Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Fluvanna Sued Over County Seal Restrictions

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 4, 2011 in Government, Law and Justice and Meta News. 3 Comments

Fluvanna County is being sued for their ordinance limiting the use of the county seal, Tasha Kates writes in the Daily Progress. Bryan Rothamel, the proprietor of Fluco Blog, is being represented by the Rutherford Institute in his lawsuit, in which he accuses the county of violating his constitutional rights, specifically his right to free expression and the equal protection clause. The Fluvanna Board of Supervisors adopted the ordinance just a few months ago, in response to Rothamel’s occasional use of the seal on his website, where he has used it as an icon indicating news about the county. Here’s the relevant bit of § 2-7-2 of the Fluvanna County Code:

The seal of Fluvanna County is and shall remain the property of the County. No person, entity or organization shall exhibit, display, or in any manner utilize the seal or any copy, replication, facsimile or representation of the seal, whether in printed, electronic or other format, unless such use shall have been expressly authorized by the board of supervisors.

The state has a similar law regarding the seal of Virginia, § 1-505:

The seals of the Commonwealth shall be deemed the property of the Commonwealth; and no persons shall exhibit, display, or in any manner utilize the seals or any facsimile or representation of the seals of the Commonwealth for nongovernmental purposes unless such use is specifically authorized by law.

The Secretary of the Commonwealth has long enforced this, preventing anybody from using the state seal (outside of the context of the state flag, on which it appears) that appears to imply endorsement. The logic, as I understand it, is that a seal is a government entity’s equivalent of a signature—it’s how they put their stamp on something (often literally). But the difference here is that the state doesn’t seek to stop people from using the state seal for legitimate purposes, whereas Fluvanna County appears to have passed this law for precisely that reason.

Given that Rothamel promotes on his site that the site receives 65 visits per day, it’s particularly bizarre that the county would bother to craft a law to target him. Note that, in the Daily Progress’ article, they include a prominent reproduction of the Fluvanna County seal, in flagrant violation of this new law. Good for them.

Chavers Convicted of Murdering Her Boyfriend

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 15, 2010 in Law and Justice. Closed

Ulisa Chavers has been convicted of murdering her boyfriend, the Times Dispatch reports. You remember her as the Louisa County woman who murdered her husband and buried him in a shallow grave, then poisoned her boyfriend and hid his body in a well. She collected their Social Security benefits for years afterwards. Chavers is already in prison, serving fifteen years for embezzlement and hiding her boyfriend’s body—now she’s got another thirty years to serve on top of that. Given that she’s 62 years old, that’s a life sentence.

Huguely: Love’s Death Coincidental

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 15, 2010 in Law and Justice. 15 Comments

If you haven’t yet had your daily dose of eyeball-popping rage, this will be the perfect thing for you: George Huguely’s defense is that Yeardly Love just happened to die while he was bludgeoning her, as a result of her Adderall prescription, Lisa Provence writes for The Hook. The medical examiner determined that Love died from blunt force trauma to the head, but Huguely’s attorney, Fran Lawrence, insists that her cause of death is unknown, so it may well have been that the Adderall in her system meant that she was highly vulnerable to a fatal cardiac event.

The goal here is presumably to establish doubt in the mind of an eventual jury—potentially the difference between life in prison and a decade.

County Names Police Chief

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 13, 2010 in Crime, Government and Law and Justice. 2 Comments

Fairfax County Deputy Chief of Police Steve Sellers has been named Albemarle’s new police chief, Carter Johnson reports for CBS-19. Chief John Miller is retiring after two decades as the county’s top cop. Sellers was selected from 108 candidates. He’ll start the job at the end of January.

Salvation Army Robbery an Inside Job

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 9, 2010 in Crime. 4 Comments

Well, we’ve figured out exactly who is getting coal in his stocking for last week’s Salvation Army robbery: the purported victim. Stephanie Satchell reports for CBS-19 that Lawrence Egnor has been charged with embezzlement and making a false report to police after allegedly faking a robbery on his first day on the job as a bell-ringer. Three others—his accomplices—were also charged in the case. Since less than $200 was stolen in total, that’s a take of about $50/person for this sad little caper.

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