The Charlottesville City Council has directed city Police Chief Timothy J. Longo and city staff to request bids to implement a public safety capital project which would include security cameras on the Downtown Mall and police body cams, according to The Daily Progress.
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News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
During an 11:00 AM news conference, it has been announced that Jesse Matthew will be charged with first degree murder with the intent to defile in the death of UVA student Hannah Graham. He will make his first appearance in the Albemarle Court on Feb. 18, probably through closed circuit TV from where he is being held in jail at Fairfax County. Matthew has not yet been formally charged in the death of Morgan Harrington.
Charlottesville police have issued an arrest warrant for Jesse Leroy “LJ” Matthew Jr., charging him with abduction with intent to defile, a felony.
Hannah Graham was last heard from early Saturday morning, Sept. 13, shortly after 1:00 AM. Eyewitness testimony and video evidence indicate that Matthew spoke to her, put her arms around her, and may have bought her a drink right around that time.
Early on in the investigation, police announced that a man fitting Matthew’s description was a “person of interest”. After police executed a search warrant at his Hessian Hills apartment and impounded his car to the state police forensics lab, Matthews himself came to the Charlottesville police station on Saturday with family members to declare that he wanted a lawyer. Matthews then reportedly took off at “a high rate of speed” and has eluded police capture since.
The CVille Weekly has published a thorough timeline of all the known events and news surrounding Hannah Graham’s disappearance and the investigation, and The Washington Post has aggregated all of their related stories.
Monticello High School’s athletic director has pleaded guilty to rigging the bidding process for buying athletic apparel, CBS-19 reports, and did so in collaboration with Downtown Athletic. Fitzgerald Barnes—also a member of the Louisa Board of Supervisors conspired with a vice president of Team Distributors and the vice president of Downtown Athletic to create fake bids, ensuring that they’d get the required three bids, and that Downtown Athletic would be the lower bidder. That was a federal crime, but the punishment is just relatively small fines ($350–1,500). Downtown Athletic claims that they didn’t make any extra money off of this (something that cannot be known, since there were no competing bids), and the county school system says that Barnes did not personally gain from this. The school system has placed Barnes on administrative leave, and they’re considering whether he should keep his job.
Charlottesville city police are investigating a report of city funds being used to pay for a cell phone used by former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander more than three years after she left office, K. Burnell Evans reports in The Daily Progress.
The Electoral Board is a three member board that is charged with conducting elections in Charlottesville and certifying the results. Members are appointed by Charlottesville Circuit Court Judges based on nominations from the two political parties that received the most votes in the most recent gubernatorial election. The current Governor’s party has two representatives on the Board and the party receiving the next highest number of votes has one representative. Current members are Chairwoman Joan Schatzman and Vice Chair James Nix, both representing the Democratic Party, and Republican Rick Sincere.
Members are optionally given city-issued cell phones, and three years after she left the Board, Democrat Stephanie Commander was still using hers at a cost to the city of over $2500 since leaving office.
City Registrar staff brought this issue to the attention of City Manager Maurice Jones last March. On Friday, Board Chairwoman Joan Schatzman turned phone records over to city prosecutors. In addition to Ms. Commander, for the past five years the city has also paid for a cell phone for Pat Owen, the husband of City Registrar Sherri Iachetta. Ms. Iachetta reports that she has reimbursed the city for her husband’s phone every month since it was first issued to him.
Board members Nix and Sincere do not have city-issued phones.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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