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.

Spivey Sentenced

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 27, 2007 in Law and Justice. 141 Comments

One year after he was first accused and three months after he pleaded guilty, former CHS choir director Jonathan Spivey has been sentenced to 21 months in prison, Rob Seal reports for the Progress. (He was actually sentenced to twenty years, but the remainder was suspended.) When released he’ll be on probation for five years and have to register as a sex offender.

Local Farmers Arrested for Labeling Offense

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 27, 2007 in Business and Crime. 24 Comments

The couple who run Double H Farm, in Nelson, have been arrested for using non-approved labels as price tags, Dave McNair writes for The Hook. The couple, in their 60s, had their farm swarmed by ten Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services agents, a state trooper, and the Nelson County Sheriff before they were handcuffed and hauled away in separate cruisers. Their Double H pork products were seized from restaurants across the area, destroyed by soaking them with bleach. Double H’s owners are well-known advocates for the rights of family farmers, which has surely earned them no love from state regulators.

I know a fair number of people in the farming and livestock business. They are all terrified of harassment by the state, which appears to both loathe family farms, actively seeking out piddily reasons to bust them. Locally-produced food is a strong interest of mine, and I’ve encouraged some of these food producers to speak out, but they’re all terrified that if they do, VDA&CS will invent a reason to shut them down. Now I see why.

This is going to get ugly — the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association will make sure of that. I wonder if any members of the General Assembly will have the good sense to introduce legislation to support family farms and stop this harassment on the part of state regulators.

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