Month: February 2019

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Arts

ARTS Pick: The Suffers

The Suffers play The Southern Cafe & Music Hall on Thursday, February 21. Publicity photo

Big things happen when The Suffers go to work on their fusion of jazz, R&B, reggae, and funk. The eight-piece act plays Gulf Coast soul defined by the sultry vocals of Kam Franklin, whose warmth is so energetic she was asked to be a spokeswoman for tourism in the group’s hometown of Houston. The good vibes that propelled the band to break out globally can be found all over its debut album, Everything Here. “There is a universal groove in the music that we play,” says keyboardist Patrick Kelly.

Thursday, February 21. $16-18, 8:30pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Hedda Gabler

Gorilla Theater brings the Victorian tropes of Hedda Gabler, starring Rachel Paisley, into the modern era. Photo by Anna Lien

In Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen crafted a painfully real representation of the 19th-century angel in the house. Stripped of her individuality, Hedda is repressed by her roles as daughter and wife. The production channels themes of subtle misogyny through love, rage, and a gripping sense of cruelty that leaves Hedda and those around her to meet a tragic end.

Through March 9. $10-15, times vary. Gorilla Theater Productions, 1717 Allied Ln. Victory Hall Theater, 401 Valley St., Scottsville.

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News

In brief: Here come the judges, more candidates, another A12-related lawsuit and more

Matt Quatrara will take over the ever-busy Charlottesville General District Court when Judge Bob Downer retires in a few months. submitted photo

New kids on the bench

The General Assembly appointed four new judges for the 16th Circuit, which includes Charlottesville and Albemarle, and two are for new positions to handle swelling caseloads.

Juvenile and domestic relations court Judge Claude Worrell, 55, will move up to circuit court. Before his appointment in 2013, Worrell was a deputy commonwealth’s attorney in Charlottesville for 20 years, and prosecuted high-profile cases like William Beebe, the 12-step rapist. Worrell will serve an eight-year term.

Gil Berger, 60, a criminal defense attorney who lives in Orange, will take Worrell’s seat in juvenile court. Berger took on law later in life and graduated from Regent University in 2000. He says he’s “exuberant” about the appointment, and that while juvenile court is not the most sought-after court, it’s the “most intense” because it involves people and families.

Albemarle Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Darby Lowe, 52, will take a new juvenile and domestic relations court seat. During her 25 years as a prosecutor, Lowe focused on the type of cases she’ll now hear as a judge, and in 2017 she won the Virginia S. “Ginny” Duvall award for distinguished juvenile prosecutor. Lowe got a conviction for the I-64 teen shooter in 2008, but had less success with the notorious 2006 “smoke-bomb” cases in which four teens were prosecuted for allegedly plotting to blow up high schools—and one was acquitted.

Lenhart Pettit attorney Matt Quatrara, 46, is also a former Albemarle and Charlottesville prosecutor. He’s taking the seat of retiring Charlottesville General District Court Judge Bob Downer. Quatrara also served as a federal prosecutor and worked for McGuireWoods. Before returning to private practice, Quatrara prosecuted two well-known locals—including deceased journalist Donovan Webster—for involuntary manslaughter from drunk driving.

Berger, Lowe, and Quatrara will serve six-year terms.

Quote of the week

“Human beings since their creation have not been stopped by any wall.”
—Maria Chavalan Sut, a Guatemalan refugee taking sanctuary in Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, on the president’s declared national emergency

In brief

She’s back

Amy Laufer, a former City Council hopeful who was narrowly beat out by Nikuyah Walker and Heather Hill in 2017, stepped down from her position on the Charlottesville School Board in January and has announced a run for the General Assembly. The Democrat hopes to unseat Republican Senator Bryce Reeves in the 17th District, which includes parts of eastern Albemarle.

Eze Amos photo

He’s back, too

Former City Councilor Bob Fenwick, who served from 2014 to 2017 (when he was ousted by Amy Laufer and Heather Hill in the Democratic primary), will run again as a Democrat. He also ran two unsuccessful campaigns as an independent during the 2009 and 2011 elections.

Search and seizure

Janis Jaquith photo

When police had the Downtown Mall on lockdown over the August 12 anniversary weekend, John Miska was arrested for purchasing banned items—razor blades, Arizona iced tea, and bug spray—from CVS. The cops weren’t worried about the two pistols strapped to him. The Rutherford Institute, on behalf of Miska, says the arrest violated Miska’s Fourth and 14th amendment rights, and filed a federal lawsuit February 13.

