Monthly Archive for August, 2006

NBC 29’s Paul Merrill interviewed Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos about the widespread criticism of Camblos’ handling of the smoke bomb case, and Camblos isn’t exactly contrite. The big news is that he intends to run for reelection next year, but there are some choice quotes from the piece, with my favorite being, on the recent acquittal in the case: “We were disappointed with the decision, but the system works.” If he was disappointed — meaning that he believes boy should be in prison right now — wouldn’t that mean that the system doesn’t work?

What’s amazing is Camblos chalking up the concerns of y’all on cvillenews.com as nothing more than whines. If a single person has defended Camblos in this entire kerfuffle, since all information came to light a couple of months ago, I’m yet to hear of them. The fact is that he’s screwed this case up royally, and is in the process of screwing up the case against the other three kids.

I’ve got to put together a Camblos’ Greatest Hits blog entry. It’s quite a remarkable list. If Camblos “gets grief after every trial,” as he says, perhaps it’s time he figured out that might have something to do with him doing a lousy job.

Howard Barnet and his 13-year-old son were guests on Coy Barefoot’s “Charlottesville Live” on Thursday, one day after the boy was acquitted on charges of conspiring to attack two county high schools. Sean Tubbs podcasts the interview on Charlottesville Podcasting Network. It’s a must-listen for anybody following the case. The guests reveal that the kid had no attorney at his intake hearing, that it was four days until his parents were allowed to see him, and that the computer evidence used to convict him in his first trial was so lame that it was never even entered as evidence in the second trial. The senior Barnet, when asked about Commonwealth Attorney Jim Camblos, said that, under him, Albemarle “looked more like a fiefdom than a county.”

The worst thing to come out of all of this may be the lesson to parents and kids: never talk to police officers, and always demand a lawyer. We may end up with a generation of kids taught to fear police.

A jury has found not guilty the 13-year-old accused of conspiring to “blow up” AHS and WAHS. He was the youngest of the kids arrested in February, and had previously been found guilty in a closed trial. It became more obvious over the months that these were trumped-up charges, mere showboating on the part of Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos, and the jury clearly agrees. As Liesel Nowak explains in today’s Progress, it became clear over the course of the trial that this boy didn’t even know two of the other students with whom he was charged with conspiring. Along the way he had to spend two months in jail and was expelled from school. Private schools won’t even talk to him. Perhaps it’s time to get that expulsion rescinded, so he can get back to his life?

Lisa Provence also has a run-down of the trial in The Hook, and there’s coverage of the decision on their blog.