Niko gets a stay of execution.
Courtesy Prayers for Niko
Totally cleared
Robert Davis, 32, spent 13 years in prison for a Crozet double slaying after making what experts call a textbook false confession. He was released a year ago on a conditional pardon and on December 16, the governor granted an absolute pardon, a rarity in Virginia. Read more.
Rumor of the week
Is Lampo opening a steakhouse in the downtown Bank of America building, where owner Hunter Craig has already confirmed a grilled meatery will be going? Lampo co-owner Loren Mendosa says, “That’s a popular rumor,” and declined to comment.
Last week’s rumor confirmed
Quantitative Investment Management owner Jaffray Woodriff issued an official Payne Ross release acknowledging that an entity called Taliaferro Junction LLC is evaluating the Main Street Arena as a purchase for a 21st-century office building that will not house QIM.
Accounting for every penny
Charlottesville plans to award Belmont Bridge preliminary design and engineering to Kimley-Horn of Richmond, and negotiated the cost to $1,980,038.77, according to a release.
ABC not liable
Photo by Bryan Beaubrun
A judge dropped the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control and Agent John Cielakie from Martese Johnson’s $3 million lawsuit stemming from his bloody 2015 arrest after he showed his real ID at Trinity Irish Pub and was turned away.
No more No. 15
UVA basketball star Malcolm Brogdon’s jersey is headed for the display cases and his number has been retired, making him the eighth Hoo to receive this honor. Brogdon is now a rookie for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Sad tidings
Christopher Spears, 22, of Waynesboro died in a single-car crash around 4am December 16 on U.S. 250 in Crozet in Albemarle’s sixth fatal crash this year.
Candy land
Photo Tom McGovern
From the initial blueprint to the cardboard model to the actual cookie construction, UVA Dining’s executive pastry chef Janice Benjamin takes building gingerbread houses to a new level. This year, she based her annual holiday work of art, which currently sits in the main lobby of the UVA Children’s Hospital, on everyone’s favorite movie of the season: Elf.
On the house: 304.5 hours of labor | 98 pieces of gingerbread | 60 pounds of royal icing | 6 pounds of cherry Twizzlers used on
the Empire State Building | 6 different kinds of licorice | 2 12-volt rechargeable wheelchair batteries to power the skating rink
Accused cat killer granted stay
Courtesy Pray for Niko
An Albemarle County pit bull named Niko, on doggie death row for allegedly attacking and killing a neighbor’s cat in 2014, has been granted a stay until January 18, when his owner will appeal Judge Cheryl Higgins’ order to execute him.
What was scheduled as Toni Stacy’s last visit with her pup at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA on December 18 turned into a protest attended by many sign-waving dog-lovers and an eventual celebration when Stacy received the news later that day.
The case has also attracted the attention of Against All Oddz Animal Alliance Inc., a Buffalo, New York, rescue organization that has offered to take Niko into its care. It is undecided whether the group will be allowed to gain custody of him.
Prayers for Niko/Niko Strong, a Facebook page for the pit’s supporters, has nearly 4,000 members. Kristy Hoover, a friend of Niko’s owners, created the group last October. “He’s just a typical dog,” she says. “He’s not vicious in any form.”
Stacy maintains that Niko did not attack the cat he’s charged with killing, but she posted on Facebook that “it’s all in God’s hands now.”
Quote of the week
It was such an amazing relief to have gotten the news and it was so favorable. It’s been a long, long journey. —Attorney Steve Rosenfield upon hearing Governor Terry McAuliffe had granted Robert Davis an absolute pardon.
Robert Davis is ready to "thrive and flourish" as a free man with his felony record expunged. Photo Ryan Jones
Robert Davis faced the camera on Facebook live at 7pm December 16. Two hours earlier, at 4:48pm, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an absolute pardon that proclaimed Davis’ innocence for the two murders that kept him in prison for 13 years.
“I’m a free man,” said Davis on camera. “I’m trying not to cry, y’all have to understand, I’m trying not to cry.”
He then took scissors and cut the GPS ankle bracelet that he’d worn since getting out of prison December 21, 2015, when McAuliffe granted him a conditional pardon.
“I’m a free man,” he said. “I’m a free man.”
Davis was 18 years old when Albemarle police wanted to talk to him about a horrific murder that had taken place in his Crozet neighborhood February 19, 2003. After the flames died down in the house on Cling Lane, Nola Charles, 41, was found with her arms duct-taped and a knife in her back. Her 3-year-old son, Thomas, was found under debris in her bedroom, dead from smoke inhalation.
Two neighborhood siblings eventually convicted for the murders, Rocky and Jessica Fugett, said Robert was involved in the slayings. Despite dozens of denials the night police picked him up at midnight and interrogated him for six hours, desperate to get some sleep, Davis finally said the fateful words, “What can I say I did to get me out of this?”
Davis entered an Alford plea in which he did not admit guilt, but acknowledged the prosecution had evidence to convict him with what’s now considered a textbook coerced confession coupled with the possible testimony of the Fugetts, both of whom have since recanted their statements that Davis was present at the murder.
Davis, 32, describes the past year he’s been out of prison as “a wild, fun ride.” He says he’s met a lot of musicians, a lot of friends and been astounded by the support of the Charlottesville community. “It’s been phenomenal,” he says.
But it wasn’t total freedom. He had to report to a probation officer and initially had an 11pm curfew. He had to ask for permission to visit his mother over the mountain in Crimora. And he had to wear the ankle bracelet.
“I’ve got an amazing probation officer who lets me do what I want as long as I don’t get in trouble,” he says. He was allowed to go to the beach for the first time as an adult, but because the bracelet is water resistant, but not waterproof, he couldn’t go swimming.
In a year of firsts, he has his own apartment, his first serious relationship and the support of total strangers. He was the subject of a “Dateline” episode, and says every time it airs, “I get texts from people I don’t know saying they’re so glad I’m home,” he says.
