Tag: Deandre Harris

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In brief: form-based code delayed, UVA soccer wins, A12 appeals denied, and more

UVA President Jim Ryan has decided to reinstate the 21-gun salute during the university’s Veterans Day ceremony next year.

Rain check

Planning Commission delays form-based code proposal

After much debate, the City Planning Commission has decided to table its plans to introduce an alternative kind of zoning, called form-based code, to the city’s Strategic Investment Area south of downtown.

Unlike conventional zoning, form-based code focuses on the physical form and scale of buildings in relationship to one another, rather than on building use. It can be used to encourage mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly development as well as streamline the development approval process.

The commissioners present at last Tuesday’s meeting were all in favor of implementing a form-based code but did not think the proposal was ready for approval.

“We want to have a code we’re comfortable with,” said Commissioner Lisa Green.

Dozens of Charlottesville residents came to the meeting, and 16 spoke out against the proposal. Many were concerned that the code did not place enough priority on affordable housing and could allow developers to use loopholes.

Under the proposed code, for example, developers would be allowed to build one to four additional stories if they provide a certain number of affordable housing units. However, affordable units would only be required to be a percentage of the units in the additional stories, not of the entire building.

Several residents recognized that outgoing Councilor Kathy Galvin, who has pushed for the code, wanted the proposal to go before City Council before its final meeting, but urged the commission to delay the proposal until it adequately addresses the city’s affordable housing needs.

“Kathy, I’m sorry that you’re leaving in December, but this plan can wait,” said Joy Johnson, chair of the Public Housing Association of Residents.

The commissioners will vote again on the form-based code sometime early next year.

The proposed code would allow for buildings up to nine stories within the IX Art Park property, but would specify that they surround an area of open space.

 

Such great heights

A plan by Jeff Levien, owner of Heirloom Development (and the man behind 600 West Main), to erect a 101-foot building just off the Downtown Mall came another step closer to reality last week, when the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of a special-use permit for 218 W. Market St. 

Levien is seeking to construct a mixed-use building with commercial space and rental apartments on the site that’s currently home to the Artful Lodger, The Livery Stable, and other small businesses. The permit would increase the allowable height and density for the project from 70 feet and 24 units to 101 feet and 134 units.

If approved by City Council, the new building will become one of the tallest in Charlottesville. 

Quote of the week

“Take it down and put it in a hall of shame.’” —Rose Ann Abrahamson, descendant of Sacagawea, on the proper course of action for the West Main Street statue of Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea

In brief

Unappealing

Virginia’s Court of Appeals denied the appeals of two men convicted in the violent beating of Deandre Harris inside the Market Street Parking Garage during the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos were caught on video beating Harris, and the judge cited that footage in upholding Goodwin’s conviction for malicious wounding. Goodwin will continue his sentence of eight years behind bars, while Ramos is serving six.

November madness

UVA soccer teams continue their electrifying seasons. The men’s team raised the program’s 16th ACC tournament trophy last week and earned the top seed in the NCAA tournament. The top-seeded women’s team thumped Radford 3-0 in its opening tournament match. 

Jumped the gun

UVA President Jim Ryan removed the 21-gun salute from the university’s Veterans Day program this year, but he’s rethought that decision, and says that next year’s ceremony will include the salute. “Sometimes you make mistakes,” Ryan said in a Facebook post. He had hoped to avoid class disruption and minimize the amount of guns being fired on college campuses, but others disagreed with his course of action. “My sincere apologies to any who may have doubted our commitment to honoring our veterans,” Ryan wrote. 

 

Updated 11/21: An earlier version of this story contained an item that mistakenly attributed to city manager Tarron Richardson a claim that the camera found in Court Square Park last week belonged to the city. In fact, Dr. Richardson was talking about a camera on 8th Street and Hardy Drive. 