Opponent arises

Patrick Estes, a former NFL offensive lineman, wants to be the new sheriff in town. Submitted photo

Former Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Patrick Estes has tossed his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for Albemarle County sheriff. The UVA alum, who serves as regional director for RMC Events, has also worked for Homeland Security and been a field training officer and a narcotics and special events detective. He’ll challenge Chief Deputy Chan Bryant, who already has Sheriff Chip Harding’s endorsement.

10,992 felons…

Can now vote, thanks to Governor Ralph Northam. Since he took office a little over a year ago, his administration has restored the civil rights of nearly 11,000 previously convicted Virginians, who may also now run for public office, serve on a jury, or become a notary public. Says Northam, “I believe in second chances.”

Walk in these shoes

The Salvation Army is holding its 29th shoe drive February 23 and will distribute gently used shoes, which can be dropped off at the Salvation Army gym on Ridge Street. Past drives have collected over 100,000 pairs of footwear.

 

 

Oh, dear: City’s culling program ramps back up

Getty Images

It’s not a good time to be a four-legged woodland creature in Charlottesville. After what the city is calling a successful culling initiative last year, where sharpshooters took out 125 deer accused of creating hazardous driving conditions, Lyme disease-related health concerns, and wreaking havoc on local landscapes, the hunters are gearing up to do it again.

The same number of deer have been targeted this year, and are only being hunted in city parks during nighttime hours. “The operation,” as city officials call it, is “carefully coordinated” with the Emergency Communications Center and the Charlottesville Police Department. It started February 18 and is expected to continue into March.

Here are the results from the 2018 program:

  • 125 deer killed on nine city-owned properties
  • 11 nights of hunting
  • 2,850 pounds of deer meat donated to Loaves & Fishes
  • 0 albino or white deer shot
Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: I’m Not Running

London’s National Theatre Live broadcasts I’m Not Running, a new play from critically acclaimed playwright David Hare, to The Paramount Theater on Sunday.

London’s National Theatre Live broadcasts I’m Not Running, a new play from critically acclaimed playwright David Hare. The drama centers around Pauline Gibson (Siân Brooke, right), a doctor turned politician who has her life turned upside down after a run-in with a stalwart loyalist of the Labour Party, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Moral dilemmas and personal strife abound in a showdown for party leadership.

Sunday, February 24. $11-15, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.

Categories
News

Superintendent says Confederate imagery disrupts learning, but board chair postpones vote

The February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting got heated after Chair Jonno Alcaro tabled a resolution that would restrict Confederate imagery on clothing in schools until the next meeting. Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County provided refreshments. Photo by Eze Amos

A resolution to ban Confederate imagery on clothing in Albemarle schools was back on the agenda at the February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting. The last time the issue came up, in August, six people were arrested.

School board members were split on the issue, and again postponed a decision, to the dismay of both attendees and Superintendent Matt Haas, who said he was ready to ban the imagery because it created a disruption to learning.

Haas says that rationale, supported by a recent report from the School Health Advisory Board that concluded Confederate imagery might be harmful to students, could protect the board should a lawsuit ensue. But several school board members, citing a 2003 First Amendment lawsuit from a Jack Jouett sixth grader not allowed to wear his NRA T-shirt, expressed concerns about infringing on students’ rights.

At first, the meeting was business as usual. After commending eight Albemarle students on qualifying for the Daily Progress Regional Spelling Bee, board members listened to local middle schoolers attest to the importance of extracurricular civics programs.

Then came public comment. Most speakers, many with Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, pressed the board to pass the resolution banning Confederate imagery. They delivered impassioned pleas stressing that minority children cannot feel safe around classmates wearing Confederate imagery, as audience members stood up in solidarity.

“To allow children to wear [Confederate imagery], carry it into a school, is no different from having them bring in swastikas,” said Matthew Christensen, a social worker. “I have seen the violence. I have seen the hatred. It has such an impact on our kids and it’s going to stay with them; it’s not going to go away when the image disappears.”

Star Peterson, one of the victims injured in the August 12 vehicular assault, spoke about the use of Confederate imagery during local hate rallies in 2017. “During the summer of hate…Richard Spencer and his people marched by a family festival with Confederate flags,” she said. “I can tell you I saw Confederate flags at a KKK rally. I can tell you I saw Confederate flags with my own eyes at the Unite the Right rally. There is no question of their significance.”

Before proceeding to debate, the board reviewed new items added to the Albemarle County schools budget, such as $30,000 earmarked for panic buttons. Then, it took a 30-minute break.

When the meeting reconvened, Assistant Superintendent Bernard Hairston submitted the resolution.

