Brianna Tam brings her Electric Cello Show to three local wineries. Supplied Photo
Going electric: With an intriguing electric cello and a loop pedal, Brianna Tam’s one-woman Electric Cello Show is a captivating, non-classical performance. Tam plays standing up, using the improvisatory art of live looping to layer an epic, symphonic realm laced with a dark undercurrent. Her music is an exciting dance between traditional and contemporary, and showcases the timeless allure and adaptability of the cello.
Through 11/6. Free, times vary. Eastwood Farm and Winery, Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard, and Meriwether Springs Vineyard & Brewery. Info at briannatam.com.
During a campaign stop at Guadalajara in Charlottesville, a group from The Lincoln Project posed as white supremacists outside Glenn Youngkin’s bus. Photo: Jonathan Ernst
Governor’s race torch stunt fans flames locally
Five young people wearing identical white shirts, glasses, and baseball caps, holding tiki torches, standing in a straight line in front of Glenn Youngkin’s tour bus, praising the Republican gubernatorial candidate: It all seemed a little too neat. And indeed, it was—shortly after images of the demonstration began circulating on social media, it came to light that the torch-wielders weren’t neo-Nazi Youngkin fans who attended the rally to support the candidate. Instead, they were deployed by The Lincoln Project, a political action committee comprised of former Republicans aimed at defeating Trump and his allies. (Posing as a neo-Nazi—do you think that was listed in the internship description?)
A statement from the project said the ham-fisted stunt was an attempt to “remind Virginians of what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party’s embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin’s failure to condemn it.”
The Youngkin campaign accused Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe of organizing the event, prompting McAuliffe’s campaign manager to denounce the demonstration and call for an “immediate apology” from whomever was behind it.
During Monday’s City Council meeting, Tyler Magill, who was injured during the August 11 torch-lit rally on the UVA Lawn, spoke out against the “nasty prank,” and asked council to demand The Lincoln Project donate money to equity groups helping Unite the Right victims.
“We’re tired of the pain of our community being used as a prop [and] our community being used for everything but the uplift of our community,” he said. “There’s still a lot of pain in this town, and it needs to be addressed.”
Councilors Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill agreed the city should issue a response denouncing the stunt.
“People who are not from Charlottesville don’t realize the extent to which I think Charlottesville is still struggling with PTSD from that experience four years ago,” said Snook. “Even the TV ads that we’re seeing are triggering for a lot of people in Charlottesville.”
Mayor Nikuyah Walker did not comment on The Lincoln Project, but acknowledged the “people in this community who have had pain and suffering and trauma long before 2017.”
“That is the main problem that we need to focus on in this community,” added Walker.
At press time, we were sitting around biting our nails, awaiting the results of the governor’s race. Check back for in-depth coverage of the election online and in next week’s paper.
Chip Boyles gets new gig
After resigning as Charlottesville City Manager on October 12, Chip Boyles has landed a new job as executive director of the George Washington Regional Commission in Fredericksburg. Cathy Binder, chair of the search committee, expressed the commission’s excitement about its new man on the job, saying that committee members “were impressed by his knowledge, demeanor, and professional reputation, and believe that he will be an excellent leader of the GWRC staff.” Boyles says he looks forward to “addressing the needs of the region” alongside the GWRC staff and partner agencies. This latest post adds to Boyles’ lengthy list of experiences working in city government. We’ll see if he lasts longer than eight months.
In brief
Bounty hunter plot goes wrong
A Culpeper woman was arrested on federal criminal charges last Wednesday for attempting to hire a hitman over the internet. The 25-year-old placed an “order” on the dark web requesting muder-for-hire services, including photos of and personal information about the intended target. She deposited $3,200 in Bitcoin to get the job done, and offered information about the best time and place to kill the victim. U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said the incident should serve as a reminder “to remain vigilant in the policing of those dark corners of the web where cybercrime thrives.” The accused party faces up to 20 years in prison.
Jefferson plays defense
National Review Editor Rich Lowry and Texas Congressman Chip Roy visited UVA last week to give a lecture “In Defense of Mr. Jefferson,” hosted by the Young Americans for Freedom student group. Roy recently voted against creating a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection, and was fined for refusing to wear a mask in the Capitol (alongside Marjorie Taylor Greene). Is it unfair to judge Jefferson by the company he keeps?