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‘I did a lot of damage:’ Fourth parking garage attacker sentenced to two years in prison

Tyler Davis hit DeAndre Harris in the head with a tire thumper, causing a laceration that required eight staples. (Photo: Zach D. Roberts)

Just a little over two years after white supremacists marched through the streets of Charlottesville, the final criminal court case opened as a result of the events that unfolded August 11-12, 2017, came to an end Tuesday evening.

Tyler Davis, 51, was sentenced to two years and one month in prison for his role in the assault of DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage, despite pleas from his lawyers for Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore to consider alternative punishments, citing his attempts to reconcile and his family’s dependence on him.

“My main goal is not what’s best for Mr. Davis,” Moore said when he delivered his verdict. “It’s not what’s best for his family. It’s about what’s right…If you consider all the impacts on families, no one would be punished.”

Davis entered an Alford plea February 8, admitting that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of malicious wounding after he struck Harris on the head with a tire thumper while other Unite the Right protestors kicked and beat him on the ground. Born and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia, Davis, who had been living in Florida at the time of the rally, says he has since denounced white supremacy and dissolved his former allegiance to the League of the South.

“By lashing out at my perceived enemies, I was, without realizing it, lashing out at myself—I hated everyone,” Davis said during his lengthy remarks to the court. “I did a lot of damage, so this is an ongoing process that I will be working on for a long time, probably forever.”

The court determined that the blow Davis delivered was the most damaging to Harris, requiring eight staples in his head to mend. He was, however, given the lightest punishment of the four co-defendants because, Moore said, he only hit Harris once and wasn’t involved in the “group beating” that unfolded after Davis struck first.

Daniel Borden, who struck Harris three times with a large stick, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in January. Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos will serve prison sentences of eight and six years, respectively, in August 2018. Goodwin knocked Harris to the ground and Ramos sprinted into the garage to join him in hitting the African American man while he was down. Both Goodwin and Ramos have appealed their cases and are awaiting hearings in September.

Davis’ full sentence is for 10 years with seven years and two months suspended, and nine months credited to his time served for the three months he spent in jail and year that he submitted to electronic home monitoring. Davis was the only defendant in this case who was allowed out on bond; he was permitted to live at home with EHM in order to help take care of his now-19-year-old Autistic son.

Matthew Engle, Davis’ attorney, declined to comment after the verdict.

Joe Platania and Nina-Alice Antony from the commonwealth’s attorney’s office didn’t recommend a specific sentence, but both acknowledged that Davis deserved a lighter sentence than his co-defendants and recognized that he took ownership for his role in the attack.

Although the Charlottesville Police Department is still working to identify two other assailants from the attack, Platania and Antony hope the conclusion of these open criminal cases allows Charlottesville to gain a sense of finality and closure now that the trials are behind it.

“As prosecutors that did six of these cases…we tried to be careful not to make it about message,” Platania says. “We tried to look at the conduct of each individual and focus on each individual case and not prosecute ideology but prosecute conduct. Having said that, we are hopeful that those six prosecutions speak loud and clear about how this community and our office feels about individuals that come here from out of the area to perpetrate hateful acts of violence on others.”

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A12 appeals: DeAndre Harris attackers contest convictions

White nationalists chased DeAndre Harris into the Market Street Parking Garage and beat him with pieces of the wooden barricades they tore down. (Credit Image: © Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)

Two men convicted of malicious wounding for attacking DeAndre Harris in a downtown parking garage on August 12, 2017, are appealing their convictions, and the Virginia Attorney General’s office will now prosecute their cases.

Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos were sentenced to eight and six years in prison, respectively, for their part in the brutal Market Street Parking Garage beating that Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Rick Moore has repeatedly called one of the worst he’s ever seen.

While the Court of Appeals of Virginia has yet to hear the cases, a single judge granted the petitions to appeal without hearing any argument. Legal analyst Dave Heilberg says, “It’s not unusual, but it’s not what usually happens.”

He adds, “They tend not to give appeals without a good reason.”

Anthony Martin, who represents Goodwin, claims there was insufficient evidence to convict his client of malicious wounding.

