Author: meg-mcevoy

It’s a fact of life—if you’re a big university, you’re gonna get sued. The Virginia Attorney General’s office currently has 48 open suits on the books for UVA. So how does the University separate the biggies from the nuisances, fight to win and look good doing it? Sheldon Steinbach, an attorney who’s been with the American Counsel on Higher Education for over three decades, shows you how.
    First, don’t be ashamed to litigate. Steinbach says, “There was a period of time in which schools felt that being sued was somehow a badge of dishonor. That has now evolved into a realization that being sued and establishing an effective defense is part of 21st-century America.” So remember…when you’re a big university, it’s not uncouth to fight for your good name.
    But you’d better call for backup. UVA’s permanent legal team, the Office of the General Counsel, consults on all the school’s legal matters. As a State school, UVA has the added help of the Virginia Attorney General’s office, which, according to spokesman J. Tucker Martin, acts essentially as UVA’s primary law firm. Schools can also hire outside muscle. That’ll teach ‘em to mess with the Old Dominion!
    But while you’re fighting to the death, remember—don’t go further than your insurance limits. How much a university will spend to fight a suit, Steinbach says, “is determined by how far their insurance company wants to go in backing them.” No word on who UVA’s insurance company is, or what they’ll cover, but United Educators, an insurance company that provides coverage for more 900 colleges, covers “liability arising out of such activities as sports (intercollegiate, intramural and club), sale and use of alcohol, foreign study programs, above-ground pollution, and more” for up to $1 million per occurrence.
    And, a little PR doesn’t hurt. “Sometimes the public relations impact of litigation will control whether you decide to appeal a case,” Steinbach says. “Looking at some cases over the last 20 or 30 years, schools tend to lose cases at the trial level where there is a sympathetic plaintiff and the college looks like they are the deep pocket.” Good rule of thumb—if a case makes you look like the bad guy, then settle, settle, settle.
    Finally, stay away from pesky reporters. When handling a suit, “one keeps their case out of the press,” Steinbach says. Hmph…’nuff said.

It’s totally tempting to pull out every American Pie reference (flute jokes anyone?) for a story about the Cavalier Marching Band. Really, how hard is it to make fun of a group that wears weird hats, roll-steps in formation and rocks out to the grooves of John Philip Sousa? But, band Director Bill Pease won us over. “These are the best students I’ve ever worked with,” he says.
    Who could laugh in the face of such earnestness? So, here’s the straight dope.
    The Cavalier Marching Band became UVA’s primary athletics band after the Pep Band was barred from University events two years ago. The marching band opened that season with 170 members—this year, Pease expects about 250 participants, with about a dozen of those students coming from PVCC.
    The band also starts recruiting early from local high schools. July 27-30, young players can hang with the Hoos and even get tips on how band participation can help with college admissions.
    Band camp starts up August 12 when the band will learn six new halftime routines. “Without giving everything away,” Pease says, spectators can look forward to a swing show, a classic rock show, a drumline show and, get this, a Jimmy Buffett show. “Students give me their thoughts and ideas of what they’d like to play,” Pease says. Props to the guy who thought of putting “Cheeseburger in Paradise” on the football field.
    Apparently, band camp is no joke. Saxophonist Preston Gisch narrated a day in the life of a Cavalier Marching Band camper in a September 8, 2004 Cavalier Daily article. He rises at 6:30am, “knees aching, thighs numb and voice hoarse from the previous day’s drill instruction.” On the field, “after stretching, we take a lap around the field and begin morning rehearsal.” Stretching? Laps? Who knew performing “Land of a Thousand Dances” was so intense?

