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‘It’s a relief:’ Fields pleads guilty to federal charges

Susan Bro at a memorial last year for her daughter Heather Heyer. Bro says she's relieved to not have to go through another trial. Photo: Eze Amos

Some victims of the August 12, 2017, car attack are breathing a sigh of relief that they won’t have to endure a second trial, after the white supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes on March 27.

In a state trial in December, James Alex Fields, Jr., a 21-year-old from Maumee, Ohio, was found guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, and other charges for killing Heyer and severely injuring dozens of other anti-racist protesters when he drove into a crowd on Fourth Street—an event that many have called an act of domestic terror.

A Charlottesville jury recommended he serve a life sentence plus 419 years in prison, but Fields still faced federal charges. His guilty plea agreement means he’ll avoid the possibility of being sentenced to death.

“It’s a relief to think that we don’t have to go through another trial,” says Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro. “It was exhausting the first time.”

She also called it a relief that Fields, who initially pleaded not guilty to the hate crimes, has finally acknowledged his guilt, and admitted that he willfully caused bodily injury to the group of protesters celebrating on Fourth Street because of their race, color, religion, or national origin. Now, “he can get on with his life and I can get on with mine,” says Bro.

Fields told the judge he’d been receiving therapy and taking medication for mental health issues such as bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, ADHD, schizoid personality, and explosive onset disorders since he was 6 years old. But when asked if he was under the influence of any medicine or alcohol that would interfere with his ability to enter the plea freely and voluntarily, he said, “I’m feeling normal, sir.”

Fields, now sporting a thick, scruffy beard that stuck out about an inch off his face, was escorted into the courtroom in handcuffs by multiple U.S. Marshals.

In exchange for Fields’ guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski explained that a 30th charge, which carried the possibility of the death penalty, would be dropped. Therefore, his maximum punishment would be another life sentence.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen said he thought the plea agreement struck a good balance between punishment and protecting the interests of his victims, and that it, “vindicated—to the extent you can ever vindicate—the loss of life in respect to Heather Heyer.”

“There’s no point in killing him. It would not bring back Heather,” says her mother.

Bro has remained in the spotlight as racial tensions boil in the wake of the rally where her daughter died, which brought Fields and hundreds of other white supremacists and neo-Nazis to town, and emboldened others across the country. She’s the co-founder of the Heather Heyer Foundation, which seeks to honor the life of the 32-year-old paralegal and activist through scholarship opportunities for people passionate about bringing peaceful social change.

Says Bro, “Sadly, it took a white girl dying before anyone paid attention to civil rights around here.”

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Living News

An abhorrent infestation, thousands of bullets, and a goat sacrifice

Art by Jason Crosby

While renters have it tough, managing an apartment isn’t a walk in the park either, and one local manager has truly seen it all. On the condition of anonymity, the industry professional of nearly two decades agreed to dish the details.

“For what it’s worth,” he says, “I could likely fill a large novel with good material on this topic.”

His “go-to” story starts about 10 years ago at an undisclosed three-story apartment in Charlottesville’s urban ring. A maintenance worker was befuddled when he opened the door to a ground-level bathroom and discovered a caved-in ceiling and “three inches of some type of mysterious fatty substance across the entire floor.”

He then tried the unit above it, where he found the same thing. Upon entering the third and final floor, “It looked like a scene out of a movie,” the apartment manager says. Streamers hung from the ceiling from a party the night before, but “it wasn’t a raging kegger, it was their child’s first birthday party—and they butchered a goat in the bathroom.”

That’s also where they cooked the four-legged mammal and poured its fat down the drain. (Much to their dismay, the pipes burst.) A neighbor recalled seeing someone enter the apartment with a live goat across his shoulders, and the animal’s carcass would later be found in a nearby dumpster.

The apartment manager says he also learned real quick that the best way to enter a home is to swing the door open and pause before proceeding through it. Why? Because if the place is particularly unkempt, cockroaches could rain down from the doorway.

In one instance, he recalls the shower of insects lasted for at least 10 seconds.

“There were so many roaches that the carpet was flowing like water.”