“The only actions [Goodwin] had taken towards DeAndre Harris was at the most two kicks,” says the petition for appeal, which notes that Harris had a laceration to his head and an arm fracture, but that there’s no evidence that Goodwin caused harm to Harris’ head or arm. “The only conceivable areas of the body that [Goodwin] touched were Harris’ buttocks or bottom.”

To win an appeal on a claim of insufficiency of evidence is “rare,” according to Heilberg. During appellate review, the court will look at all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the commonwealth. “If there’s some evidence to support the conviction that was given, then it stands.”

Martin also argues that the court erred by denying motions to strike four potential jurors from serving on the panel that convicted Goodwin, including two who admitted to participating in Black Lives Matter rallies.

Jake Joyce represents Ramos—who went to trial the day after Goodwin’s conviction. Joyce alleges the jury pool could have been tainted if potential jurors saw media coverage of Goodwin’s trial.

“Ramos would have a stronger case than Goodwin,” suggests Heilberg, adding that the scheduling of their back-to-back trials could be unprecedented.

Joyce believes the trial should never have happened in Charlottesville.

“The danger was not just that jurors would harbor bias against the Unite the Righters who came to their city and caused a riot,” he wrote in the petition. “There is also danger that the circumstances surrounding the trial and the fear of fallout about their verdict might cause local jurors to decide their verdict on something other than the merits of the case.”

All motions to move August 12-related cases out of Charlottesville have been denied, and Heilberg says there’s a slim chance of winning an appeal on that grounds.

Lastly, Joyce argues that Ramos’ malicious wounding charge should have been reduced to a lesser form of assault, because it’s undisputed that he threw only one punch at the back of Harris’ head. But, says Heilberg, the jury made a factual determination based on the evidence it was given, and “if Ramos and Goodwin are acting in concert…one is as guilty as the other.”

A date has not been set for a full briefing or oral arguments in Richmond.

“Appellate review of criminal proceedings plays an important role in ensuring that defendants were treated fairly and afforded due process of law,” says Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, who prosecuted the cases alongside assistant prosecutor Nina Antony. “This office welcomes and is confident in that process.”

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Last man in August 12 parking garage beating pleads guilty

Tyler Watkins Davis. Courtesy Charlottesville Police Department

Tyler Watkins Davis entered an Alford plea February 8, and though it’s technically a guilty plea, it means the man from Middleburg, Florida, is not admitting guilt, but acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of malicious wounding in the brutal parking garage assault of DeAndre Harris.

Defense attorney Matthew Engle said his 50-year-old client doesn’t challenge the fact that he bashed Harris in the head with a wooden tire thumper, which caused severe trauma and required eight stitches, but he does dispute that it was done with malicious intent.

If the case went to trial, Engle said he would have argued that Davis perceived a threat outside the Market Street Parking Garage and was acting in self defense when he clobbered Harris—and that he did not intend to maim, disfigure, or kill Harris, which is required to meet the standard of actual malice.

Judge Rick Moore has often referred to the racially-charged beating as the worst he’s ever seen, but unlike the other men who participated, Engle noted that Davis only hit Harris once, and backed off when the others piled on.

When participants Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos went to trial for their roles in the attack, they were sentenced to eight and six years, respectively. Daniel Borden, who pleaded guilty, was given a lesser sentence of three years and 10 months in January. Davis faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, and will be sentenced in August.

Davis wasn’t caught until months after the others—and he may have Goodwin’s lawyer to thank for his arrest. At one of Goodwin’s hearings, attorney Elmer Woodard played a video of the assault, and asked why police had not arrested Davis, the then-unknown man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, whom Woodard dubbed “Boonie Hat” as he continually referred to Davis’ role in the beating. It wasn’t long after that that Davis was in cuffs.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina Antony said the two other men who can also be seen attacking Harris in the viral video have not yet been identified.