He works at ACAC and Holly’s Deli, as well as at his own side landscaping business. But living in Charlottesville is expensive. “I’ve been stressing over how I’m going to pay the bills,” he says.
Now that he’s been granted a full pardon, there could be compensation from the state, says his lawyer, Steve Rosenfield, who has spent thousands of unpaid hours working on Davis’ freedom. A state legislator must submit a bill and have it voted on by the General Assembly.
“It’s an amount that saddens me,” says Rosenfield. “They take the average salary in Virginia and give 90 percent of that. It doesn’t take into consideration Robert lost his teens and twenties. There’s no, ‘Sorry we took away your childhood and young adult years.’”
And there’s another thing that gnaws at Rosenfield. “We’ve been contending for 13 years the confession Robert gave Detective Randy Snead was a coerced confession,” he says. “It’s amazing to me that you can look at it online, and after the conditional pardon, [former Albemarle police chief Steve] Sellers all of a sudden proclaims it’s an unreliable confession. How competent is that police department? Wasn’t anyone paying attention?”
Sandy Seal, Davis’ mother, had her son returned to her last year on her birthday. She acknowledges that the Charles family were victims, but says she and her family were, too.
And the whole 13 years Davis was in prison, she says, “I’ve been kicking myself. I never talked to my kids and said, ‘If a policeman wants to talk to you to clear something up, say you want a lawyer.’”
Davis’ full pardon is only the third one McAuliffe has granted, says Rosenfield, who will request Davis’ record be expunged.
“I’ve had capital cases go to jury,” he says. “I’ve seen people executed. I’ve seen juries make large awards. I’ve never had anything like this—the emotional reaction to Robert’s declaration of innocence.”
“I just screamed at the top of my lungs,” says Davis when he heard the news.
Now he can get rid of the stigma of being a convicted felon, travel and live a normal life, he says.
And throughout his long ordeal, one thing Davis hasn’t been is bitter. “People ask why I smile so much and seem so happy,” he says. “It’s because I’ve been given a second chance at a decent life. I’m just amazed at how much Charlottesville has opened up its arms for me.”
Timberlake Lighting, which is owned by Victor and Ann Dandridge, is named in Lynne Kinder’s $9 million suit against the couple and their business.
Staff photo
When Lynne Kinder’s 41-year-old husband died of a heart attack while riding his bike on New Year’s Eve in 2005, his childhood friend and groomsman in their wedding said he owed it to Trey Kinder to take care of his widow and two young children. She believed him, until discovering earlier this year that the $6.9 million she’d entrusted to Victor M. Dandridge III had shrunk to $735,000, according to court documents.
Kinder filed suit against Dandridge, a local businessman who was the former president of Farmington Country Club, Farmington Property Owners Association and the Virginia Athletics Foundation, November 17 in Richmond Circuit Court.
The suit ensnares a dozen other defendants, including his wife, Ann Claiborne Dandridge, whom the suit contends has an economics degree from UVA and had to know her husband was diverting Kinder’s funds to “line his own pockets and those of his family” and to prop up Timberlake Lighting and the Huntington Learning Center franchises they owned, the latter of which was losing $300,000 to $400,000 a year, according to the complaint.
It also names Dandridge’s father, Victor M. Dandridge Jr., who was a well-known financial adviser with Wall, Patterson in Atlanta; Richard Lloyd Booth, a “close personal friend” of the Dandridges and a managing director and co-chief investment officer with Dallas-based HBK Capital Management, which manages more than $9.7 billion; and Virginia National Bank.
According to the suit, the FBI began an investigation of Dandridge in October.
Dandridge was a partner at Thompson Davis & Company, a private wealth management firm in Richmond, from 2012 until earlier this year, when he resigned after Kinder started seeking documents from the firm, which is also named in the suit.
He helped establish local venture capital firm Tall Oaks Capital Partners LLC in 2000, according to his Thompson Davis profile.
Dandridge managed his own Runnymede Capital Management, which Kinder alleges was an account to pay his personal debts and expenses, and Wycliffe Capital Management and Selwyn Partners LP, which handled multiple clients’ money without Dandridge being licensed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, according to the suit.
[Chris Wang with Runnymede Capital Management in New Jersey emails to say his company is in no way connected with this Runnymede.]
Thompson Davis was aware of that lack of registration when it hired him, the suit says, although Dandridge did become licensed when he joined the firm.
Kinder accuses Dandridge of illegally transferring money out of her IRA, which she says “should have raised red flags” with Thompson Davis, but the firm never noticed its employee “was purloining her money,” according to the suit. The early withdrawals caused her to incur tax penalties, she says.
Thompson Davis attorney Bill Bayliss of Williams Mullen did not respond to phone calls from C-VILLE.
Virginia National Bank is named in the suit for providing Dandridge with a $2.7 million line of credit, secured by collateral from his father in early 2014. Kinder claims Dandridge used her money to fraudulently make payments and to clear the line of credit and remove his father’s obligation.
Bank president Glenn Rust did not return phone calls from C-VILLE.
Kinder also alleges Dandridge sold his Farmington house in 2015 and bought a house in Inglecress, which he sold to his friend Booth earlier this year and is now renting it to impede her “ability to unwind the transaction.”
According to Albemarle property records, Dandridge sold the house he bought in 1999 for $812,500 at 2530 Pine Lane for $2,125,000 in 2015. He paid $1.09 million for the house at 1105 Inglecress Drive that same year, and sold it to Booth’s 1105 Inglecress LLC in May for $1.5 million.
Kinder also says Dandridge used her funds to make real estate investments, buying the building at 695 Berkmar Court, the address of Timberlake Lighting and Vitruvian, the LLC that operates the learning centers. She claims he sold the building in 2014 for $1.25 million and didn’t share the proceeds or any rental income with her.