Board members Steve Koleszar, Kate Acuff, and Jason Buyaki, who wore a Confederate tie at one of the board’s previous discussions of the topic, said they felt the ban violated the First Amendment and failed to solve the underlying problem of racism.

Chair Jonno Alcaro implied he was reluctant to pass it for similar reasons, and decided to table the resolution until the next meeting, on February 28, to hear public concerns and allow the board more time to review the language.

Many in the audience were stewing. Amidst shouts of “coward” and “you’re supporting fascism,” Lara Harrison stood in front of the dais and flipped board members off with both hands.

After a minute of murmurs and muffled laughter, Alcaro noticed and asked her to sit down. “I’m not disrupting the meeting,” she replied, sitting on the steps. “I thought you were in favor of free speech.”

She returned to her seat after Alcaro threatened to have her removed.

Harrison had been arrested for trespassing during the special August 30 school board meeting concerning the same policy, though the charges were later dropped.

Audience interruptions continued throughout the meeting, but those heckling the board either stopped after being threatened with removal or stormed out of the auditorium.

Board member David Oberg supported the resolution, as did Graham Paige, who said he had evolved on the issue. Citing the School Health Advisory Board report, Katrina Callsen also supported the resolution.

“I think Confederate imagery should be banned from schools,” she said, comparing it to gang imagery. “Our city was the site of one of the largest hate rallies in recent history and the Confederate flag was a hate symbol.”

All board members in favor said they were willing to face a lawsuit but didn’t think it would happen because of the violent history of the flag in Charlottesville.

In response, Koleszar alluded to MLK. “You know, Martin Luther King warned about how the Northern liberal was more dangerous than the white racist,” he said.

“I am not a Northern liberal,” Paige retorted. The room erupted in laughter.

Haas said he would use his authority to prevent students from wearing Confederate imagery in the meantime. “I want a green light to work with the administrative team to have a plan to proactively tell families that the school board supports our current dress code,” he said. “I am now saying that you cannot wear these outfits to school.”

Nobody objected.

Before adjourning, Alcaro suggested the meeting prompted a change of heart. “I look forward to approving the anti-racism consent resolution in the next meeting,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot that I really need to think through.”

Categories
News

Too much love: Apology for unwanted hug settles Kessler case

Jason Kessler claimed Phoebe Stevens assaulted him when she wrapped her arms around him to protect him from an angry mob at his August 13, 2017, press conference. Photo by Eze Amos

Phoebe Stevens is a pacifist.

She says that’s why she wrapped her arms around Jason Kessler at his August 13, 2017, press conference as a crowd of angry protesters closed in on him. But after she knocked him down in the chaos, he accused her of assault and battery—a charge she was convicted of in Charlottesville General District Court a year ago.

Stevens appealed the conviction, and was scheduled to go to trial on February 14. Before a jury was seated, however, her defense team and the prosecutor reached a special agreement: If Stevens apologized, agreed to do 100 hours of community service, and stayed on good behavior for six months, her charge would be dismissed.

That’s when her attorney, Jay Galloway, walked her over to Kessler, who was seated in the front row of the nearly empty courtroom.

“I apologize for putting my arms around you,” Stevens said, to which Kessler harshly responded, “What about [tackling] me, do you apologize for that?”

During the Unite the Right rally, Stevens could be found using her body to shield counterprotesters and white supremacists alike, and in recordings of the alleged tackle, she can also be heard saying, “We love you, Jason.”

“I apologize for making you feel like you were tackled,” she then told Kessler in the courtroom.

“That’s not a real apology,” he replied.

At that point, Galloway said Stevens was not going to engage any further. A few feet outside the courthouse, in her lawyer’s Park Street office, Stevens gave a brief interview, in which she noted it was Valentine’s Day.

“It’s not missed by me that my date today was Jason Kessler,” she said.

Over the past year and a half, Stevens said she’s heard many opinions on her choice to embrace the man who brought hundreds of white supremacists to town for an event that ended in countless injuries and three deaths.

“We’re all human,” Stevens said. “I know the crowd would not have agreed with me, and my visceral self would have battled me on that, too. [But] when we step back, there’s a human there.”

She says she has forgiven Kessler for accusing her of assaulting him and for his behavior during her apology.

“He is incredibly clouded in his understanding of the world and how to remedy this situation,” Stevens added. “He’s a deeply disturbed individual.”

Categories
News

Punishing: Repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions dies in subcommittee

Delegate Rob Bell was on the subcommittee that killed a repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions.  AMY JACKSON SMITH

Things were looking good for opponents of Virginia’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court costs. A federal judge had opined the state law is likely unconstitutional, a Republican state senator carried a bill that repealed the law, and it passed the Senate 36-4.