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Parental influence: Borden gets nearly four years for garage attack

Daniel Borden. Courtesy Charlottesville police

He wore a construction helmet that said “commie killer” as he joined in on a brutal beating in a downtown parking garage, striking the already downed DeAndre Harris with a stick until it broke as Harris struggled to pick himself up off the ground.

And though two out-of-town men already found guilty of malicious wounding for participating in the same beating have been sentenced to eight and six years in prison, this one—Daniel Borden, the Ohioan who was 18 years old when he hitched a ride to Charlottesville for the August 12 white supremacist rally—will only serve three years and 10 months.

“I absolutely don’t think my son did anything wrong,” testified his father, retired U.S. Air Force pilot Rick Borden, about the younger Borden’s involvement in what Judge Rick Moore has repeatedly referred to as “one of the worst beatings I’ve ever seen.”

The father, who started his testimony by saying he’d done “quite a bit of comprehensive investigation on this,” told the judge his son was separated from his friends when police declared an unlawful assembly and ordered everyone to leave what was then called Emancipation Park.

Borden joined another group of alt-righters and began making his way toward the Market Street Parking Garage. He picked up the stick along the way for protection, according to his dad.

“I’m not sure that I would have walked out of that park with anything other than an M1 Abrams tank,” said the father. He laughed at the mention of the “commie killer” hardhat, and said it was a reference to the film Full Metal Jacket.

“Back in the day, when I was a B-52 pilot, the Soviets were our mortal enemy,” he added.

A visibly frustrated defense attorney Mike Hallahan told the judge he was “on edge” as he questioned the elder Borden.

Judge Moore then called for a recess. As Borden’s father stood and left the witness stand for the break, he passed this reporter, who was seated in a back row. Making eye contact, he made an aggressive gesture somewhere in between starting a lawnmower and ripping apart a newspaper.

Returning to the stand, in an unusually tangential testimony, the father ranted about other aspects of August 12, including that Harris was allegedly seen throwing bottles of soda that day, and about how “antifa personnel” apparently specialize in “gang beatdowns.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania noted that a lot of the testimony seemed irrelevant, but that he wasn’t objecting. “I think Mr. Borden has a lot he wants to get off his chest,” he said.

And Hallahan argued that everything is relevant.

“Everything is not relevant,” said Moore. “I’m not going to let this sentencing hearing be made about something else.”

Getting back on track, Borden’s father said his son had “tunnel vision” or “target fixation” during the attack. Said the elder Borden, “Dan has no recollection of anybody even around him. He was that full of fear and anxiety.”

But in a video taken after the parking garage beating, Platania said Borden appeared “gleeful,” and that he could be heard saying, “Fuck Antifa. Fuck communism. They got their ass kicked multiple times.”

Prosecutor Nina Antony noted that Borden was half a block away when he saw the beating and decided to join in.

Hallahan, who argued that Borden was drawn to the parking garage because one of the alt-righters was also being beaten in a separate fight, asked the judge to “take out all the drama” and “take out all the politics,” to see that this case is just about a “guy in the parking lot hitting somebody with a stick.”

And the defense attorney said that from the sounds of the video, Borden likely missed Harris with at least one of his swings.

“I don’t think that matters,” said the judge. “He kept swinging because he hadn’t done what he needed to do.”

The defendant’s mother, Kelly Borden, said she didn’t know her son had gone to Virginia for the Unite the Right rally until a friend sent her an article by civil rights activist and independent journalist Shaun King, which identified Borden as one of the men who assaulted Harris. She testified it was “fake news.”

Though Borden faced a max of 20 years in prison, the sentencing guidelines presented to the court that day suggested a year and six months on the low end and four years and two months on the high end.

His attorney recommended the lowest: “Get him out of this community. Charlottesville didn’t want him here in the first place,” Hallahan said.

Antony noted Borden’s young age, lack of criminal history, and voluntary guilty plea, but she still asked for at least the highest sentencing recommendation. She also said she was trying not to let Borden’s parents’ testimony sway her to ask for more time.