This plaque sat outside Number Nothing Court Square until early 2020. Photo: City of Charlottesville
Former slave auction site sold
Number Nothing Court Square, the historic building adjacent to the site of a slave auction block where people were bought and sold, changed hands last week. The new buyers are a mysterious entity called Excellent Horse LLC, reports Charlottesville Tomorrow. The property was purchased for $1,287,500, just below the initial asking price of $1.35 million. In the past, some community members have suggested turning the space into a museum of local history, but for now its future remains to be seen.
Head Coach Tony Bennett enters his 13th year with the men’s basketball program. Since 2013, his teams have won five ACC regular season titles, two ACC tournament titles, and a national championship. Photo: Matt Riley / UVA Athletics
Buddy Boeheim goes to the line. Virginia leads Syracuse by two, 29 seconds on the clock. Boeheim makes the first free throw. He makes the second. 69-69. A few seconds later, down at the other end of the court, UVA’s trusted floor marshal Kihei Clark pokes his way into the paint, and whips a pass out to freshman Reece Beekman. Beekman hasn’t made a shot all day. He’s zero for five. But now, with time running out, he’s only got one option: He drains the three as the buzzer sounds.
Beekman sprints down the court, his teammates chasing him and jumping for joy. The UVA men are headed to the quarterfinals of the 2021 ACC men’s basketball tournament.
Or so they thought. As soon as the celebration ended, news broke that someone on UVA’s team tested positive for COVID. The Cavaliers were disqualified from the conference tournament and, a week before the NCAA tournament, were sent back to Charlottesville, where they weren’t allowed to leave their apartments or dorms, and were unable to practice.
The disruption doubtless contributed to the upset that followed: The Hoos secured a 4 seed in the tournament, but fell 62-58 to 13-seed Ohio in the first round. It was an unceremonious end to the Cavaliers’ impressive season, going 18-7 overall and 13-4 in the ACC, winning another ACC regular season championship.
In the offseason, the bad news piled up. The program lost three players to the transfer portal, freshman Jabri Abdur-Rahim and sophomores Casey Morsell and Justin McKoy. Trey Murphy III, Sam Hauser, and Jay Huff headed to the NBA, leaving Tony Bennett with a bare roster.
But, not for long. In addition to four-star recruit Taine Murray of New Zealand, the Hoos landed two big transfers: Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin.
Gardner, the 6-foot-6, 246-pound senior forward from East Carolina University, averaged 18.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 35.2 minutes per game in 2020-2021. He also shot 47.9 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.7 percent from the line. He was named to the American Athletic Conference first team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches District 24 first team. On a team that doesn’t return a single double-digit scorer from last year, Gardner will be expected to carry a lot of the offensive load.
Franklin, the 6-foot-4, 204-pound junior guard from Indiana University, averaged 11.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game in the 2020-2021 season. Further, he shot 42.9 percent from the field, 42.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 74.1 percent from the line. If Franklin doesn’t start to begin the season, expect him to come off the bench pretty quickly.
The team still has three veterans from the 2018-2019 championship team, all returning for their fourth year and likely to make an impact. The diminutive Kihei Clark is the team’s elder statesman, entering his senior year as a regular starter. Last year Clark averaged 9.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game. He made the All-ACC third team in 2019 and was an honorable mention in 2020.
The team’s other veterans haven’t played as much thus far in their careers. Kody Stattmann, the 6-foot-8, 200-pound guard started 10 out of 24 games his sophomore season but only played four games in the 2020-2021 season due to a non-COVID-19 related cardiac issue. In those four games, Stattmann shot 58.3 percent from the field and averaged 3.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
Francisco Caffaro, the 7-foot-1, 242- pound redshirt junior (and an Olympian with Argentina this summer) is ready to take the reins at center. He’ll have big shoes to fill—literally—with the departure of Huff. Caffaro played less than seven minutes per game across just 17 appearances last year.
Another notable returning player is Kadin Shedrick. Shedrick didn’t see much of the floor in 2020, but the 6-foot-11, 231-pound forward had an impressive showing in the Pepsi Blue-White Scrimmage in October. He also scored a career-high 12 points and pulled down a career-best eight rebounds versus St. Francis last December. Expect Shedrick to start.