Then it got to a House subcommittee, where four Republicans, including Delegate Rob Bell, torpedoed the measure 4-3.

Senator Bill Stanley, a criminal defense attorney who represents a chunk of Southside, was not pleased, particularly with Bell and House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert and their grip on the Courts of Justice subcommittee.

He told the Roanoke Times February 11, “They just want to continue to punish people, they just want to continue to punish the poor, they just want to continue to put their will forth as the will of the commonwealth, two people determining the fate of 600,000 Virginians. This is rule by fiat.”

Stanley, who carried the same bill last year, figured it had a better chance this year, particularly after Judge Norman Moon issued a preliminary injunction in Stinnie v. DMV ordering the reinstatement of the plaintiffs’ licenses, which had been automatically suspended when they couldn’t afford to pay the fines and court costs, which thrust them into spiraling debt and, in some cases, jail for driving on suspended licenses.

Legislators who didn’t support the measure last year told Stanley they would vote for it this year, he says. “When Judge Moon made his decision, I thought we’re either going to fix this problem of debtors prison or a federal judge will,” says Stanley. “It looks like the judge will.”

He calls the automatic suspensions “punitive,” and the $145 DMV reinstatement fee a tax. “This has nothing to do with bad driving,” he says.

Bell “respectfully disagrees” with Stanley. For serious offenses like passing a school bus or texting while driving, “when someone violates those, I do think it’s appropriate they be punished and they pay some penalty,” he says.

The General Assembly passed a law in 2017 that requires courts to offer payment plans or community service. “As long as you’re on the payment plan, you have your license and you can drive,” says Bell. “We do require you to have some punishment.”

“You miss one payment and your license is suspended,” retorts Stanley. And those plans are used “exclusively for those who are in front of the court. It does nothing for the 600,000 who have already had their licenses suspended.”

Stanley says the automatic license suspensions punish people for being poor, and makes it difficult for them to get to jobs and provide for their families. “It perpetuates poverty,” he says. “I don’t think you can have economic growth without removing the crushing cycle of poverty.”

He adds, “You’d think Republicans would want to get people off dependency.”

Angela Ciolfi, executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center, represents the plaintiffs in the federal case. She says her team did an analysis of the results of the payment plan legislation and found that the new policy made almost no difference in the number of licenses suspended.

“And the suspension law hasn’t changed, either,” she says. “When someone doesn’t pay or falls off a payment plan, the law says that suspension is automatic, with no notice, no hearing, and no consideration of why the person didn’t pay.”

She’s working on making the case a class action suit, and anticipates the parties will be back in court soon.

Stanley believes that if Judge Moon orders the DMV to reinstate all the licenses suspended for nonpayment of fines, “it will create havoc in the DMV” that could be avoided if legislators fixed the problem.

And he’s still not happy that a subcommittee killed a bill he thought had broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly. “The rule of a few is determining the future of 600,000 people.”

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News

Conflict of interest on the Police Civilian Review Board? Prosecutor says ‘no’

Katrina Turner, a member of the Police Civilian Review Board, didn’t do anything wrong when she announced her role on the board and filmed a portion of her son’s traffic stop, according to the city’s top prosecutor.  STAFF PHOTO

When Police Civilian Review Board member Katrina Turner got involved in her son’s February 1 traffic stop, a local defense attorney asked the city’s commonwealth’s attorney to determine whether she had violated the state’s conflict of interest act.

At last week’s review board meeting, attorney and regular attendee Denise Lunsford told the board she’d asked for a legal opinion and Turner’s removal, to which Turner responded, “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“For Denise Lunsford to literally just come straight for me with no proof, [without] even investigating it, that was totally uncalled for,” says Turner, who has served on the board since June. “I’d like to know why she continues to come after me.”

Turner has also recently filed a complaint against Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, whom she claims verbally assaulted her.

In a February 15 letter, Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania described reviewing body-cam footage from two officers involved in the traffic stop.

He observed the first officer give a “somewhat agitated” driver a warning ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign, and then tell him he’s free to go. A backup officer’s footage showed Turner approaching her son’s vehicle with a camera phone in hand, and saying, “I’m on the CRB, so I’m gonna tell you right now…” The officer interrupted her to say she couldn’t get involved while they were conducting the traffic stop.

Platania describes both people as “calm and respectful” throughout the interaction. Turner followed the officer’s command, and stepped back to record the traffic stop, he said.