Moments before the judge pronounced the nearly four-year sentence, with 20 years of good behavior, and five years of supervised probation after release, Borden gave his own statement—one that seemed more remorseful than his parents’.

He said he cried in his dad’s kitchen when the photos of him on August 12 surfaced on the web. He had only come to town to protest the removal of the Confederate statues, he added.

“I did not know how overwhelmingly against the statues Charlottesville was,” he said. “If I did, I would have thought twice about coming.”

Though Harris wasn’t present in the courtroom, Borden had a message for him: “You didn’t deserve that.” He gave the prosecutor a personal letter that he wanted Harris to read.

He also apologized to Harris’ parents, his own parents, and the entire city.

Said Borden, “I’m truly sorry this has happened to your town.”

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‘Just evil:’ Men sentenced in August 12 parking garage beating

White nationalists chased DeAndre Harris into the Market Street Parking Garage and beat him with pieces of the wooden barricades they tore down. (Credit Image: © Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)

The two young men handed lengthy prison sentences last week for their involvement in the August 12, 2017, brutal parking garage beating of DeAndre Harris sat in stark contrast to one another in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

One’s remorse was hard to miss. Jacob Goodwin, the Arkansas man who can be seen in videos wearing full tactical gear and kicking Harris multiple times as he lay immobile in the Market Street Parking Garage, hung his head for most of his August 23 hearing.

Last summer, a group of white nationalists chased Harris into the parking garage, surrounding him and striking him with their homemade weapons, fists, and feet. They knocked him to the ground at least twice, and continued to beat him as he struggled to get up.

Jacob Goodwin

Goodwin had tears in his eyes as Judge Rick Moore handed down a 10-year sentence with two years suspended. He turned to look at his mother, who had collapsed into his father’s lap, and her muffled sobs could be heard throughout the courtroom.

The jury that found Goodwin guilty of malicious wounding in May recommended the 10-year sentence, but suggested that some time be suspended. Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony, who asked the judge to suspend no more than two years, said the jury didn’t have the benefit of nearly 20 letters from friends and family that were sent on Goodwin’s behalf.

The contents of the letters were not discussed, but they apparently described a different man than the one seen in the August 12 videotapes—a white man with a shield and goggles, who also wore a pin that said “88,” code for “Heil Hitler,” as he beat a bloodied black man at the largest gathering of white supremacists in recent history.

“[This] is probably him on his worst day,” Antony said. “We are dealing with a snapshot of Mr. Goodwin’s life.”

Judge Moore said he hoped so, and called it one of the most “brutal, one-sided beatings” he’d ever seen. As for the good man Goodwin was shown to be in the letters Moore received, the judge said, “How does somebody who’s this person become the person I saw on the video?”

Before Goodwin was told he’d serve eight years, he told the court he didn’t get the chance to apologize during his trial.

“I’m truly, genuinely sorry,” he said. “I can’t even imagine the aftermath of what happened—how this has affected [Harris’] life.”

Antony said Harris declined to submit a victim impact statement.

“He has been working over the past several months on putting this matter behind him,” she said. Echoed the judge, “Mr. Harris may get over his physical injuries. I don’t know that he’ll ever get over his emotional or psychological injuries.”

Later that day, an apology that came from another man who participated in the beating wasn’t as sincere.

Alex Ramos’ face was blank as Moore grappled with how much prison time to impose.

Alex Ramos, pictured with his right fist raised, and Jacob Goodwin, pictured carrying a shield.

In viral videos, the man who came to the Unite the Right rally from Georgia can be seen wearing a red Make America Great Again hat and a white tank top as he throws one of the last punches in the Market Street Parking Garage melee.

The judge stressed that Ramos didn’t get involved until Harris was already on the ground, and the beating was almost over.

“It’s like he had to interject himself when the person was already beat to pieces,” Moore said. “It’s inhumane.”

