. 3 Comments

Nineteen-year-old Jamel Tucker broke into the wrong house. Michael Brown, of Charlottesville, woke up to his wife screaming from the living room, where she’d found Tucker attempting to steal their flat-screen TV. Brown, who has three teenaged sons and a 150-pound Great Dane, decided that it was him or Tucker. Demure coverage says that Brown “subdued” the burglar, but Tucker’s mugshot really says it all. Tucker was taken the hospital before being booked at the jail.

Kurt Kroboth Tried to Kill His Wife, Wants it Kept Quiet

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 4, 2012 in Crime and Meta News. 11 Comments

A guy who tried to murder his wife is concerned that it’s interfering with his life, Lisa Provence writes for The Hook, so he’s demanded that the weekly help him scrub media coverage off the internet. You might remember the story of Kurt Kroboth, the Charlottesville guy who failed in his efforts to hire a hitman to kill his estranged wife, so he put on a vampire mask, snuck into her home, and attempted to chloroform her. That earned him six years in prison, a term that he completed recently. Now living in Arizona, he’s demanded that The Hook bar search engines from indexing stories about him, and threatened to sue them if they don’t do so. He says that the paper’s coverage of him is inaccurate, but refuses to say what, specifically, is inaccurate about it.

This is a classic example of the Streisand effect, wherein the attempt to suppress information online only makes it available more broadly.

Occupy Charlottesville Protesters Arrested

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 1, 2011 in Crime, Government and Politics. 53 Comments

Occupy Charlottesville protesters who refused to leave Lee Park were arrested last night, as expected, Graham Moomaw writes for the Progress. They were arrested one by one, calmly, by Charlottesville police, who gave them a minute-by-minute countdown until arrests would begin. Tom Daly provides a great slideshow (NSFW) for The Hook.

James Halfaday Arrested

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 19, 2011 in Crime and Politics. 4 Comments Tags: , .

Erstwhile City Council candidate James Halfaday has been jailed on four counts of election fraud, according to a press release from the Commonwealth Attorney’s office:

The charges allege Mr. Halfaday used a false address when he certified his candidacy for City Council with the General Registrar for the City of Charlottesville.

While the investigation has revealed that Mr. Halfaday is not now nor was he ever an owner of Snap Fitness, Mr. Halfaday has not been charged with an offense related to this false statement at this time. The form filed by Mr. Halfaday did not contain certain language required by the Code of Virginia. As a result, election fraud charges concerning Mr. Halfaday’s statement of economic interest are unlikely.

It’s such an irony that Halfaday apparently so bungled his statement of economic interest that he may have accidentally prevented himself from being charged for lying within it. According to the Progress, the economic interest form failed to have the legally required warning that candidates aren’t allowed to lie.

None of this news is any surprise, of course: questions have been raised about Halfaday’s candidacy since shortly after he came in last place in the race for the Democratic nomination for City Council in August.

5:45pm Update: Lisa Provence has detailed coverage in The Hook. Halfaday was released from jail this afternoon, and is due in court tomorrow.

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