Worked for the city for: 14 years
Resides in: Charlottesville
Job title: Commonwealth’s Attorney
Best of times: The courtroom experience. “If you are interested in doing trial work, you have access to the most serious and most challenging, most important criminal cases that take place, and that has its own set of rewards in terms of being able to use your skills as an attorney for a purpose that benefits the community.”
 Dave Chapman |
Worst of times: Being unable to help everyone. “When you know that someone or something has been harmed by the behavior of another person, and it’s important to them, but you know there’s not sufficient evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Strangest moment on the job: When a man interrupted a local torch procession before the 1996 Olympics. “Some shirtless fat guy comes running out of the crowd, and starts bothering the torch bearer. It wasn’t really malicious, but he caused a terrible disturbance, and disrupted the process of the torch running. He started out with this t-shirt on, that had emblazoned on his chest ‘Coke makes you fat’ and it’s this huge guy. It was serious at the time, it was important to hold the individual accountable for his behavior, but it became the source of a running joke during this case.”
If he were a superhero, he’d be: Nobody at all. “I am who I am. It doesn’t get any better than this, it doesn’t get any worse than this.”
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.