“I don’t have any comment,” says Dandridge when reached by phone.
According to the suit, Trey Kinder became an investment banker in 1997, and at the time of his death was making $2 million a year. He left his wife a $2 million life insurance policy, and $3.3 million in Wachovia stock and stock options.
Within 17 days of his death in January 2006, Dandridge sent Lynne Kinder a letter with an investment portfolio strategy and recommendations, including a “preservation of capital approach” on the $6.5 million portfolio, according to the complaint.
By 2008, she says he was no longer providing statements from the third-party brokerages where he said he’d put her money, and when she asked, Dandridge “continued to assure her that they were doing well,” the suit says.
Kinder made only modest withdrawals from the accounts, but when she did, she had to go through Dandridge, and by 2013, “grew tired of having to make requests to withdraw her own money,” she says in the suit.
With her requests for greater transparency going unanswered, according to her complaint, Kinder drove to Charlottesville on April 7 of this year, and Dandridge presented her with a one-page financial summary that said she had $1,277,536 in liquid assets and $1,407,760 in illiquid investments, a number that included her $1 million house that she’d paid off after her husband died and her $458,000 IRA.
That’s when she sought counsel.
The $6.9 million she’d entrusted to Dandridge had “catastrophically and inexplicably” been depleted to around $1.7 million, the suit alleges, during a time that, she conservatively estimates, based on S&P 500 returns, should have grown to at least $7.3 million. So far, she’s recovered only $735,000.
According to the complaint, “Dandridge admitted that he had both stolen and mismanaged Mrs. Kinder’s assets.”
Among the 13 counts, Kinder is suing for breach of contract and of fiduciary duty, fraud and negligence, and is seeking $9 million in damages.
Her attorney, Mark Krudys, declined to comment beyond the complaint. Dandridge has until January 12 to respond.
London Perrantes has been calling the shots as UVA's starting point guard since he was a freshman. Photo by Matt Riley
London Perrantes was in middle school when a grown man threatened to fight him over basketball. He and his best friend, Maasai, were playing pick-up ball in Santa Monica, California, where the two grew up together. Maasai and Perrantes spent their afternoons on the local basketball courts, facing off against older men—who often grew frustrated with Perrantes when they saw how good he was—how good this kid was.
“Whatever, let’s just get back to the game,” Perrantes said after the incident.
Always the cool head.
“He was always playing with older people,” his mom, Karina, says. “Even when he was playing with organized teams, he was playing an age level up.”
That might explain why, as a freshman, Perrantes started in all but four games for the UVA men’s basketball team, handling the ball with a maturity that often surprised fans, teammates and his coach.
London Perrantes, age 5 and as a high school senior
“London is a player that, when he got here, had tremendous feel and it was instantaneous when he was on the floor,” coach Tony Bennett says. “He just steadied everything…and I thought he showed remarkable poise for a first-year.”
Bennett and Perrates have been close from the start, and this continues to affect how the team plays. With Bennett’s experience as a point guard in the NBA, Perrantes says their relationship has shaped how he plays the point guard position at Virginia.
“We can throw ideas off of each other at all times,” Perrantes, now a senior, says. “He’s open to listening to what I have to say and I’m also listening to what he has to say so just being able to have that coach-player relationship is huge, especially for our team and our team chemistry.”
This season marked a transition for the Cavaliers. After making it to the Elite Eight last year, the Hoos lost their top two scorers in Anthony Gill and Malcolm Brogdon, who averaged 18.2 and 13.8 points per game, respectively.
Last year, with Perrantes running point, he was the “assist man,” averaging 4.3 assists per game. At the start of this year, Bennett had his eye on Perrantes as the one who needed to step into the lead scoring role. But could the point guard suddenly up his points per game by eight? And would he need to?
The answers became clear as the Cavaliers notched their first few games: While Perrantes was still a key player, everyone on the team clearly felt the call to step up his game.
On a Friday night in early November, the Cavaliers were poised to take the floor for the first game of the season, a face off against UNC Greensboro that would wind up looking more like a warm up for Virginia.
But it was the first game for Bennett’s new batch of Cavaliers, and questions about the team’s season proliferated.
How will they compare with last year’s team? Who’s going to step up and fill the gap left by Brogdon? By Gill? Even Mike Tobey, sixth man of the year for the 2014-2015 season and the starting center in 20 games for the Cavaliers last year, was a regular contributor for the team. And Evan Nolte, a senior forward last season, hit key three-pointers in several of Virginia’s games, including two during the Cavs’ March 12 loss to North Carolina in the ACC Championship.
Most importantly, though, who would pick up the slack this year?
The team’s answer? Everyone.
In a 76-51 win over UNC-Greensboro, the Cavs saw double-figures from four players: junior Marial Shayok, redshirt junior Darius Thompson, junior Isaiah Wilkins and Perrantes.
While Shayok was Virginia’s leading scorer with 15 points, sophomore Jarred Reuter, redshirt sophomore Jack Salt, redshirt junior Devon Hall, and freshmen Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome all pitched in with points of their own.
Darius Thompson. By Matt Riley
After another 15-point game against Yale on November 20 and a 12-point rack up against Grambling State on November 22, Shayok has since cooled down to a solid 9.6 points per game: a key part of the Cavaliers’ offense this year, but a far cry from the buckets per game that Brogdon delivered.
Expecting Shayok (or any other guard on the team for that matter) to take the place of Brogdon would be like exchanging your Harley-Davidson for a bicycle but still expecting to get to work on time without leaving any earlier.
Bennett said much the same thing in the team’s first press conference of the season, when he talked about the Virginia team without Brogdon and Gill.
“You don’t just replace those guys,” Bennett said. “It’s not just, oh—we’ve got the exact replica of Malcolm Brogdon or Anthony Gill—we don’t. We have some different pieces.”