In his letter, Platania said he found that Turner didn’t do or say anything in violation of the Virginia State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act, nor did she use her position on the CRB in a retaliatory or threatening manner.

Added the prosecutor, “As a cautionary note, approaching an officer engaged in a legitimate and lawful traffic stop and stating that you ‘are on the CRB’ while filming him does little to promote an organizational reputation of objectivity towards law enforcement.”

Categories
Living

Thoroughly Vetted: The strange journey of the roundworm

Word to the wise pet owner: Do not kiss your dog.

It’s a rare week that I don’t see at least one dog or cat with Toxocara, commonly referred to as roundworm. It’s especially common in puppies and kittens who have multiple chances to be infected before adoption. They can catch roundworm from their mother while still in the womb, and then again through her milk. But if they dodge those chances, they can still pick it up the old fashioned way—by eating it.

Since roundworm makes its home in the intestine, it makes sense that pets might contract it by swallowing it. Eggs can be found in contaminated soil, deposited there by the stool of other cats and dogs, where it takes about a month to become infectious. Pets with a penchant for hunting can also catch roundworm directly from eating an infected prey animal, such as a mouse. Either way, you’d think that once those little critters are down the hatch, they could just grow up and get on with it.

But roundworms are all about the path of most resistance. Once they find themselves inside a suitable host, those young larvae are like tourists: They want to see the sights. The worms tunnel right through the wall of the intestine and wander pretty much anywhere they like, but they most often set up camp in the liver. They can hang out there for quite a while, but eventually they burrow all the way up into the lungs where they cause enough irritation to trigger coughing. The worms are hacked up and swallowed again, landing right back in the intestine where they started.

They took the long way around, but only now is it possible for them to grow into full-sized worms. And they really are impressive specimens. They can be several inches long, and are most often described as looking like spaghetti when pet owners find them vomited on the kitchen floor. If this happens, owners are likely to be both grossed out and distraught, but at least the diagnosis is obvious. Otherwise, veterinarians find roundworm by using a microscope to identify eggs in the patient’s poop.

Dogs and cats are each infected by their own species of Toxocara, both of which can be hazardous to humans. Once inside a person, the larvae try a similar trick of wandering through the body. But since they are programmed for non-human innards, they don’t really know how to get around. They can cause all sorts of problems as they roam, but blindness is perhaps the most gruesome. For some reason, the little creeps gravitate toward human eyeballs.

If that doesn’t underscore the importance of controlling parasites in household pets, I don’t know what would. Thankfully, roundworm is easy to treat and prevent. A variety of dewormers are safe and effective in managing the infection once identified, and monthly heartworm preventive medications also keep the parasite in check. If you’ve recently adopted a puppy or kitten, it’s especially important to get a stool sample evaluated and to complete a regular course of dewormer.

Intestinal parasites aren’t the most glamorous part of owning pets, but it’s not enough for some worms to merely be disgusting. Roundworms go out of their way to be weird, too. It’s best not to give them the chance.

Dr. Mike Fietz is a small animal veterinarian at Georgetown Veterinary Hospital.  He received his veterinary degree from Cornell University in 2003 and has lived in Charlottesville since.

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Opinion The Editor's Desk

This Week 2/13

A 75th wedding anniversary is so rare that the U.S. Census Bureau keeps no statistics on it, Mary Jane Gore tells us. Estimates are that fewer than 0.1 percent of marriages make it to 70 years or more. So this Valentine’s Day week, we tell you about Bill and Shirley Stanton of Afton, who celebrated their 75th on February 12. (Their secret? “Tolerance,” says Bill).

Our cover story may seem less apt for the holiday, but, apart from the chocolate and flowers and hearts, Valentine’s Day is about love, and the history of Charlottesville punk is about finding your people and making the music you love happen, even when no one’s there to see it.

With a few exceptions, Charlottesville’s punk scene has existed mostly beneath the surface for close to four decades, Erin O’Hare writes, in DIY spaces and small clubs. It’s often been sustained by just one or two bands drawing an audience, and one or two people making a space for these kinds of shows. And that matters for more than just music.

“There’s always going to be somebody who feels left out,” says music veteran Tony Lechmanski. “I think it’s important that people feel like they fit in somewhere…that those people have somewhere to go.”

As Sam Roberts, who plays in two bands and hosts shows at Magnolia House puts it, “I have to do it, or no one will.”

There are times, walking on the Downtown Mall, when Charlottesville can feel like a monoculture. But the beauty of it is, it’s not.

Here’s to everyone doing it because no one else will.—Laura Longhine