And last but not least, he remembers two young roommates, likely renting an apartment for the first time. They caused quite a scene on their move-out day, when inspectors found tens of thousands of BBs lodged into the drywall.

“Every piece had to be ripped out and replaced,” which came with a price tag just south of $10,000, he says. Pay up.

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News

Racist threat reverberates: Schools closed, teens arrested, students protest

More than 100 students and community allies joined the Charlottesville High School Black Student Union in its walkout for racial justice on Monday, March 25. eze amos

As thousands were celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening “ethnic cleansing” at Charlottesville High, closed all city schools last Thursday and Friday. It also prompted CHS’ Black Student Union to lead a walkout for racial justice on Monday.

More than 100 students and community allies gathered at McIntire Park, where they marched past the skate park and up to the guard rails abutting the U.S. 250 Bypass.

“When black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back,” they chanted, waving protest signs toward the oncoming traffic, and cheering when drivers honked in solidarity.

Black Student Union president Zyahna Bryant read a list of 10 demands for the school system, including hiring more black teachers for core classes. “We have one black teacher that teaches an AP class at CHS,” she said.

The group also wants the school to give more weight to African American history, and for school resource officers to have racial bias and cultural sensitivity training.

Senior Althea Laughon-Worrell said CHS administration tried to keep students in school. ”It wasn’t until they saw that we had an outpouring of community support that they seemed to accept that it was happening,” she said. “We can’t personally ensure that our demands are met, but we plan to keep putting pressure on the city and the school board to deal with the issues we have identified.”

Students lined the 250 Bypass on Monday, holding signs spelling out their demands for change. eze amos

Bryant had posted a screenshot of the threat, from the message board 4chan, on Thursday, and said racism in city schools isn’t new. There will be no reconciliation without structural change and the redistribution of resources for black and brown students, she added.

“In the past, when students of color have brought forth racial concerns, there has been no real change,” Bryant said on Thursday. “This is the time to act and show black and brown students that they matter with lasting changes and reform. Now is not the time to pass another empty resolution. It is time to back the words up with action.”

Around noon Friday, March 22, Charlottesville police announced they had arrested and charged a 17-year-old male with a Class 6 felony for threatening to commit serious bodily harm on school property, and harassment by computer, a misdemeanor.

At a press conference, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters and community members that the culprit identifies as Portuguese, was in Albemarle County at the time of the arrest, and is not a Charlottesville High School student. She said state laws prohibit police from publicly identifying the minor, unless he were to be tried as an adult.

Local, state, and federal partners located the suspect’s IP address with the help of internet service providers, according to Brackney. She did not divulge whether he had any weapons.

“We want the community and the world to know that hate is not welcome in Charlottesville,” Brackney said. “And in Charlottesville and around the globe, we stand firmly in stating: There are not very fine people on both sides of this issue.”

Similarly, Mayor Nikuyah Walker said at the press conference that she hopes the way the threat was handled will lessen fear associated with future threats, and that Charlottesville is “leading the fight for justice globally.”

Also on March 22, Albemarle police reported the arrest of an Albemarle High teen for posting on social media a threat to shoot up the school. Police say that is unrelated to the Charlottesville High threat to kill black and Hispanic students.

City schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins said the decision to close schools a second day and keep 4,300 students home was to make sure everyone in the community, including students and staff, feel safe returning to school.

The racial terrorism was a painful reminder to a community already traumatized from the August 2017 invasion of white supremacists.

UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan tweeted on Friday, “Today, as Charlottesville teachers and students sit home for a second day trying not to let fear overtake them, I’m reminded of those who told me after August 12, 2017, that white supremacists were not a threat to this country. If you think that, be glad you have that luxury.”

Charlottesville School Board Chair Jennifer McKeever said, “It’s unfortunate and frankly it’s really frustrating that we live in this world where people can make these threats and feel comfortable making these threats.”

Courtney Maupin’s daughter is a freshman at CHS. “It’s scary to know there are people out there who don’t like you for the color of your skin,” she said. “I had to explain to my two younger children who didn’t understand why they weren’t in school.”