As it turns out, the Cavaliers have lots of different pieces.
Coach Tony Bennett. Photo by Matt Riley
It was 21-19 Virginia—too close for comfort for the fans at the end of the first half. The game clock read 3:09 and Yale’s Blake Reynolds was on a fast break.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this; Virginia should have been safely ahead by now. This was JPJ, after all: Virginia’s court, Virginia’s crowd, Virginia’s advantage.
Regardless, Reynolds was still on a break, and a sense of inevitability washed over the crowd.
Two easy points for Yale: Tie game.
Virginia races to get back. Reynolds goes up for the layup with his right hand—here we go—but the ball never makes it to the hoop.
In fact, the ball barely leaves Reynolds’ hand before it’s swatted out of the air by Wilkins. Thwack. The whole arena hears the impact and soon the whole court hears the resounding “Ohhhhh!” of the crowd.
An unlucky deflection sends the ball into the hands of Yale’s Anthony Dallier, and with the clock at 3:02 Sam Downey goes up for the layup Reynolds missed.
Virginia’s fans release a collective sigh, but they needn’t have worried because Downey’s shot never reaches the hoop either.
A second hand reaches out for the ball and executes the same off-the-backboard block as Wilkins, complete with an unlucky deflection back to Yale. Only this time it’s not Wilkins. It’s redshirt freshman Mamadi Diakite.
Isaiah Wilkins. Photo by Matt Riley
UVA students jump up and down after the double play, clapping frantically as Yale’s shot clock continues to wind down.
This is the defensive Virginia team that Cavalier fans have been waiting for, albeit the Wilkins and Diakite double-block looks more like the defensive style of Darion Atkins from two years ago than of last season’s Gill.
That’s one thing Bennett, and UVA fans, have to look forward to this season. Sure, at times the team’s game is a little scrappier than last year’s squad—the Cavs aren’t quite the well-oiled machine on offense that they were last year—but so far they are holding their own defensively.
Even in tough matchups against Ohio State and West Virginia, UVA held its opponents to relatively low totals. In Ohio
State’s case, the Cavs forced 20 turnovers (but turned over the ball 10 times themselves).
As of Monday, December 12, the Cavaliers are first in the nation in points allowed per game, allowing only 47.6 points per game thus far.
Several of those games, though, were against unranked teams, and Virginia is expected to struggle defensively in conference play, which begins December 28 against Louisville, and brings in tougher teams like No. 7-ranked North Carolina and No. 5-ranked Duke.
Perrantes says he expects the ACC to be even more competitive than last year, when the conference sent seven teams to the NCAA tournament and put two in the Final Four, not to mention Virginia’s own appearance in the Elite Eight.
“We play, night in, night out, the best teams in the country. It’s a tough task to play in the ACC, and that’s what we kind of preach to the recruits that come here,” Perrantes says, explaining that young players like Guy and Jerome are eager to take on the challenge.
That’s the other good news about this year’s team: The bench runs deep.
Having up-and-coming players like Diakite, Reuter, Guy and Jerome to help out the starting five will be a huge bonus to the Cavs going forward, not to mention it’ll help Bennett groom his younger players for next year’s season without Perrantes.
With a veteran guard line-up of Perrantes, Hall and Thompson, as well as Salt and Wilkins down low, Virginia has a defensively strong starting five.
Devon Hall. Photo by Matt Riley
The main problem at this point? Offense.
During UVA’s November 15 72-32 shellacking of St. Francis Brooklyn, Memphis transfer Austin Nichols scored 11 points in the only game he would play for the Cavaliers (soon afterward, Bennett dismissed Nichols because he violated team rules).
As a transfer, Nichols had to sit out an entire season before being able to suit up for Virginia, and Bennett had high expectations for the power he would bring on both sides of the court, saying early in the season that Nichols would “be needed in terms of what we’re having to replace.”
In November, it seemed like practically everyone on the roster would be contributing to UVA’s offense. Hell, Virginia’s three walk-ons came into the game against Grambling State with 12 minutes of playing time left—and scored. In fact, every player on Virginia’s roster scored at least one point during the course of that game.
But what about Virginia’s offensive performance against tougher teams like Ohio State and West Virginia?
“Press” Virginia, WVU’s unofficial nickname—derived from the team’s tough press defense under Head Coach Bob Huggins—is too far ahead and the crowd knows it. Virginia, No. 6, is playing No. 25 West Virginia—its first ranked opponent of the season.
The December 3 game starts off promising, with the Hoos leading by 11 points eight minutes in, but all that changes quickly, and Virginia goes go on to lose 57-66.
The silence of the crowd after the game comes more from shock than anything else. This is, after all, the school that went 15-0 at John Paul Jones arena last season; the Cavaliers hadn’t lost at home for 24 straight games. Their last home loss was against Duke on January 31, 2015.
But the Cavalier team that hadn’t lost at home since 2015 isn’t the same team that lost to West Virginia—and maybe that’s one of the most difficult things for Virginia’s fan base to recognize.
At this point in the season, Virginia is a young team that’s still figuring out what roles each player is going to have, needs to have.
“There’s some big questions to be answered,” Bennett said at the start of the season. “If you compared our team at this stage last year, we’re doing things that we didn’t have to do before. We’re not at the same place, but there’s definitely talent and there’s promise.”
Last March 27 in Chicago, 9-year-old Malakai Perrantes, London’s younger brother, decided he didn’t like his name anymore.
The Elite Eight UVA-Syracuse game had been over for hours: The fans had gone home, the arena had cleared and the Perrantes family had returned to their hotel after watching No. 1 UVA fall to No. 10 Syracuse. But the sadness remained.
“I don’t like my name anymore,” Malakai, 9, muttered under his breath to his mom.