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, July 5, deferred a decision on Glen Oaks, a cluster of about 30 new homes to be built near the Glenmore neighborhood south of Route 250 in eastern Albemarle. The plan reached the board on an appeal from the Planning Commission, which in May rejected the rural development plan over groundwater issues.
    “The concern was that the concentration of the cluster was in an area that is a difficult groundwater area and was very close to the Running Deer subdivision, which has experienced some groundwater problems,” Supervisors Chair Dennis Rooker says.
    Sterling Proffitt, who lives in the adjacent Running Deer neighborhood and spoke at the meeting, says one in four residents in the neighborhood has had well problems.
    A groundwater study conducted by hydro-geologists hired by the Glen Oaks developer, KG Associates, showed there wasn’t a problem, says KG’s Don Franco.
    But Rooker says groundwater can be complicated and difficult to predict. “If you have larger lots you’re more likely to find a good well site. As a practical matter it doesn’t make sense to cluster right beside an area [that has had well problems],” he says.
    Wells are the only water option for Glen Oaks, which would sit just outside the County’s public water service.
    The board discussed options with Franco, including reducing the number of houses and building a more conventional development with larger lots. The developer will revise the plans to create five two-acre lots, with the rest being 21-acre lots (where houses are distributed farther from Running Deer).
    To accommodate conventional development, KG Associates may need a special-use permit to cross a stream between the eastern and western sides of the site. This would put the matter before the Planning Commission again in four to six months, Franco estimates.
    Franco also says  KG will drill monitoring wells to gather information about the ongoing groundwater conditions.
    Neighbors are concerned about water, Running Deer resident Proffitt says, but they would be satisfied with a compromise. “Sometimes eating one slice of bread and digesting it is better than choking on the whole loaf,” he says.

Federal court sentencings will continue into late August for members of Project Crud, also dubbed the Westside Crew, a Charlottesville gang that spread drug violence for more than 10 years. Ringleader Louis Antonio Bryant (a.k.a. Tinio or B-Stacks) will face the harshest penalties at a hearing in U.S. District court August 18.
    A longtime gang leader and crack dealer who was arrest-ed for kidnapping and attempt-ed murder in 2004, Bryant faces mandatory life in federal prison
for running a con-tinuing criminal enterprise.
    The law that helped bring him down, RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) was originally used in the 1970s to prosecute mafia leaders who ordered violent activity; lately it’s been applied to put street gang leaders behind bars.
    More than a dozen other men were brought up on charges related to Project Crud. Claiborne Lemar Maupin pleaded guilty in the racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 20 years on June 29. Richard Knajib Johns (a.k.a. Main) was sentenced June 29 to time served for possessing with the intent to distribute 50 pounds of marijuana.
    Many Project Crud members turned them-selves in and several testified against Bryant.
    Sentencings will continue through August for more than a dozen gang members on charges ranging from murder, attempted murder, malicious wounding, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession of firearms while drug trafficking and conspiracy charges.
    The Project Crud arrests mark the largest drug distribution bust in the area. Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force Detective Brian O’Donnell, a Charlottesville police officer, says that big arrests have destabilized the drug market, but that gang activity is still evolving in the city. Homegrown, geographically based gangs are becoming organizationally based, O’Donnell says, meaning that “there are people moving freely throughout the city doing what they did before in the neighborhoods.”

It sure is good to be a Charlottesville pet. In addition to organic puppy chow, natural goose down beds and those adorable matching outfits (à la Paris Hilton), lucky local pets are getting a new high-tech veterinary hospital.
    Two veterinary clinics have teamed up to build a larger practice at Rio Court East. Village Animal Hospital and Charlottesville Animal Hospital will combine to form Charlottesville Veterinary Hospital, which will offer better facilities than the area has seen previously. The 7,000 square-foot hospital will include a surgery suite with sterilized air conditions, space for tele-medicine research and even a hydrotherapy unit for pet rehab.
    Veterinary medicine is moving towards more human-quality conditions, says Dr. Al Smith at Village Animal Hospital. The closest facility for this type of care currently is about 50 miles away in Manakin.
    Jay Kessler, chief operating officer of construction firm R.E. Lee & Sons, which is managing the project, says they’ll begin building around August, after the site plan is approved by the Albemarle County planning commission. The project’s budget is about $2 million, Kessler says, and should be completed in about eight months.
    The hospital will serve private clients and take referrals, but don’t expect to see too many SPCA mutts in the hydrotherapy tub.