UVA’s disqualification from the ACC tournament and disappointing finish in the NCAA tournament left a bad taste in the mouths of Wahoo faithful, but this year, the Cavaliers are ready to compete and win. They open the season ranked 25th in the AP poll. We all know what happens when UVA plays with something to prove.
A UVA women’s basketball team full of fresh faces will look to veterans like graduate student guard Amandine Toi for leadership. Photo: Matt Riley / UVA Athletics
The 2020-21 season didn’t go great for the UVA women’s basketball team. In fact, it barely went at all. The team was hit hard by injuries and COVID complications. After just a few games, Head Coach Tina Thompson was down to six eligible players, and the program decided to call off the season entirely after an 0-5 start. Heading in to 2021, there’s nowhere to go but up.
Thompson, a WNBA hall of famer from her playing days, enters her fourth year in charge of the Cavaliers, without a winning season under her belt, and she’ll have a roster full of fresh faces to work with. Virginia landed five transfers this offseason: Eleah Parker, McKenna Dale, Camryn Taylor, Taylor Valladay, and London Clarkson.
Parker is a graduate transfer from the University of Pennsylvania and two-time Ivy League defensive player of the year. The 6-foot-4 forward averaged a .485 field goal percentage, 8.4 rebounds per game, and had a total of 233 blocks over three seasons at Penn.
Dale is another graduate transfer from the Ivy League. In her 2019-2020 season at Brown (the Ivy League conference opted out of competing during 2020-2021 due to COVID), the 6-foot guard ranked third in conference for points per game (17.0), second in three-point percentage (.385), and first in free throw percentage (.851).
UVA also added two transfers from Marquette, a team that went 19-7 last year before losing to No. 1-ranked UConn in the Big East tournament final. Taylor, a 6-foot-2 junior forward, averaged 12 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game during her 2020-2021 season at Marquette. She was named to the 2019-2020 Big East all-freshman team and was a 2020-2021 All-Big East honorable mention. Valladay is a junior guard who averaged 5.2 points and 1.8 assists per game for the Golden Eagles last year.
Virginia’s last transfer is Clarkson, a 6-foot-2 junior forward from Florida State. During her 2019-2020 season at FSU, Clarkson averaged 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds, and shot 43.8 percent from the floor in an average of 7.5 minutes per game. Clarkson transferred to UVA last winter and received eligibility waivers from the ACC and NCAA, but the season was canceled before she had a chance to play.
Key returning players include Amandine Toi, a graduate guard who played in all 30 games of the 2019-2020 season. She shot 32.1 percent from beyond the arc that year, and averaged 4.3 points and 1 rebound per game. And she started hot in the abandoned 2020 season, hitting five threes in a career-best 23-point performance against Clemson. She toppled previous personal records in the five games of the 2020-2021 season, setting a career record of 23 points against Clemson, including five three-pointers.
“We have a full roster, so that is like ‘woo-hoo!’” Thompson said in a press conference at the ACC media day earlier this month. “That’s a blessing in itself.” Thompson said she’s looking forward to this season’s depth and versatility, something she says is a luxury she hasn’t experienced at UVA yet.
Thompson’s offseason recruiting didn’t end with the transfer portal. She also recruited two-time NBA champion and former NBA assistant coach James Posey to her staff.
“Coach Posey is what we call a purist,” Thompson said in a press release. “He loves all aspects of the game and has played it at the highest level. He brings a championship mentality, a wealth of knowledge, and a teaching spirit, with development being his specialty and passion.”
Posey worked as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014-2019 and has held various coaching positions around the league since. He won NBA championships with the Miami Heat in 2006 and the Boston Celtics in 2008.
With a reshaped roster and revamped staff, the Cavaliers are sure to improve on last year’s showing. After all, they really couldn’t be worse.
First week action
Men
vs. Navy, Tuesday, November 9, 9pm
vs. Radford, Friday, November 12, 7pm
Women
@ James Madison, Tuesday, November 9, 7pm
vs. USC, Sunday, November 14, 1pm
Faces in the crowd
After playing last season in front of a tightly monitored friends-and-family-only crowd, this year’s UVA teams will have the support of a full John Paul Jones Arena behind them. All fans must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter the building, and masks are required.