“Why?”
“Because of Malachi Richardson.”
Richardson, a guard for Syracuse, had a banner game: 23 points, seven rebounds, two steals.
“We just thought for sure we were headed for Texas [and the Final Four],” Karina says.
So did everyone else. Virginia had the lead over Syracuse from the eighth minute of play until the last five minutes of play, including a 14-point lead at halftime: that is until Richardson’s 21 second-half points started to add up.
But in what seemed to be a telling moment for UVA’s future, Perrantes took over Brogdon’s usual role as leading scorer that night. He put up 18 points for the Cavs, 15 of which came in the first half.
It was a performance similar to Perrantes’ recent 19-point rack-up against Ohio State, where 15 of the senior’s points came in the second half.
The starting point guard’s playing style hasn’t changed much since last year. Perrantes still leads the team in assists per game, averaging 4.4 to last season’s 4.3, and he posts an average 10.2 points per game (just one point behind his average at the end of last season).
Teammates describe him as a calm, relaxed, point guard and Bennett likens Perrantes’ leadership to that of Brogdon’s, saying he is a quiet leader who leads by example.
“He just really settles us down,” fellow guard Hall says. “He’s able to play at his own pace and slow everybody else down.”
In addition to slowing the game down, it’s rare to hear him yell at a teammate. That laid-back personality extends beyond the court.
“He’s really chill,” Wilkins adds. “He’s California cool.”
The Ohio State game in late November didn’t start off well for Perrantes, who had three turnovers and a total of four points by the end of the first half. With Virginia down 12, the Hoos hustle back to the locker room, where Bennett gives Perrantes the worst tongue-lashing he has ever received in a Virginia jersey…and it works.
With only four minutes left in the game, Ohio State is up 55-52. Perrantes’ four points to start the game have grown to 14.
But the Cavs are still trailing the Buckeyes—they haven’t been ahead since the 26th minute of play.
This is a key possession: The Cavaliers need to score.
Hall goes up for a layup. It looks good. It looks like it’s in. It looks like the shot Virginia needs. But it doesn’t fall, and every white jersey except Wilkins is half-turned to run back on defense when a bounce on the rim sends the ball back out.
The ball lands in the middle of a swarm of five Ohio State players—and UVA’s Wilkins.
Wilkins battles and comes away with the ball. Every UVA player’s hand is up in anticipation of receiving it.
Thompson, Hall, Shayok and Perrantes are in a perfect arc around the three-point line. It’s clear they’re going for the tying shot.
Wilkins throws it out to Perrantes, who is standing in calm expectation at the top of the key. Ohio State scrambles to escape the knot it’s created around Wilkins and get back in formation. Marc Loving, a 6’8″, 220-pound Buckeye forward, turns from the hoop and sprints toward Perrantes, his hand outstretched for the shot he knows is coming.
But Perrantes has already set up, the ball has left his hand, and Loving is three steps past Perrantes when the shot swooshes in. Virginia will go on to win 63-61.
This is the same Perrantes from the Syracuse game; the same cool-headed leader ready to put up a basket when the Cavs need it most.
The same 13-year-old boy telling all the grown men on the court to get back in the game.
UVA’s starting five
Isaiah Wilkins, forward
“I’m stepping up as a leader. But on the court my production has to definitely increase. I can’t stay where I was last year.”
Average points per game: 6.2
Rebounds per game: 5.1
Blocks per game: 1.33
Steals per game: 1.78
Field goal percentage: 60.5
Devon Hall, guard
“I think that my role now is
just to be a lot more assertive and be more aggressive and that’s what this team needs me to do.”
Average points per game: 5
Assists per game: 1.78
Steals per game: 0.67
Field goal percentage: 32.6
Free-throw percentage: 88.9
Jack Salt, center
“Jack does a good job—he’ll see something [on defense] and he goes up and he’s real vertical and real big,” says Coach Tony Bennett. “Those are things that can hopefully help our defense.”
Average points per game: 5.2
Rebounds per game: 3.4
Blocks per game: 0.78
Field goal percentage: 60.6
Darius Thompson, guard
“With the departure of [Anthony] Gill someone has to step up in scoring and I feel I can help the team with making more plays, being a playmaker, finding the open teammate to knock down shots—pretty much like that.”
Average points per game: 8.9
Assists per game: 2.67
Steals per game: 0.9
Field goal percentage: 51.8
Three-point percentage: 44
London Perrantes, point guard
“He doesn’t seem to lose
often who he is as a player
and how he needs to play and
I think that’s one of his best qualities without a doubt,”
says Bennett.
Harrison Keevil, chef/owner at Brookville Restaurant, says the decision to close came from wanting more time growing Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen. Photo by Amy Jackson
Brookville Restaurant will serve its final meal—a brunch—this Sunday, December 18, from 10am to 2pm.
“Every restaurant has a lifetime and Brookville has come to the end of its,” chef Harrison Keevil wrote in an e-mail shortly after making the announcement. He and his wife, Jennifer Keevil, opened Brookville, known for its farm-to-table comfort food—egg dishes, biscuits, chicken and waffles, chocolate chip cookies, bacon, bacon and more bacon—on the Downtown Mall in July 2010.
The Keevils will continue to serve local food at Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen at 703 Hinton Ave. in Belmont. They opened the shop in July of this year.
Going forward, “we will put all of our creative focus on Keevil & Keevil,” Harrison says, by expanding sandwich offerings at the shop and starting take-away hot dinners in January. “We are very excited to spend more time in Belmont,” he says.
“My fondest memories are the smiling faces that Jennifer and I had the privilege of taking care of. We got into this industry because we love to take care of people through our food and service, and all of those people that trusted us [enough] to make the journey up our stairs will be forever watched in my memory and heart,” he says.
