Former Mayor and local political heavyweight Blake Caravati appeared in the Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court last Friday morning for charges stemming from his September 9 arrest at his home on Little High Street in the city.
/blake_caravati01.jpg) Former Charlottesville Mayor Blake Caravati was arrested and charged with assault of a family member on September 9 at his home on Little High Street. He will next appear in court on October 21 at 9:30am.
/Halfaday.jpg) James Halfaday, former Democratic City Council candidate, is being investigated for making false statements, a Class 5 Felony in the Commonwealth that carries a hefty penalty.
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According to the arrest warrant, Caravati, 60, was charged with Class 1 misdemeanor assault on a family member, his wife Paula Caravati.
Because of a conflict of interest with Charlottesville’s Commonwealth’s Attorney, Ronald Morris, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Greene County, will prosecute the case.
Although Caravati did not comment, his attorney Sheila Haughey told reporters that “one of the hallmarks of this community, that I have long appreciated … is the way that we tend to treat our better-known residents … we tend to treat them the way most of us would want to be treated.” She added: “This family has obviously hit a rough patch, let’s leave them alone.”
Caravati’s next court appearance has been set for October 21 at 9:30am.
Caravati served as mayor of the City of Charlottesville from 2000 to 2002 and was first elected to City Council in 1998.
The saying “politics is a dirty game” may ring true for former Democratic City Council candidate James Halfaday, who is being investigated for election fraud.
Halfaday, who finished seventh out of seven candidates in the Democratic firehouse primary, claimed on his official campaign filings that he was co-owner of Snap Fitness, a gym in the Seminole Square Shopping Center. According to published reports, Halfaday was never an owner, but merely a member. Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta said the Charlottesville Electoral Board met last Wednesday to discuss “credible information that they have been given about some of the forms that Mr. Halfaday turned in as a Council candidate,” and ultimately directed her to “turn over the statement of economic interest, which is one of the forms that all the City Council candidates are required to fill out, to the Commonwealth’s Attorney for investigation,” she said.
Making false statements is a Class 5 Felony in the Commonwealth and carries “a term of imprisonment of not less than one year nor more than 10 years,” and a $2,500 fine. In her 12 years as the Registrar, Iachetta said she “has never seen” a situation quite like this one.
But there is more. Halfaday wrote on one of his websites that he was elected, as an 18-year-old, “to a City Council term in my hometown where I grew up in the State of Illinois.” According to documents obtained by C-VILLE, Halfaday was elected Village Trustee, of Dunfermline, Illinois, in 1999. At the time, Dunfermline was town of less than 300 people and its governing board was comprised of a Village President, six trustess and a Village Clerk, not exactly a City Council.