Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Class Action Suit Over DNA Testing

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 24, 2005 in Crime and Law and Justice. 14 Comments

In early 2004, hundreds of black men were persuaded to submit to DNA testing in the years-old hunt for the serial rapist, told that they could eliminate themselves from the suspect pool (which consisted of all black men in Charlottesville) if they did so. The ensuing controversy made national news in April, leading to the suspension of the dragnet by Chief Timothy Longo. All of this resulted in Larry Monroe filing a $15,000 lawsuit against Detective James Mooney in July of last year, citing harassment. Monroe looks absolutely nothing like the description of the rapist, other than being a black man. The suit was dismissed.

Now Monroe has filed a class-action lawsuit against the detective, the police department, and the city, John Yellig writes in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Monroe alleges violations of his constitutional rights, including the 14th (equal protection) and 4th (unlawful search and seizure) amendments. Once again, only $15,000 in damages is sought. A particularly interesting bit of the lawsuit is the allegation that a report was filed within the police department regarding anybody who refused to submit to the DNA test — it’s not known what the purpose of those reports were, or what’s become of them.

Geoffrey the Giraffe Creator? Local.

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2005 in General News. 5 Comments

Remember how Thomas Rogers, creator of Charlie the Tuna, the Keebler Elves, and Morris the Cat, lived here? It seems we’ve got another mascot creator living in the area — Mike Edgett, creator of Geoffrey the Giraffe, lives in Buckingham. David Maurer profiles Edgett in today’s Daily Progress.

The oddest bunch of folks live around here.

1970 Pro-Vietnam War Sermon

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2005 in General News. 1 Comment

Early May 1970 was a tumultuous time. May 4 brought Kent State, Nixon had just sent 30,000 troops into Cambodia, and on May 9, 100,000 people protested the Vietnam War in Washington D.C.

On May 10, in the thick of all of this, Dutch war hero and First Presbyterian Church minister Dr. Arie D. Bestebreurtje gave a fiery pro-war sermon, in reaction to national protests and protests held at UVa. It was broadcast by WINA at the time and, due to high demand, rebroadcast shortly thereafter. The event was all but forgotten until now.

Charlottesville blogger Colten Noakes bought a box of reel-to-reel tapes at a yard sale a couple of years ago, including one with the audio of that sermon. Colten has made the audio available on his website, and it definitely makes for a fascinating bit of history.

This is a great example of the value of internet archival of local media content. Though Dr. Bestebreurtje’s might have been noteworthy at the time, it’s downright fascinating these 25 years later. Day-old news might be worthless, but decade-old news is invaluable.

NBC 29 Weatherman Fired

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2005 in Meta News. 5 Comments

I just got an anonymous e-mail that reads: “Chris Curtis, NBC 29’s newest weatherman has been let go. Rumors are flying and there are lots of unhappy people in that newsroom right now.”

I have no idea if this is true, but since his name has disappeared from their website (before, after), it certainly seems that he’s no longer with them. Can anybody confirm or clarify? NBC 29 employees who want to toss in their $0.02 but also value their anonymity are welcome to contact me privately.

8:00pm Update: I’ve now talked with several folks at NBC 29, all anonymously, who have explained what’s going. It seems that there are not, in fact, many unhappy people in the newsroom, save for those weatherfolk who have to work the Christmas hours that Curtis would have worked. I’m told that Curtis has been arrested twice for public indecency and lewd exposure, in February and October of this year. Apparently this happened while he was at WCIA-TV, in Champaign, IL. (Though multiple sources tell me this, I can’t confirm this independently.)

This is a problem for NBC 29 because of their “morals clause,” which requires on-air staff to maintain a solid public image — Curtis signed it without disclosing his arrests. Note that he has not been convicted of anything. I don’t know Illinois law, but in Virginia just taking a leak in the woods is enough to be arrested on these charges. Curtis has a court date in a month’s time.

NBC 29 News Webcast

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 21, 2005 in Meta News. Closed

NBC 29 is doing something new — streaming their noon and 5pm news broadcasts. On the theory that a lot of people are at work then, but might like to watch the news anyhow, they’re making a stream available in Windows Media format. It’s a clever idea.

It would be extra clever if they’d archive those broadcasts and embed them in an RSS feed, so people could subscribe. That’d take an extra hour of work. Or if they could break up each broadcast into its component stories and podcast ’em, that’d be double plus good.

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