Alex Ramos

He decided on a six-year sentence for Ramos, which the jury recommended when they also found him guilty of malicious wounding in May, and said it was easier to decide in this case than in Goodwin’s or that of Richard Preston, the KKK imperial wizard he sentenced two days prior to four years in prison for firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school on August 12, 2017 (see article on p. 13).

When Ramos took the witness stand, his defense attorney, Jake Joyce, asked him about a couple of Facebook posts he made after the Unite the Right rally, in which Ramos claimed victory, and said of the beating: “We stomped ass. Getting some was fucking fun.”

“I feel pretty embarrassed about it,” Ramos told the judge.

His attorney also noted the “elephant in the room:” Ramos is Hispanic, and not a white nationalist. Ramos described himself as a “conservative” and said he’s always been “somewhat of an outcast” at right-wing events.

The judge said Ramos fought as if he was trying to prove himself or impress somebody.

As for ganging up on Harris in the parking lot, Ramos said, “I made a wrong judgment call…I feel pretty bad. I kinda wish I could apologize to Mr. Harris.”

When advocating for Ramos to serve the full six-year sentence, Antony said he “might still need some time to think.”

Seemingly changing his demeanor just moments before his official sentence was handed down, Ramos said, “I am really sorry.”

“You can spend the rest of your life thinking about that,” the judge said. “It’s just evil.”

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Inciting words: Kessler gets a win and $5

In a separate instance in February, Donna Gasapo followed Jason Kessler down Market Street, shouting and with two middle fingers in the air. Staff photo

In a civil suit against an angry activist, Unite the Right rally organizer Jason Kessler has won $5.

The man who planned the August 12 event where neo-Nazis and counterprotesters clashed in the streets, leaving three people dead by the end of the day, said his suit was intended to bring “decorum.”

He sued Donna Gasapo, who called him every name in the book outside of Charlottesville General District Court in March. In a string of about 30 insults, “murderer,” “racist,” “asshole” and “goddamn crybaby” made the list.

Donna Gasapo communicates her feelings about Jason Kessler both verbally and nonverbally at a December 14 court hearing. EZE AMOS

“They are the exact words I said,” Gasapo told the judge. It was during DeAndre Harris’ assault trial, when community activists rallied outside the courthouse in support of him, and Kessler showed up to report on the trial for vdare.com, which appears to be an alt-right news source.

After missing the trial, Kessler told the judge he began covering the behavior of the activists outside the general district court, by filming them on his phone with personal commentary.

“I was trying to drown his words out so other people wouldn’t hear the terrible things he was saying about them or DeAndre,” Gasapo said.

Her attorney, Pam Starsia, who is also an anti-racist activist, argued that because Kessler is a public figure, Gasapo’s insulting words would have to meet a standard of actual malice. She said the entire community has been on edge since he brought a thousand white supremacists to town.

“Public discourse around those issues is protected by the First Amendment,” Starsia said, though Kessler said calling him a murderer was “reckless disregard for the truth,” and “it hurt [his] character.”

While Judge Bob Downer agreed with Starsia that Kessler’s reputation wasn’t damaged by Gasapo’s comments, he still sided with Kessler and ordered her to fork over $5, though Kessler originally asked for $495 more than that.

Amidst his win, Starsia said she doesn’t think it’ll stop the community of local activists from engaging in such behavior: “I’m very proud and confident that folks who have been having that discourse will continue to have it.”

In other court news, remember Kessler’s August 13 attempted press conference in front of City Hall, where his voice was drowned out by hundreds of shouting protesters until he was eventually chased off, tackled to the ground and escorted out by police?

Phoebe Stevens, a local advocate of peaceful intervention who was found guilty of assault in February, maintains that taking Kessler down wasn’t her intention. She was in Charlottesville Circuit Court June 28 to set a date for her appeal.

As she saw the crowd moving in on him, she said, “We love you, Jason,” and wrapped her arms around him, accidentally knocking him down in the chaos, according to her previous testimony. Her two-day trial is scheduled to start on Valentine’s Day.