Like most parents, Kristin Clarens, a local anti-racist activist and mom of three, said she’s glad the city made safety a priority.

“I’m grateful for the efforts that people are making to keep our kids safe on every level, but I also think we should be more forceful in calling this act of white supremacy and terrorism out for what it is,” she said. “I’m heartbroken that we live in a climate where this is allowed to get to this level.”

McKeever, too, was heartened by the outpouring of community support in the face of a situation that is “not something you want to have to explain to our children.”—with additional reporting by Lisa Provence

An earlier version of this story appeared online.

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News

Stress center: Abrupt resignation further dismays dispatchers

Emergency Communication Center dispatchers are not pleased with the surprise resignation of their executive director—and they don’t believe it was on his terms. Photo by Sanjay Suchak

When the executive director of the city, county, and university’s troubled Emergency Communications Center abruptly resigned last week, questions and concerns started circulating among the center’s employees.

“Barry [Neulen] was doing so many good things for us, and we were singing his praises to anybody and everybody,” says one employee. “I wholeheartedly believe Barry did not leave because he wanted to.”

The employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, says the crew of 911 dispatchers knew something was up ahead of a March 11 management board meeting, because Neulen, who had joined them as executive director just six months ago, had removed his personal photos from the office wall.

“We immediately connected the dots,” he says. “From the clues that we can gather from what we’ve seen and heard, [the board] asked him to resign.”

Neulen declined an interview request, and board chair Doug Walker declined to give any details.

Walker, who also serves as assistant county executive, put together a search committee to hire a new executive director. Tom Berry, the current executive director of emergency management at UVA, will take Neulen’s place in the interim.

The appointment of Berry has created another controversy, because while he will now report to the management board on behalf of the ECC, he also currently serves on that board.

Berry didn’t make the best first impression on the employees he will now direct, and multiple dispatchers have discussed quitting, says the ECC employee.

“Not only were we hit with the shock of [Neulen] leaving, Tom Berry left the office right after that meeting and didn’t say anything to anybody,” says the staffer. “If you’re going to be our new boss, you should be coming in to meet us immediately.”

The employee says the board will discuss whether to appoint someone different at a March 21 meeting, which Walker neither confirmed nor denied.

Neulen, a former director of field operations for the U.S. Department of Defense, joined the ECC at a time when the center was severely understaffed, spending his entire year’s budget in six months on overtime. It was his mission to hire enough new dispatchers—approximately 10—to get the team running smoothly again. To train the new hires, he planned to hire independent contractor Homeland Security Solutions, Inc. for $180,000.

That move raised questions at a January 8 board meeting, at which other board members, including Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, questioned Neulen’s decision to hire people he knew from his time in the Marine Corps without investigating other groups that could potentially do it for less.

“I didn’t have the time or the inclination to cast a wide net because I knew what this company was capable of doing,” Neulen said at the time.

And ECC employees, the ones who most felt the burden of the understaffing, applauded his decision to hire help. Yet the following month, the board scrapped the independent training contract and decided to seek new bids.

This employee says ECC team members are upset because no one from the management board asked how they felt about Neulen.

“We’ve lost all trust in the board,” he adds. “Our morale went from a bright shining light of hope to nothing.”

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News

Monument motions: Another stall for the statues

Frank Earnest, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, is the heritage defense coordinator of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Photo by Eze Amos

It was the same old, same old in Charlottesville Circuit Court on March 13, when attorneys involved in a lawsuit to keep the town’s Confederate monuments in place hashed out all-too-familiar arguments.

It’s been two years since the Monument Fund and a dozen other plaintiffs filed suit in response to City Council’s vote to remove one of the town’s most controversial memorials, the General Robert E. Lee statue, and attorneys appeared frustrated by the lack of progress. This hearing followed an unsuccessful settlement conference between the parties in February.

A trial is scheduled for September 9.

“Still, to this day, we don’t know which damages they’re pursuing,” said defense attorney Parker Rider-Longmaid. He practices with Jones Day, the largest law firm in the country, which is representing councilors Wes Bellamy, Mike Signer, Kathy Galvin, and former councilor Kristin Szakos in the suit pro bono. Former councilor Bob Fenwick and the city are also defendants and are being represented by city attorney Lisa Robertson.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys Ralph Main and Braxton Puryear have continued to request money for damages, though the monuments depicting generals Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson have faced no physical damage, even while temporarily shrouded after the Unite the Right rally that left three people dead.