Thanks to a $4.25 million grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the Piedmont Housing Alliance was able to renovate dozens of rooms (shown before and after, above) at the former Red Carpet Inn, which is now home to 68 people. Photo: Eze Amos
After months of paying for hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, PACEM and the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless were in desperate search of a long-term housing solution. When the Red Carpet Inn off Route 29 in Albemarle County was put up for sale last summer, the nonprofits believed they could transform the 40-year-old rundown motel into the permanent emergency shelter they needed.
Thanks to a $4.25 million grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the Piedmont Housing Alliance purchased the property in March, and got to work renovating the rooms, which were in varying stages of disrepair. In May, the low-barrier shelter finally opened its doors to all people experiencing homelessness, prioritizing those who are at high risk of becoming severely ill and dying if they contract coronavirus. Since then, it has provided shelter to around 100 people.
Now, the shelter is at capacity, according to PACEM and TJACH, who manage the property together. Sixty-eight people—including a few couples—are currently living in 63 of the former motel’s renovated rooms. Though there are 10 additional renovated rooms, they are not being used right now, due to maintenance issues.
The nonprofits plan to upgrade the remaining 36 unrenovated rooms, so the shelter will have over 100 rooms available for guests. But first, they need to raise about $300,000 for the project.
“There was extensive mold growth in particular in all of the rooms, so we had to strip the wallpaper and professionally clean the walls to make sure the growth was stopped,” says TJACH Executive Director Anthony Haro of the renovations. “And we did basically the same thing for the carpets—they were all removed and replaced.”
The renovation team also had to replace many of the motel’s HVAC units, and fix some electrical and plumbing issues.
Over the past six months, “there have needed to be regular fixes,” adds PACEM Executive Director Jayson Whitehead. “I don’t think we foresaw just how big the property management piece was going to be.”
Despite these challenges, guests have been “really enjoying” the shelter, says Whitehead. In addition to having their own room, all guests receive intensive case management services, along with food, clothing, and other necessities. They are also connected to a variety of community resources, including employment assistance, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and medical care.
“It’s pretty neat to always see the sense of community that’s developed over here,” says Whitehead. “Everybody has neighbors, and they’ve formed friendships and bonds. That’s the case even with staff and guests.”
“We have regular offerings from Project ID…and there’s a regular UVA health clinic on site weekly,” he adds. “There’s a lot of really directly addressing either health issues or housing barriers.”
Since the Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration’s federal eviction moratorium extension in August, concern over evictions has heightened across the country. However, TJACH has not seen a local increase in homelessness due to evictions recently, largely thanks to the Virginia Rent Relief Program, says Haro.
Still, to ensure no one has to sleep on the streets during the cold winter months, PACEM will set up its annual temporary congregate shelters at local churches, starting November 6. Meanwhile, TJACH will pay for hotel rooms for high-risk individuals, if they are unable to stay at the shelter at the former Red Carpet Inn.
“To date, there have been no [COVID] outbreaks in our shelter system…which is very much tied to our ability to have private rooms for people,” adds Haro.
The housing advocates have even bigger plans for the former motel in the future: tackling Charlottesville’s affordable housing crisis. Virginia Supportive Housing recently received low-income tax credit awards to build 80 permanent housing units at the site, which will be available to disabled individuals who chronically struggle with homelessness. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
The Piedmont Housing Alliance will also build 60 affordable housing units—to be rented for no more than 30 percent of the gross income of future residents—on the property.
In addition to financial support from the community, PACEM and TJACH need additional volunteers to help with various tasks at the new shelter, like landscaping and laundry.
And as Charlottesville’s Future Land Use Map and Comprehensive Plan wait for approval from City Council, Haro and Whitehead hope the community will not only advocate for affordable housing development, but also assist in bringing it to fruition.
“It’s how people get out of shelter,” says Haro. “They need a safe and affordable place to move into, and that’s really hard to come by today.”
“We need more than the 80 units of permanent supportive housing and 60 affordable ones—we need 10 times that probably for our community,” he adds.
In August, Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Review Board, a body designed to investigate accusations of police misconduct, approved a new ordinance that expanded its powers. City Council, which began discussing the proposed ordinance last week, will have to vote in favor of it for the CRB to begin its work.
In accordance with a new state law that took effect in July, the ordinance would allow the board to independently receive and investigate complaints, hold hearings, subpoena documents and witnesses, and issue disciplinary recommendations in cases that involve “serious breaches” of department and professional standards.
During last week’s lengthy work session, City Council’s discussion of the ordinance included CRB members and its Executive Director Hansel Aguilar, who was appointed in September.