This month’s Abode takes a peek inside a Lewis and Clark Building condo, a closer look at Montpelier’s Claude Moore Hall, a critical eye toward public spaces and more. Here’s what you’ll find:
Camellias, hellebores and more—ways to brights up your winter garden.
This month’s featured home:
Photo: Stephen Barling
When homeowner Bonnie Bond moved from Florida to Charlottesville and bought a condo in downtown’s Lewis and Clark Building, she had an extensive renovation project ahead of her. The condo showed signs of normal wear and tear, of course, but the previous owner—an expressive local artist—had used the entire home as her canvas. Read more here.
If approved, hikers and bikers will have access to 13 miles of trails at Ragged Mountain Natural Area. City of Charlottesville
After a year of debate, and a plea last week from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to delay a decision, the Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 December 19 to allow mountain biking and trail running at Ragged Mountain Natural Area.
“We are looking forward to working collaboratively with the city parks staff and all the friends of Ragged Mountain to be good stewards of this treasured public area for the benefit of all of our community,” said Jon Ciambotti via e-mail the day after the vote. Ciambotti was speaking on behalf of the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, which has already built a number of the trails at the natural area, though its members were prohibited from riding on them.
Councilor Kathy Galvin gave CAMBC a nod at the recent meeting, saying that erosion is caused by poorly built trails, not by the activities taking place on them.
Mayor Mike Signer and councilors Kristin Szakos and Galvin voted yes to allowing biking and running, while councilors Bob Fenwick and Wes Bellamy voted no. With the majority vote, they also passed a resolution to have city officials, within the next six months, determine whether biking and hiking should be allowed on the same trails and to study the best ways to maintain trail traffic. In addition, they passed an ordinance to ask the county to support their decisions.
“The county’s existing regulations applicable to [Ragged Mountain] do not allow biking with the express purpose of preventing pollution of the public water supply,” county spokesperson Jody Saunders said in a press release December 15. “The Board has asked for the deferment to allow for the possibility of more discussion and assessment regarding this issue.”
While Ragged Mountain is owned by the city, it’s located in Albemarle County, and Signer said at the meeting that each locality’s legal staff has disagreed on who gets to call the shots.
Members of the public using Ragged Mountain “will be confused as to what activities are allowed if the city’s and county’s regulations are in conflict with each another,” Saunders said in the county’s statement. “This, in turn, will create enforcement problems for the county if the city is, in effect, inviting bikers into RMNA despite the county’s regulations.”
Currently, Ragged Mountain’s rules are enforced by the city, says city spokesperson Miriam Dickler.
But Szakos says City Attorney Craig Brown indicated at the December 5 City Council meeting that the council had received all the necessary information to make a final decision, and should feel comfortable going forward with it.
“The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has said that they have no concerns about the water quality,” Szakos says, debunking the county’s main reason for asking for a decision deferral. “I would hope [the county] would take that up with the authority.”
Albemarle’s request that the city defer its decision comes at a time when city/county relations are not at their most cordial. On December 14, county supervisors okayed a consultant to study, among other things, locations to move general and district courts from the city because of parking and cost concerns about remaining in Court Square.
Updated December 20 at 12:30pm. Original story below.
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While the majority of City Council has publicly supported giving mountain biking at Ragged Mountain Natural Area the green light, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is asking them to consider stopping their decision in its tracks.
“The county’s existing regulations applicable to [Ragged Mountain] do not allow biking with the express purpose of preventing pollution of the public water supply,” county spokesperson Jody Saunders said in a press release. “The Board has asked for the deferment to allow for the possibility of more discussion and assessment regarding this issue.”
City Councilor Kristin Szakos says City Attorney Craig Brown indicated at their December 5 meeting that council has received all the necessary information to make a final decision, and should feel comfortable going forward with it.
“The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has said that they have no concerns about the water quality,” Szakos says. “I would hope [the county] would take that up with the authority.”
But City Council’s potential noncompliance may not matter.
Citing Virginia Code, Saunders says the city, as the locality-landowner, is prohibited from adopting regulations that are in conflict with the county’s since Ragged Mountain is located there.
Members of the public using Ragged Mountain “will be confused as to what activities are allowed if the city’s and county’s regulations are in conflict with another,” she says. “This, in turn, will create enforcement problems for the county if the city is, in effect, inviting bikers into RMNA despite the county’s regulations.”
Says Szakos, “That’s a difference of opinion.” The request comes at time when city/county relations are not at their most cordial. County supervisors yesterday okayed a consultant to study, among other things, locations to move courts from the city because of parking and cost concerns about remaining in Court Square.
By removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room, once used as one of artist Lydia Gasman's canvases, designer Kathy Tuner was able to further elongate the great room and open up the space. Photo: Stephen Barling
Before
When Bonnie Bond bought her condo in the Lewis and Clark Building downtown in 2012, she faced an unusual situation. Not only was the two-bedroom unit due for routine updates—the building was built in 1989, and the flooring and cabinetry reflected their age—the condo bore the marks of its previous, and very notable, owner. Artist, UVA professor and renowned Picasso scholar Lydia Gasman had used its walls as her canvas.
Gasman, who died in 2010, enjoyed a towering reputation in the art history world. She’d begun her career as a celebrated painter in her native Romania before becoming an internationally respected expert on Picasso. At UVA, where she taught for two decades, her lectures were routinely filled to overcapacity.
In the condo where she lived and sometimes held court with admiring students and friends, she’d made art part of the architecture—applying assemblage materials, like copper piping that formed mock candelabras, right to the walls. Jagged chunks of mirror glass, affixed to a column, reflected the sky near the big west-facing windows in the living area. And she’d drawn and painted on the drywall, in some places from floor to ceiling.
“The whole place was like her laboratory,” says Lyn Bolen Warren, owner of Les Yeux du Monde gallery, which still represents Gasman’s work. “She was constantly creating.”