Judge Rick Moore said perhaps the money, if awarded for damages, could be used for preservation, which he called, “the only hook the plaintiffs have, in my opinion.”

It’s unclear how much the plaintiffs are asking for.

Puryear suggested damages could be awarded for attorneys’ fees or the $3,000 in taxpayer money that councilors used for the black tarps that covered the statues. But, said Rider-Longmaid, “We don’t think the plaintiff[s] should have another opportunity to cook something up” about how to collect damages. The judge did not make a ruling, but questioned whether a case could be made for the cost of covering the war generals.

Moore, who has previously ruled councilors are individually liable for their vote to remove the statues, also didn’t rule on whether they showed gross negligence when they did so. Defense attorney Esha Mankodi, also with Jones Day, said their opponents would need to prove the councilors exercised “scant care” to win that argument.

That wasn’t the case, she added, because the city officials deliberated for 10 months before taking their original vote, held approximately 20 public meetings, and sought a legal opinion from the city attorney.

But Main said that was something for a jury to decide, and the judge took it under advisement, though he hasn’t yet ruled on whether it will be a jury or a bench trial.

Plaintiff Frank Earnest, who holds the title of heritage defense coordinator within the Sons of Confederate Veterans, sat in the front row of the courtroom.

The 63-year-old Virginia Beach resident told C-VILLE last month that his organization has denounced racist groups over its 100-year history.

“We have nothing to do with those people,” he said. “We don’t want to see monuments to defending our state removed.”

Frank Earnest (center) and local attorney Jock Yellott (right) are plaintiffs in the suit to keep the city’s Confederate monuments in place. Photo by Eze Amos
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News

Some county residents have strong opinions about what’s appropriate for Black History Month

Walton Middle School is under fire for including City Councilor Wes Bellamy’s photo in a Black History Month display. Photo by Eze Amos

Controversy erupted recently over including a local politician and activist in a Black History Month display at Walton Middle School—and we bet you can guess who it is.

City Councilor Wes Bellamy had some community members clutching their metaphorical pearls when his photo appeared alongside those of historical black figures such as Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Barack Obama, in an exhibit of approximately 50 photos that lined several hallways of the school.

“It was a desire to slip a very non-deserving person over on the teachers, community, and, most horribly, the students,” says Tom Stargell, a retired Walton teacher of nearly 40 years, who helped open the school in 1975.

Stargell’s concerns also appeared in the Scottsville Weekly, where he asked a representative from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to respond.

Supervisor Rick Randolph, who represents Scottsville, said in a written note to the paper that the school board would be a more appropriate group from which to solicit a response, but he also offered a few of his own thoughts.

“As a former middle school teacher, my strong suspicion is that not a single student at Walton, unprompted by an adult, has taken offense to this photo of the Bellamy family,” said Randolph. “Even if a student did notice this inoffensive picture, Dr. Bellamy deserves consideration as a positive role model for all youth.”

County resident Denise Davis, in an email to ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas, disagrees. “I am trying to comprehend how and why anyone of you could arrive at such twisted logic that it is appropriate to place Wes Bellamy’s picture alongside of the distinguished African Americans in the hall at Walton Middle School. This is a man who is a known racist, has verbally made it clear he absolutely has no use for white people, and, as you may recall, made the statement ‘it is not rape if she moans.’”

Middle school principal Josh Walton said in a statement that Bellamy is among the local black leaders who volunteered to work with students in the M-Cubed program at the school, which was developed to help male African American students improve in math. His wife also works at Walton.

“The use of Mr. Bellamy’s photo, nonetheless, was inappropriate,” said the principal, because Bellamy is up for re-election this year, and Walton says the school wouldn’t want it to appear as a political endorsement.

“More important,” the principal added, “I do not believe his inclusion in the exhibit fit with the theme of recognizing African American role models down through history who have had a lasting and positive influence upon our nation.”