The board has yet to determine exactly who is allowed to file a complaint, and what kind of cases would require it to conduct an independent investigation. To limit the criteria for CRB investigations, board vice-chair William Mendez suggested Aguilar could closely oversee CPD’s internal affairs division, and make recommendations throughout its investigations to ensure they are complete and unbiased.
Councilor Lloyd Snook pointed out that potential complaints like use of excessive force are typically cases of criminal conduct or civil action, which the board is not allowed to investigate. “Where do these exclusions leave the PCRB with something meaningful to do?” he asked.
Aguilar suggested the board take notes from Washington, D.C., where he formerly served as a police misconduct investigator. If the city’s CRB received a complaint about a potentially criminal act, the board conducted a preliminary investigation and sent it to the U.S. attorney’s office. If the office decided not to prosecute the police officer, the board then continued to investigate the complaint as a breach of department standards.
Councilor Michael Payne asked if complaints involving the University Police Department could also be submitted to the CRB. “It was absolutely the intent of the legislature to consider the campus police in this process,” replied Delegate Sally Hudson, who said she could help clarify that part of the law during the upcoming General Assembly session.
Payne also recommended the board include a code of ethics in the ordinance, detailing when council could remove members for misconduct. During public comment, several community members called for the removal of board chair Bellamy Brown, who has been accused of collaborating with the Police Benevolent Association to get former CPD chief RaShall Brackney fired.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she brought up Brown’s behavior to council multiple times, but was told it was a private matter. “If there is only the will of one person to take his behavior [and] determine if he’s a good fit for the board, then there’s not much that can be done,” she said.
During the work session, councilors also commented on the CRB’s proposed interim hearing procedures, which would allow the board to proceed with one review request while it waits for the full ordinance to be passed.
The placeholder hearing procedures give board members full access to the police department’s internal affairs files, but leave complainants with just a police department-authored summary of the files. Snook voiced multiple concerns about that mechanism, suggesting that it could make it more difficult for complainants to argue their cases.
Following the work session, Council voted 4-1 during its Monday night meeting to approve the interim hearing procedures, with Mayor Walker dissenting. In the coming weeks, several CRB members and councilors will hold another work session to further discuss and amend the ordinance. Council hopes to pass the final ordinance before the end of the year.
Defendant Richard Spencer leaves the courtroom on the first day of the trial. Photo: Eze Amos
Each day, we’ll have the latest news from the courtroom in the Sines v. Kessler Unite the Right trial. For coverage from previous days, check the list of links at the bottom of this page.
The second week of the Sines v. Kessler trial opened with a spectacle that will be repeated in coming days: a victim of Unite the Right sharing heart-wrenching testimony, then facing cross examination from two of the white nationalists accused in the lawsuit of conspiring to commit racially motivated violence that weekend in August 2017.
“It was mostly a blur,” UVA graduate Devin Willis testified on Monday, remembering the days following Unite the Right. “I threw myself into overdrive, wasn’t sleeping, busy, trying to find something to do to make sense out of what happened that weekend. It’s such a blur. I entered a bad place.”
Willis is one of nine plaintiffs in the case, and is the second of 31 expected witnesses for the plaintiffs’ side. Now 23 and living in Mexico City, Willis was one of a small group of UVA students surrounded by torch-bearing white nationalists at the Thomas Jefferson statue in front of UVA’s Rotunda on August 11, 2017. The next day, he counterprotested in downtown Charlottesville and arrived at the scene of the car attack on Fourth and Water streets soon after his friend and fellow plaintiff Natalie Romero had been taken to the hospital.
Willis, who had finished his first year at UVA in the summer of 2017, previously testified that he’d been an enthusiastic overachiever when he arrived at college. Raised by a single mother who’d relocated from Detroit to the D.C. area to provide her son better educational opportunities, Willis, who is Black, had thrived academically and socially. He graduated in the top 5 percent of his high school class, was active in student government, and was elected homecoming king. At UVA, that pattern continued as he threw himself into academics and joined multiple organizations including the Black Student Alliance.
In the immediate weeks after Unite the Right, Willis said he became manic, searching for meaning in the violence he’d experienced and witnessed. That burst of energy didn’t last. His grades plummeted, he said, and he withdrew from groups and commitments.