Formerly fettered with built-ins, the living room’s far wall now features open walnut shelving, which serves as an artful spot for the homeowner’s own favorite pieces and keeps the space from feeling cluttered. Photo: Stephen Barling
New plans
There was normal wear and tear on the condo, too, of course. “It was never painted, and there was original carpeting,” says Bill Norton of Rockpile Construction, Bond’s contractor. But Bond, who was relocating from Florida to live near her son (Abode photographer Stephen Barling), knew she couldn’t find a better location in Charlottesville.
She had a vision for the look and feel of her new home, but first there were layout problems to solve. “I wanted this wall down,” she says, indicating a wall that used to separate the kitchen from the living space. “The kitchen was completely closed in,” says Norton.
Before
The team—which also included kitchen designer Karen Turner—reconfigured short hallways to make the bedrooms more private. They also deemed two and a half bathrooms to be too many for the condo, converting one into a laundry room. In a few places, they changed ceiling heights, aiming for unity throughout the not-too-large unit.
As for looks, Bond had in mind a Tuscan sensibility, a reaction to her years in Florida. “I was sick of white,” she says. “I wanted to do earth tones.”
With a consistent look being a priority, she chose one paint color, Sherwin Williams’ Bagel, for the entire place—including walls, trim and even shutters. “It feels very peaceful in here,” Turner says. “There’s nothing distracting.” Walnut flooring completes the warm, earthy palette, and it’s echoed by the walnut stain on the floating shelves that line the living area’s far wall.
For the many windows in the living and dining area, Bond decided on interior plantation shutters. “I’m not fond of draperies because they collect dust,” she says. “I love what the shutters do to the light; it’s nice at night looking down Main Street with the city lights.”
The kitchen redesign was a puzzle, says Turner, necessitating navigation around the existing ceiling height and unmovable sprinklers. The solution? Hiding the sink and appliances from the front door vantage point. Photo: Stephen Barling
Kitchen illusion
Redesigning the kitchen was a challenge, given existing ceiling heights and sprinklers that could not be moved. “It was a real puzzle,” says Turner. Her goal was for the kitchen not to “jump out at you when you walked in the front door.” In other words, though the kitchen is visible from the entrance, it needed to appear…not exactly kitchen-like.
The key was to hide the sink and appliances from the front door vantage point, instead putting cabinetry, crystalware and the wine collection on view. “It looks friendly,” says Turner. The maple cabinets “feel more like furniture,” she says.
She also protected the view from the living area, not only tucking away the larger appliances but even specifying that a counter meant to hold the blender and toaster be hidden by a 12″ wall. The granite countertops, Shaker-style cabinetry and travertine tile backsplash all contribute to a sense of quietude, with an accent provided by a walnut bartop.
The master suite got a thorough update, including a few custom touches. New built-in cabinetry with a live-edge walnut countertop provides space for books and grandkids’ toys, and near one end, with a view toward Carter Mountain, is a built-in desk.
Photo: Stephen Barling
A hallway to the bathroom doubles as a walk-through closet, with mirrored doors that replaced the old bifold-style ones. The outdated 30″ bathroom vanity gained six inches in height, making it more comfortable to use, and, as in the kitchen, a built-in cabinet “looks like a piece of furniture,” says Turner. A tub was replaced by a glass-walled shower, lined with tumbled-edge porcelain tile that mimics the look of stone.
At the condo’s entrance is a framed homage to Gasman: Contractor Bill Norton and his team carefully removed a portion of the drywall where the artist had sketched her mother’s portrait and preserved it for Bond to display. Photo: Stephen Barling
Portrait preserved
In its serenity and simplicity, the palette of Bond’s condo—which she’s occupied now for four years—has something in common with Gasman’s original vision for the place. “She started out only intending to have a white couch and the white walls,” says Warren, “and three pillows, à la Mondrian, on the white couch—a yellow, a red and a blue.” But Gasman’s restless creativity got the better of her minimalist ideals. “As time went on, she embellished each and every surface,” Warren says.
Before
In one hallway, she pasted up numerous enlargements of her beloved mother’s photograph, then sketched her own version of the portrait right on the drywall. When Bill Norton and his team undertook the renovation for Bond, they carefully removed that section of the wall, and Bond had it framed. It now hangs very close to its original spot.
Deck the garden with half a dozen stars to ornament the darkest days of winter. In the pared-down landscape between first and last freezes, when contrasts are sharp, displays of flower, form and color take on a significance lost in the lushness of summer. If you don’t already have these beauties in your lineup, add them to your New Year’s list for spring and fall planting.
Camellia
Immigrants from China and doyens of old Virginia gardens, these long-lived evergreen shrubs thrive in shady spots near buildings and beneath pine or mixed wood canopies as long as they have shelter from wind and protection from deer. Flowering in late winter, spring and fall, camellias have glossy evergreen leaves that shine in winter sun. Give them the same acidic soil, good drainage and moist conditions azaleas prefer and they will produce amazing silky blossoms ranging from blood-red and golden-white to candy-striped pink. Fall-blooming camellia sasanqua takes more sun and can be clipped as a hedge, but C. japonica, which blooms in late winter, should be given ample room to express itself (10-15’x6-10′).
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)
A native evergreen fern, deer-resistant and hardy on lean slopes, this ironclad perennial can hold a bank in a mass planting or serve as an elegant accent along paths and at entries. Good for deep shade and beautiful with stonework, it’s also ideal for woodland habitats with acid soil rich in rotted leaves and humus. Combine the Christmas fern with snowdrops and Hellebores.