Says Stargell, “No doubt there are persons at Walton who wish to further Mr. Bellamy’s political agenda…They got caught. They now say Bellamy was not deserving.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, is [Walton] that far out into left field shooting marbles, or does he honest to God think that Wes Bellamy is some shining star?” asks Davis.

All of the leaders’ photos were taken down at the end of the month. According to county schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita, next year students will have a role in deciding how to celebrate Black History Month.

Bellamy declined to comment.

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News

Data drive: Police chief hopes to prove transparency by producing records

Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference to announces changes she’s made to the department. Photo by Eze Amos

When Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney took her oath in June, she was sworn in to a position already highly scrutinized by citizens of a town where many are wary of the cops. Perhaps the thing locals wanted most in a new chief was transparency, and Brackney says she has spent the past nine months trying to give it to them.

Since September, Brackney has provided stop-and-frisk data in a monthly PowerPoint posted to the city’s website. And on March 8, she held a media-only press conference to announce that the police department would immediately turn over results of an internal affairs report on complaints made against officers, and make already public arrest data available online for anyone to peruse.

She also provided a 2018 report on use of force, which showed only one instance of deadly force, when a suspect shot an officer in September 2018, and the cop returned fire, killing him.

Incidents of physical force, without weapons, were more frequent, with 20 occassions including 10 takedowns, four hands-on encounters, and one knee strike.

Making the data easily available to community members is part of Brackney’s plan to restore the reputation of the CPD and regain trust, she said.

“I really believe that this meets the community’s call for transparency,” added Interim City Manager Mike Murphy at the press conference.

But the online arrest records won’t include race, an omission that local attorney Jeff Fogel called disappointing.

“The disparity between white and black arrests is what the primary issue is, and this won’t help,” says Fogel. “The department has that information but is not providing it.”

Brackney didn’t address why.

So far, nothing the CPD has produced isn’t already public information, though it’s now easier to find, says Fogel. And, he adds, the department and city manager refuse to answer why they won’t provide certain data, such as the details of detentions (without names).

“That is the true test of transparency, that which the law does not require to be public,” says Fogel, who for years has called for cops to turn over stop-and-frisk records. His earlier demands for data resulted in the release of a 2017 report that showed approximately 73 percent of city stop and frisks involved African Americans.

Friday’s meeting, which was pushed back an hour and a half, started with a few remarks from Murphy and ended with a tame Q&A with the chief—in stark contrast to an October press conference she held outside the CPD, which was open to the public and became increasingly tense as it proceeded. That one came to a close after a couple of heated exchanges between the chief and attending activists.

Since then, a member of the Police Civilian Review Board accused Brackney of verbally attacking her, which led to a February protest outside the police station with demonstrators carrying signs that read, “Chief Brackney assaulted Katrina Turner.”

Brackney has faced severe understaffing at the department this year, and she’s listed pay, lack of take-home police cars, and the attitude of the community and of the Civilian Review Board as factors in the wholesale departure of officers. But Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding said he’d heard complaints from cops about Brackney’s leadership, and he suggested an outside consultant do an assessment—a suggestion rebuffed by Murphy.

At the press conference, Murphy said he’s been impressed with her other accomplishments over the past nine months, such as making new assignments for officers, reviewing and changing policies, and creating a new command structure.

The new structure includes four divisions: field operations, administration, support operations, and investigations, and according to Brackney, it has allowed her to shift several of her lieutenants into different roles, eliminating assignments that kept officers cooped up at the headquarters during their shifts.

Brackney said the CPD is actively drafting potential members with a new recruitment video. There are still approximately 20 vacancies, compared to 25 at the peak of what she once called the “mass exodus.”

When asked about the current morale of those on the force, she seemed to dodge the question. Said Brackney, “When we talk about morale, it’s really just a very subjective kind of viewpoint.”

Cop complaints

Community members have also called for the Charlottesville Police Department to release a report of internal affairs investigations, or findings from cases in which people complained about their interactions with officers for issues including racial profiling, police corruption, rudeness, and unreasonable force.

