Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Rural Protections Fail BoS Vote

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 15, 2007 in Development and Politics. 15 Comments

Predictably, the Board of Supervisors failed to pass a trio of rural protection measures along a 3-3 split, Jeremy Borden reported for the Daily Progress on Friday. Kenneth Boyd, Lindsay Dorrier and David Wyant — the three who are up for reelection this year — voted against prohibiting people from building on steep slopes, barring houses from being built within 100 feet of streams, and lengthening the two year prohibition on subdividing land that’s been split up via a family subdivision. Supervisor Sally Thomas, as a last-ditch effort, proposed that rural landowners simply provide a plan to deal with erosion resulting from building a driveway that would result in significant runoff, but that failed along the same lines. Charlottesville Tomorrow provides the audio of the debate.

Whether or not Boyd, Dorrier and Wyant’s positions are what the county wants will be determined in just a few weeks. All have challengers for their seats, with Boyd and Wyant having particularly vigorous opposition.

Allegations of Police Brutality

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 15, 2007 in Crime. 61 Comments

Courteney Stuart reports in the current Hook about a pretty stunning arrest that took place on Water Street a few weeks ago. A 27-year-old Iraq/Afghanistan veteran was crossing Water Street with his fiancee when a Charlottesville police vehicle came barreling through the crosswalk. The angry man shouted at the officer to slow down, and the officer promptly got out of the SUV and handcuffed him. His fiancee asked the cop why he was being arrested, and the officer knocked her to the ground in response. A dozen angry onlookers demanded that the officer let the pair go while one called 911 to report an incident of police brutality. Another officer arrived and arrested the female, and the two were taken into custody on charges of public swearing, intoxication and obstruction of justice. The woman went to the emergency room for her injuries. The two went before a judge on the charges back on the 11th. There’s no word on the outcome.

Camblos Mum on Record, Sheriff Candidates Debate

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 5, 2007 in Law and Justice and Politics. 43 Comments

In the Hook‘s profile of commonwealth’s attorney Jim Camblos, he eventually realized he couldn’t defend himself. By the time Lisa Provence asked him why he didn’t bring charges in the death of the Deane family on 29N, he flat out refused to discuss it. Based on last night’s candidate forum, it looks like Camblos has discovered what the rest of us know: his record is indefensible. As Rob Seal writes in today’s Daily Progress, Camblos refused to stand on his record when challenged on it. Democratic challenger Denise Lunsford pledged to restore the good name of the office, citing Camblos’ habitual bungling of serious cases, setting criminals free. Camblos simply wouldn’t respond, providing only the non sequitur that he’d “stay positive,” thus declaring that even he thinks his record is a negative.

Sheriff candidates Chip Harding (the Republican) and Larry Claytor (the Democrat) seem to have had a more informative exchange at the event. Claytor is campaigning on simply doing what the sheriff’s office is tasked to do and doing it well — transporting prisoners, serving people papers and securing the courtroom — while Harding is campaigning on expanding the office’s mission, creating a new system in which deputies would track down online sexual predators. Ironically, this places both of them in the opposite camps that would traditionally be expected for the two parties, with Harding seeking to expand government and Claytor seeking to hold the line. Presumably Harding’s time in the Charlottesville Police and the Claytor’s pedigree as an Albemarle Republican has something to do with that.

Strom’s Pedophilia Charges Dropped

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 4, 2007 in Law and Justice. 8 Comments

White supremacist, pedophile, and wife-beater (the trifecta) Kevin Strom has had two charges dropped against him, Rob Seal reports in the Progress. It turns out that it’s totally legal for a grown man to obsess over a ten-year-old girl, send her gifts and love letters, suggest marriage, and cruise by her house. It’s also totally legal for him to beat and threaten his wife after she reports him to the police — that’s not, in fact, intimidating a witness. There do, however, remain the child pornography charges on which he was arrested in January. I’d bet cash that he’ll spend more time in prison for just looking at child porn than somebody who’d actually had sex with a kid. (And probably as much as somebody who sent sexual IMs to a kid.)

But you’ve got to love this part of the story, about Strom’s wife walking in on him:

“She caught him masturbating, but I’m sure that he was not the only one in the county doing that,” [Judge Norman] Moon said in court. “And it’s not a crime, so far.”

I don’t know what’s more awesome — Judge Moon declaring that, or Rob Seal including it in the story.

City Buys Whale Tail

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 3, 2007 in Art and Taxes. 26 Comments

Greenbrier residents really love the ArtInPlace sculpture at the corner of Dairy and 250, the 28-foot-wide wooden whale tail, so it’s not surprising that they got pretty upset when its sculptor was entertaining an offer to move to move the work to a Vienna botanical garden. Seth Rosen reports in today’s Progress that the whale tale isn’t going anywhere — the city has bought it. They’ll lease it for $3,000/year for the next five years, so long as the sculpture holds up.

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