Hellebore
A varied group of dependable, deer-proof evergreen perennials from Asia with strong foliar texture and very early showy flowers, they tolerate deep shade as well as dappled but will burn in hot sun. Lenten roses (H. niger and hybrids like Pine Knot) have large bell-shaped flowers in shades of cream, purple and pale green, often mottled on nodding stalks although some hybrids feature upward-facing blooms. They make long-lived clumps 1 1/2′ all around. Bear’s foot (H. foetidus) are the most arresting, reaching over 2 1/2′ tall with vivid chartreuse Dr. Seuss-like flowers. Because of their heavy presence and distinctive textures and colors, do not mix varieties; use in masses under trees like crapemyrtles and along pathways with stonework and brick.
Magnolia
Unless you are Scarlett O’Hara, you probably don’t have room for a southern magnolia (M. grandiflora), which can max out at over 60’x40′, but hybrid Little Gem gives the same scented flowers and patent-leather leaves on a smaller scale (20′). Use as a hedge or specimen by a walk or entry where scent and flowers can be closely experienced. Deciduous Asian forms like M. stellata have smaller cultivars like Waterlily and Royal Star that stay at 10-15′ and show fuzzy gray buds on silvery twigs through winter. Place them like a sculpture. Their papery pink-white blooms flutter in the cold air like a haiku.
Snowdrop and other minor bulbs
Nothing spangles late winter like the little bulbs. Plant them every fall, scavenging the old bins at garden centers. Most all are deer-proof and increase over the years with little attention. Scatter on the edges of lawns, borders and pathways: white snowdrops (Galanthus), purple “Tommies” (Crocus tommasinianus), electric blue Scillas or wood squills, creamy Chionodoxa (glory of the snow), pale blue Ipheon (spring starflower) and pastel Spanish hyacinths (Hyacinthoides).
Witchhazel
Like camellias, this large shrub comes in spring and fall flowering forms. Hamamelis x intermedia produces hybrids of Chinese and Japanese species: Arnold Promise, with bright golden fragrant February flowers, ruby-red Diane and rose-gold Jelena air their astringent ribbons in February and March, with buttery apricot fall color to boot. Our native H. virginiana blooms November through December. Wide-spreading, around 12’x12′, witchhazels sparkle as specimens or dotted along woodland edges in shade to full sun, preferring moist sheltered spots.
Whether you need a dependable groundcover or a spectacular focal point, plan to add one or more of these winter gems to the garden in the coming seasons.
Winter checklist
Clean and organize tools.
Drain and turn off outdoor faucets susceptible to freezing.
Rake existing mulch away from trunks of trees and crowns of perennials and shrubs; replace as needed to maintain no more than 2″ forperennials, 3″ for trees and shrubs.
Start Amyrillis and paper white bulbs for indoor blooms.
Shred and compost leaves to use as soil amendment and mulch.
Use wire cages to protect young trees from deer rubbing.
Water fall-planted trees and shrubs regularly in absence of rain as long as ground is not frozen.
Even around Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, fences cordon private-use areas, signalling a disconnect between social groups. Photo: Robert Llewellyn
In urban design, decisions about road lanes, sidewalk widths and shade trees affect the rhythm of use in outdoor spaces—transportation and commerce, social activity, traffic, safety, recreation and even public health are determined by these choices. Urban planners have long been using the catchphrase “live, work, play” to describe an idyllic mixture of programming, but perhaps we need to take a more careful look at what living, working and playing mean to different people.
In some cities, like Venice, Italy, vehicular traffic is nonexistent, while pedestrian traffic traverses all manner of spaces: from public squares to private alleys, bustling streets to tiny walkways. The pedestrian experience is diverse but continuous, making the whole city feel accessible and fluid. And what’s more, beyond the integration of public spaces within the pedestrian street network, public areas in Venice also feel accessible to a diverse population of users because of the myriad ways in which they can be used: Restaurants set up tables, vendors set up street carts, children play soccer and friends share drinks, all within the same streetscape.
Here in Charlottesville, the downtown pedestrian mall is theoretically similar to this type of urban fabric—a mix of public and private space with vehicular traffic almost entirely removed. However, it functions more like other American town centers, serving a clientele that mostly arrives by car. While the side alleys of the Downtown Mall have begun to densify with more businesses, themall itself is still somewhat disconnected from the neighborhoods on its perimeter, with the backs of its boutique shops remaining unadorned, unused and, in many cases, unwelcoming. Even on the mall, fences cordon private-use areas, which beckon to a particular social group and impart an exclusive atmosphere on public areas.
Commercial hubs like Reston Town Center in Northern Virginia are designated as mixed-use areas and often include outdoor play spaces or concert venues, in addition to offices and shops, but the apartments are expensive and the location within business parks and housing developments makes it a destination for shoppers and diners—more of an outdoor shopping mall than a public space. On a typical New York City block, too, the sidewalk is technically public but the streetscape is more of a commodified stage for those who patronize the shops lining it. Public parks are nestled into blocks, like islands within their surrounding landscape, with bars and playgrounds being kept decidedly separate.
In retrofitting our cities to incorporate truly public space that is both diverse and accessible, what lessons can be learned from places like Venice, small-town main streets and cozy villages? How can the public realm be made into a network, rather than patchwork? How can the streetscape play a larger role in welcoming people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds? Perhaps town centers and pedestrian malls are good models for the activation of public space within commercial centers, but they must be better integrated into the larger pedestrian realm in order to unite diverse communities, rather than divide them.
Lindsey Luria is pursuing a master of landscape architecture degree and certificate of historic preservation at UVA’s School of Architecture.
Robert Davis, 32, spent 13 years in prison for a Crozet double slaying after making what experts call a textbook false confession. He was released a year ago on a conditional pardon and on December 16, the governor granted an absolute pardon, a rarity in Virginia. Read more.
Quantitative Investment Management owner Jaffray Woodriff issued an official Payne Ross release acknowledging that an entity called Taliaferro Junction LLC is evaluating the Main Street Arena as a purchase for a 21st-century office building that will not house QIM.