Chief RaShall Brackney made these results available at the March 8 press conference, and out of approximately 40 reported allegations in 2018 (including at least five internal investigations with undisclosed results), only four complaints have so far been sustained—for inappropriate language, a traffic law violation, rudeness, and inadequate performance of duties.

Here’s how the others stack up:

  • 9 complaints unfounded
  • 6 complaints exonerated
  • 8 complaints still open
  • 6 complaints pending final review
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Rutherford Institute weighs in on county schools’ hate imagery ban

Local activists have long called for hate symbols including Confederate imagery to be banned in Albemarle County schools. Photo by Eze Amos

Anti-racist activists have spent more than a year advocating for a ban of hate symbols in Albemarle county schools, and after months of the school board deferring an official vote, the superintendent took matters into his own hands last week to prohibit such imagery in the dress code. Now, a constitutional attorney says he better watch out for a lawsuit.

Some school board members had previously voiced their concerns about the legality of such a prohibition—especially in light of the $150,000 First Amendment lawsuit they were smacked with in 2002 for denying a Jack Jouett middle schooler the right to wear his NRA camp shirt to school.

“Images of white supremacy, including Confederate and Nazi imagery, should not be permitted in our schools because they cause substantial disruption,” Superintendent Matt Haas read from a statement at the February 28 school board meeting, where he announced that he will ban explicit symbols, lettering, or any insignia associated with violence or white supremacy.

John Whitehead. Photo by Stephen Canty

John Whitehead, a constitutional attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute, says when policies are as vague and subjective as he says the Albemarle County Public Schools’ policy is, it lays the groundwork for a host of civil liberties violations.

The move is “consistent with a trend being played out in schools across the country—and in the courts—to censor First Amendment activities under the guise of school safety,” says Whitehead. “As a result, even American flag apparel was banned as dangerous in one major case.”

While this and other hate speech policies may make some students feel safer in the short term, he says it’s the Rutherford Institute’s position that they won’t actually make the schools any safer.

“Ultimately, what we must decide is whether the schools are here to censor or are they here to educate?” says Whitehead. “While this ACPS policy is inevitably going to result in a legal challenge, it’s not going to resolve the underlying problem of racism in our community and in our country, which is something that needs to be addressed and discussed openly and worked out in an open, supportive environment by the students and mediated by school officials.”

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Not guilty: Trash truck driver acquitted in fatal train crash

Dana Naylor, who drove the Times Disposal garbage truck hit by an Amtrak train a year ago, was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Christopher Foley. Photo by Jack Looney

Garbage truck driver Dana Naylor was found not guilty for his involvement in a crash that made headlines last year, when an Amtrak train carrying GOP congressmen smashed into his truck in Crozet.

The crash killed Naylor’s friend and coworker, Christopher Foley, who was one of two passengers. The other, Dennis Eddy, was severely injured.

Naylor, 31, was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The prosecution contended that he was criminally negligent and alleged he drove his truck around the downed gates at the Lanetown Road crossing, and that statements he made to police and medical responders in the immediate aftermath—that he was trying to beat the train, and that he had ruined his life and killed his friend—proved guilt.

But defense attorney William Tanner said prosecutors didn’t have sufficient evidence to prove how Naylor got on the tracks. Tanner told jurors they should believe the driver’s original statements that he saw the crossing’s warning lights flashing, tried to cross, and got caught in between the gates that came down around him.

Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins struck an additional DUI maiming charge after hearing expert testimony from a forensic toxicologist, who said the level of THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, in one’s blood does not correlate to the level of impairment.

The commonwealth initially intended to argue that Naylor was impaired during the crash because a blood test found marijuana in his bloodstream. A cop, claiming he smelled beer on Naylor, obtained a search warrant, but the test turned up no traces of alcohol.

Outside of the presence of the jury, prosecutor Juan Vega asked Dr. Jayne Thatcher, from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, to explain a 2006 study by a behavioral oncologist that related THC levels to impairment. But his plan to link the two backfired when Thatcher said she couldn’t rely on the THC level alone. And the prosecution didn’t have any other evidence from witnesses who observed Naylor at the time of the accident.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci had this explanation: “You can imagine fewer buzzkills greater than a trainwreck.” Had Judge Higgins allowed the charge to move forward, he said he would have presented evidence to the jury that investigators found weed in a tube of Carmex lip balm, which was inside Naylor’s lunchbox in the cab of the truck. He also said there was a “marijuana pipe” found right next to the vehicle on-scene.

