County Supervisor Chris Dumler was arrested yesterday and charged with forcible sodomy, Rob Graham reports for WINA. Police have said only that it’s a result of an alleged incident on October 4 and that the complaining witness is somebody who Dumler knows—no other information has been provided. He was held overnight at the jail, and has a bond hearing this morning. Dumler, a Democrat, was elected to the Scottsville district last November.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
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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Wow.
Let the wild speculation begin!*
*offer valid only if you are not family of the victim, perpetrator, or have delicate snowflake sensibilities and are easily offended by the mean scary internets.
that’s an exit only area for me….
TT: I recommend you go read the link Waldo posted to the relevant definition of “sodomy” in the VA legal code. It includes fellatio.
Has anyone notice the tap water in town tastes like chemical soup, since about yesterday? Was there an accident at the RWSA? This is worse swimming pool taste than at any height of summer in the past, I’d say about 150% as concentrated in chlorine/whatever. Have they switched to the new chemical they are not going to switch to, or however that worked out?
I hope that justice is done and today we have no idea what that will look like based on the facts so far. I don’t know what it really means but took 10 days to report the crime to the police. I don’t say this to minimize the accusation but to point out that it makes certain physical evidence less likely to be presence. It also makes the question of why the victim waited an issue-something that would be addressed at trial. If this becomes just a “he said , she said” case it becomes more difficult to obtain an conviction without additional corroboration.
I mention the time the alleged crime took to be reported as it changed in my initial perception of the facts. At first I thought the police gotten a report nearer to the Oct 4 incidence and Dumler was charged after a serious and substantial investigation that understood what a false accusation would do to a public official.
Now it appears that Dumler was charged less than 48 hours after the compliant was filed. I don’t know what this really means but it makes me worry that there might be a rush to judgement. I have absolutely no information to make that an actual assertion but it’s a significant concern.
It’s a good idea that the Fluvanna prosecutor was brought in and I hope that justice will be done and will wait to see what that will look like.
Victims of sexual violence frequently wait to alert authorities (or, far too often, never alert authorities at all), often as part of a psychological defense mechanism. They need to get past the “denial” phase. That takes some people years to get past. So I don’t think that the delay in filing a report weighs either for or against the veracity of the complaint.
The delay doesn’t speak to veracity, but it does mean there will be little to no physical evidence.
Some studies show 8% of rape reports are “unfounded”, which does not speak to whether they are accurate or not, but whether anything corroborates them. Many studies show people are no more likely to report a non-existant rape than they are to report a non-existant burglary. Yet we still live in the land of he-said/she-said.
When I was raped several decades back, I learned several things about myself that I had hoped were true: I’m good in a crisis, I’m strong, and I (95%) didn’t feel responsible for being attacked. I was calm enough on the 911 call that they asked me who the victim had been. They (LAPD) asked if I would prefer a female officer and I replied (I kid you not), “That would be lovely”. Then I immediately thought that some clever lawyer would use that response to deny the attack had occured at all. I was raped by, as the detective styled it, a ‘professional rapist’: someone who had already been in court for rape & took certain clear steps to mitigate the physical evidence that might be left behind.
I immediately reported my rape, went through the truly heinous experience of having evidence collected, and immediatley entered counselling. I strove to avoid flash-backs and reviewed all of the details of my rape several times a day for months in an effort to not duck the details & be subject to them later. It turns out that that bit didn’t work: flashbacks aren’t just memories — they’re feelings. And when, on Christmas Day months later, safely surrounded by my family, I did have flashbacks, they were horrific. The fear is simply overpowering and immobilizing. I understand the fight-or-flight response quite intimately now.
So why am I blah-blah-blahing all of this under my own actual name? Because about a quarter of American women have gone through this, but we rarely speak of it even to each other. I don’t go out of my way to say “I was raped”, but I don’t shy away from it when that’s the topic at hand. The room goes oddly quiet, but it’s the quiet of cogitation usually.
My rapist was never prosecuted: at least not for my rape.
TT: seriously? when the subject of “forcible sodomy” comes up, you find the “sodomy” part more objectionable than the “forcible” part?
Thank you Barbara for your incredibly open honest report on sexual assault and resulting wounds. You are to be commended for your courage and helpfulness. Don’t pay any attention to anyone who tries to tell you to stay quiet on issues such as this. We can all benefit from the lessons you have learned.
Nice work Dumler….and y’all it wasn’t oral sex…
Speculation on the Internet is a nice way to pass lonely time. And humans are curious creatures. However, all these armchair gumshoes are doing is wasting valuable bandwidth.
What if the arrest happened so fast because of the overwhelming physical evidence? What if that evidence so compelled the County prosecutor that she approved the arrest despite the fact Dumler was her campaign manager? (she had to have since the City and Fluvanna prosecutors said they didn’t know the case yet.) isn’t it odd that he’s on alcohol restrictions? The papers are only quoting people defending his character, all of whom have political or financial connections to him. Unless the sources have slept with him, their perspectives are totally irrelevant. Please, for the sake of women everywhere, get off the computer and go volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club.
Tin-foil hat time, just for fun. What if the police are republican operatives? Read the last sentence here:
http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/Cynthia-Neff-Arrested-on-DUI-Charge-176257251.html
[…] ten days ago that Neff posted a $50,000 bond to get fellow-Democrat Chris Dumler out of jail after he was arrested on charges of forcible sodomy. In her mugshot, Neff is sporting what looks for all the world like a Mike Tyson-style facial […]