“Interpersonally, I stopped being an outgoing, sociable person. I became very suspicious of people, withdrawn. Not present. Constantly distracted, getting flashbacks. I felt I couldn’t relate to anyone around me anymore. It was such a lonely time.”
The plaintiffs’ first witness, Willis’ friend and fellow plaintiff Natalie Romero, was critically injured in the August 12 car attack. During her cross examination on Friday, the defense was relatively gentle, offering their condolences and primarily asking her if she remembered seeing any of the defendants at the Friday night torch rally or the following day.
Willis, who described being knocked down while counterprotesting on that Saturday but was not struck by James Fields’ car, faced more aggressive questioning under cross examination. He spent about three hours being grilled by Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell, the two white nationalist defendants who are representing themselves in court.
“How and why did you choose to go to the base of the Jefferson statue?” Spencer asked Willis of his group’s decision to leave a spaghetti dinner at a professor’s house on that Friday night. “Did they have direct knowledge of a logistical map of the torchlight rally?”
“I think you guys are well known for liking statues,” Willis replied.
During his testimony, Willis expressed his fear from the Friday night rally that his picture might be taken and that his personal information might be spread online, in an attempt to intimidate him. The tactic is called doxxing.
Spencer noted that Willis spoke with his face uncovered at a counterprotest in McGuffey Park on Saturday, where attendees were posting pictures and videos online.
“You weren’t really that afraid of doxxing,” Spencer pressed.
“In both instances, I didn’t have any control over who’s recording,” said Willis. “In one instance, it made more sense to be afraid.”
Spencer interrogated Willis about certain counterprotesting chants Willis had participated in on Saturday, including, “The people united will never be divided.”
“Is there a political component to that,” Spencer asked. “Will never be divided? What if someone wants to be divided?”
“People are better versions of themselves and they are stronger when they are in community,” Willis said calmly.
Cantwell, popularly known as “the crying Nazi,” followed Spencer in cross examining Willis. He focused on Willis’ claim that it may have been Cantwell himself who pepper sprayed him that evening.
“Before today, did you tell anyone that you choked on Christopher Cantwell’s pepper spray? They didn’t ask you about that,” Cantwell said in a sarcastic tone. “In June 2020, if somebody said, do you know who Christopher Cantwell is, you’d have said no?”
“I don’t know when I became aware of you,” Willis said.
“When were you approached about this lawsuit?” Cantwell countered.
“I became a plaintiff in October 2017. I hardly remember the time period,” said Willis.
“I can’t help but notice that you say, ‘I can’t remember’ a lot. Is everything okay?” Cantwell asked with faux concern.
“No, everything is not okay,” said Willis.
Attorneys for the other white nationalist defendants used cross examination to suggest Willis wasn’t only counterprotesting with other UVA students.
“Do you see that red flag in the background with a sickle,” asked Bryan Jones, attorney for defendants Michael Tubbs, Michael Hill, and League of the South, showing Willis a portion of cell phone video that Willis shot on Saturday.
“I can’t tell if that’s a sickle,” said Willis.
“You didn’t realize that there were communist supporters among the counterprotesters?
“I wasn’t really paying attention at the time,” Willis replied.
“See this person with a red bandana,” Jones said, pointing to another counterprotester visible in Willis’ video. “You didn’t recognize that as a symbol of antifa?”
“No, I didn’t,” said Willis.
Willis’ cross examination ended by mid-afternoon on Monday, and plaintiffs’ next evidence was a videotaped deposition of 30-year-old Samantha Froelich, a former member of the white nationalist group and Sines v. Kessler defendant Identity Evropa.
In the video, Froelich, who has long red hair and was dressed in black, said she joined the group to please an ex-boyfriend. She has since denounced the hateful ideology and recalled Identity Evropa founder and lawsuit defendant Eli Mosley’s discussions of “right wing death squads,” which Mosley said would be coming to Charlottesville for Unite the Right.
Froelich said Mosley, whose real name is Elliott Kline, considered Black people to be “subhuman,” and often talked about finishing Hitler’s “final solution” by exterminating the Jews.
“He would talk about it with glee,” Froelich said. “He was very excited at the prospect of killing Jewish people. She said Mosley also used the phrase “RaHoWa,” an acronym for racial holy war. Froelich explained it means “a physical violent confrontation between white people and every other race.”
Froelich’s videotaped testimony will continue on Tuesday.