Outside the courthouse, after the jury deliberated for several hours to reach the not guilty verdict on the remaining involuntary manslaughter charge, reporters questioned Tracci about whether he thought he would have been able to get a conviction if he’d been able to introduce the additional evidence.

“I think the jury wasn’t able to consider the totality of circumstances supporting the commonwealth’s charging decision,” he said. “They made their decision. We respect that outcome.”

In most states, including Virginia, it’s illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content over 0.08 percent, but states vary when it comes to THC levels and impairment. Currently, Virginia does not have an established limit, and Tracci told reporters he hopes the General Assembly will reconsider establishing one.

In Colorado, you could get a DUI if a blood test reveals five nanograms of THC in your system. Naylor’s test revealed nearly seven nanograms. But because THC can linger in one’s system for weeks, Naylor’s THC levels do not prove he was high at the time.

Over the course of the three-day trial, jurors heard from nearly 30 witnesses, all but one called by the prosecution.

Greg Gooden, who oversees railroad signal maintenance at that crossing in Crozet, said before a train passes, lights and bells will blink and ring for approximately four or five seconds, and then it takes about 12 or 14 seconds for the gates to descend. They must be fully horizontal for at least five seconds before the train crosses, and they’re “not very hard” to drive through in the event of an emergency, he said.

Gooden added that there haven’t been any reported malfunctions at the Lanetown crossing, as far as he’s aware.

Sole defense witness Mandy Snow contradicted Gooden’s testimony. The lifelong Crozet resident said she’s lived in the immediate vicinity of the tracks for two years, crosses them four or five times per day, and that it’s not unusual for the gates to malfunction.

“I’ve also noticed that they don’t come down in time,” she said, adding that she’ll often drive over the crossing and then hear a train barrel past her within seconds. “In my opinion, there’s not enough warning.”

In Tracci’s closing argument, he said her testimony wasn’t reliable, and that Naylor acted with total “reckless disregard for human life” when he decided to try to beat the 60mph train that day in January 2018.

Tanner encouraged the jury to use their common sense in his closing, and asked, “Why would he endanger his crew? …Why in the world would he do that to save about a minute?”

Then Tracci closed out the trial with his own question: “If this isn’t a crime and this isn’t criminal negligence, I ask you again, what is?”

It turned out to not be an easy question to answer. After the verdict, an anonymous juror told reporters the panel’s initial vote found Naylor guilty of involuntary manslaughter by 10 to two.

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News

Testimony/cross-examination questioned in rape cases

Mark Hormuz Dean. Courtesy county police

An Albemarle County physician facing 11 charges related to sexually assaulting 10 female patients was in court February 19 for a motions hearing.

Mark Hormuz Dean will be tried on multiple counts of rape, object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery, forcible sodomy, and abduction, all from his time as a doctor of osteopathic medicine at the Pantops-based Albemarle Pain Management Associates Clinic.

He’ll be tried separately for each victim’s accusations, with the first jury trial scheduled for April. At Dean’s most recent hearing, defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana expressed concern that her client won’t have a fair trial if the victim’s testimony at that trial alludes to other victims in the case.

The defense implied that the accuser will likely say she decided to come forward after hearing about Dean’s January 2018 indictment, and if she does, the jury will know there are multiple accusers, said Quagliana.

Prosecutor Darby Lowe said she didn’t intend to question the victim about any other cases, and Judge Humes Franklin said he will allow her to ask why the victim chose to speak out.

Quagliana also said she should have the right to cross-examine the victim, ask why she waited a year to file a police report, and inquire about her mental health history, prior complaints, and the civil suit she has also filed against Dean “to get money,” as the attorney put it.

The judge said he will limit the cross-examination on a case-by-case basis to ensure its relevance. Another motions hearing is scheduled for March 8.