Local mogul Coran Capshaw has committed to donate $6,000 a month for a work crew to improve landscaping around the entrances to Albemarle County. The program will allow inmates to work for “time off” from their sentences.
    Inmates who are jailed for non-violent crimes for sentences less than two years qualify, according to Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail superintendent Colonel Ronald Matthews.
    Albemarle County Sheriff Edgar S. Robb has been a proponent of the idea, in consideration since winter of 2005, Matthews says. Robb could not say how long Capshaw’s monthly pledge will last because, according to a member of that office’s staff, “this office does not conduct interviews with the C-VILLE Weekly.” Matthews could not say whether Capshaw approached the department or the other way around. Capshaw could not be reached for comment.
    Capshaw’s contribution will cover ongoing costs. A guard will be paid $16.34 per hour to oversee the inmates, who will earn $3 to $5 per day and will work in what Matthews calls “easily identifiable” uniforms. Inmates can use the money to pay fines or buy items at the jail’s canteen.
    They can also work time off their sentences, with time calculations varying for local and state inmates. Local felons must serve 50 percent of their sentenced time, state cons must serve 85 percent.
    Albemarle already uses inmate work crews for parks and recreation projects, in addition to this new program for entrance corridors. Matthews has worked in other jurisdictions, such as Hampton and Sussex, where road work crews are a success: “It gives them a chance to get outside, get some fresh air. The community benefits because they have a crew that’s providing the service at a greatly reduced price.”
    The County needs a vehicle for the work crew, tools and supplies before work can begin.

A man was killed in a single-vehicle accident after robbing Cavalier Pipe and Tobacco in the Barracks Road shopping center last week—another reminder that it’s always a bad idea to flee police in your car.
    In this case, the officers hadn’t even mounted a chase. Albemarle police spotted a Jeep Cherokee driving without its lights on in the Barracks Road area. When an officer signaled to the driver, Shawn Lewis of Hopewell, the truck speeded up. Officers followed the vehicle down Preston Avenue, where it struck a tree near Washington Park. Lewis was killed instantly. Police later found stolen merchandise from the tobacco store in the vehicle.
    Albemarle police would not disclose their policy on car chases. City police policy allows car chases, with some restrictions. Officers must “weigh the need to apprehend a fleeing criminal suspect…against the hazard presented by the pursuit.” Shooting at, or from, a moving vehicle is considered “deadly force,” and—sorry, “Cops” fans—police can’t drive the wrong way against traffic, the policy states.
    Officers can use roadblocks, as well as a tactic called “boxing in,” where two or more police vehicles cut off a suspect. Not exactly an action movie, but hey—even in Charlottesville, chases are serious stuff.

Police arrested 28-year-old Damiris Lamont Wilson on Thursday, June 29 for two robberies that took place hours apart early that same morning at the Quality Inn on Emmet Street and the Red Carpet Inn at Premier Circle. In both cases, Wilson is accused of wielding a knife and escaping with an undisclosed amount of money. A clerk at the Red Carpet Inn had a physical altercation with the suspect, but was not hurt.
    On Friday, June 30 The Daily Progress reported that a call to the Crimestoppers tip line aided police in apprehending Wilson, who is charged with two counts of robbery, two counts of abduction and one count of assault and battery. At press time he was held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, awaiting a bond hearing.

Speaking to the press on Friday, June 23, Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos said two parents at a Crozet after-prom party where teens were drinking will not be charged. Camblos also underlined the County’s commitment to prosecuting teen drinkers and those who contribute to their delinquency.
    The parents, whose names were not released, hosted a party at their home May 28 that resulted in the arrest of 17 high school students. But, Camblos said, the parents didn’t condone underage alcohol use—in fact, “these parents poured it out when they found it.”
    “These parents did not provide alcohol like parents did several years ago,” Camblos said, referring to George and Elisa Robinson of Albemarle, who were sentenced to eight years in prison in 2003 for buying alcohol for a party for their 16-year-old son.
    Teen drinking has been at the forefront in Albemarle since a crash killed 17-year-old Nolan Jenkins after a May 19 party. No parents were present when police arrested 11 teens after that incident.
    Since then, the Albemarle School Board has debated whether it should expand its off-grounds alcohol policies, currently embedded in the athletics manual. It has also considered asking for legislation to allow police to release information about teen drinkers who are under 18.
    The Albemarle Board of Supervisors has expressed interest in working with the School Board on alcohol policy. Camblos said his office will probably not get involved in the alcohol policy debate.