LexisNexis has sold their downtown Charlottesville building, the Daily Progress reports. A holding company bought the property for $9.3M. Lexis built the structure 22 years ago to replace their facility on Market Street (rechristened the Old Michie Building by Gabe Silverman). Lexis has slowly laid off hundreds of employees over the course of years, and they’re now down to just 175 people. They’re leasing back space in the building from the new owner, and claim that they have no plans to shut down the Charlottesville office.
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News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
On The DTM, proprietor Dave McNair interviews the two men accused of a gleeful, random attack on the Downtown Mall last month, and the picture that the accused paint of themselves is rather opposite of the one painted of them by the thousands of angry racists who descended on C-Ville Weekly’s website to post vile comments.
For starters, Malcolm Stevenson (25) and Richard Spears (23) are both openly gay. Stevenson is a graduate of the University of Virginia, and is a manager at Eppie’s. Spears is a soft-spoken, full-time student of the Virginia School of Massage, where he’s studying to be a massage therapist. Their police records are minimal: Stevenson has a few traffic violations, Spears was once charged with swearing in public and intoxication. Although these facts in no way demonstrate that they are or are not guilty of the attacks, these men certainly are nowhere close to fitting the gangbanger stereotype that Matt Drudge and his followers presented them as.
The two men say that they’d been drinking, and admit to a physical altercation with Marc Adams and his girlfriend, Jeanne Doucette. But they accuse the two of being drunk, and having started the altercation, saying that Doucette called them “black faggots” and that Adams aggressively pursued Stevenson. They say that a third man—a stranger—stepped in, trying to break it up, and that it was he who punched Adams in the face.
Stevenson tells McNair that he understands that he’s going to be charged with something—that’s what happens after a fight—but that “if I’m going to be held accountable for my actions, then they need to be held accountable for theirs.”
After two men turned themselves in for assaulting two people downtown last month, Dave McNair (formally of The Hook) writes on The DTM that a more complicated narrative is emerging. I hope more information comes out about this soon, because this story—what it says about and how it influences race relations in Charlottesville—is important, and potentially powerful.
Randy Allen Taylor has been charged with the murder of Nelson teenager Alexis Murphy, Justin Faulconer reports in the Lynchburg News and Advance. Taylor was arrested a week after the 17-year-old’s disappearance in August, and charged with abducting her. Now a grand jury has indicted him on charges of murder. Murphy has not been found, and Taylor apparently is still insisting on his innocence, instead blaming a black, male drug dealer.
Charlottesville Mayor Satyendra Huja has been selected for another two-year term, Aaron Richardson reports in the Daily Progress. Nobody nominated vice mayor Kristin Szakos to succeed Huja in the position. She abstained from voting, so Huja won in a 4–0 vote. Councilor Dede Smith was then selected as the new vice mayor, by a 5-0 vote.
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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