In Charlottesville General District Court June 28, an assistant prosecutor announced that hearings for Nic McCarthy and Eleanor Ruth Myer Sessoms would be continued until July 19.

Both were arrested early last month during a late night protest on Market Street, where several community activists blocked traffic in protest of the day’s earlier conviction of Corey Long, the man who they say defended Charlottesville on August 12 when he pointed a homemade flamethrower at white supremacists.

Update July 2: Judge Bob Downer’s first name was omitted in the original version.

Updated 2:40pm July 2 with additional court case news.

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In brief: Get off the tracks, a Klansman’s plea and and a misidentified racist

Photo: Skycladap.com

See tracks? Think train

That’s advice from Dave Dixon, the safety and compliance supervisor of the Buckingham Branch Railroad, who notes the national increase of railroad crossing fatalities this year.

One of them happened here. An Amtrak carrying GOP congressmen smashed into a garbage truck on Crozet
train tracks in January, killing 28-year-old truck passenger Christopher Foley.

In an increased effort to educate drivers, Dixon offers advice for what to do if your car gets stuck on the crossing:

1. Evacuate the car and get away from the tracks.

2. Call the number on the blue sign at the crossing, not 911.

3. If a train approaches, run toward the train at a 45-degree angle and away from the track.

4. Don’t run down track, where the train could knock the vehicle into you.

Other tips:

  • Don’t drive around the gates.
  • Never try to “beat a train.”
  • At private crossings without gates, stop, look and listen before crossing.
  • Before crossing, be sure there’s enough room on the other side to safely clear the tracks.
  • If the gates are down while you’re on the crossing, drive through the gate. It’s designed to break away.
  • Report any malfunctioning gates, lights or other problems to the number on the blue sign.

Preston pleads

Courtesy of an ACLU video

An imperial wizard of Baltimore’s Confederate White Knights of the KKK, who was charged with firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school at the Unite the Right rally, pleaded no contest May 5, just one day before his trial was scheduled to begin. Richard Preston was aiming his gun at Corey Long, who pointed a homemade flamethrower at the Klansman in a photo that went viral.

High-paying jobs

Ralph Northam

Governor Ralph Northam was in town May 2 to tout CoConstruct, a web-based company in Albemarle that helps custom homebuilders and remodelers manage their projects, and its plans to expand its IT ops and hire 69 new employees, some of whom will earn over $100,000. Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball called Charlottesville the “Camelot of Virginia.”

Northam noncommittal on Soering

In his second visit to Albemarle County in five days, Northam was at the Virginia Humanities’ folklife showcase when WVTF’s Sandy Hausman asked him about the pardon petition for Jens Soering amid increased calls from law enforcement supporting Soering’s innocence. Northam said he will stand by the decision of the parole board, which has denied parole 13 times.

Sage Smith episode

DaShad “Sage” Smith

Charlottesville police are still looking for leads in the homicide of Smith, who was last seen November 20, 2012. The disappearance is the subject of an episode on the Investigation Discovery channel show “Disappeared.” “Born this Way” airs at 7pm May 9. Police also seek information on the whereabouts of Erik McFadden, who was supposed to meet Smith the day of her disappearance.

Greene official charged

Larry Snow, Greene County commissioner of revenue, was charged with four felonies for use of trickery to obtain information stemming from a DMV investigation, according to the Greene County Record. Snow, 69, was first elected in 1987. In 2010, he was convicted of practicing law without a license, a misdemeanor.

Bad babysitter

Yowell-Rohm

Kathy Yowell-Rohm pleaded guilty to felony cruelty or injury to a child and operating a home daycare without a license after police found 16 children—most with seriously dirty diapers—from a few months old to age 4 in her home last December. She also pleaded guilty to assaulting an EMT in a parking lot at the November 24 UVA-Virginia Tech football game.

Terrys end treestand-off

Mother Red Terry, 61, and daughter Minor Terry, 30, came down May 5 from the trees on their property near Roanoke where they’d been camped since April 2 to protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline after a federal judge found them in contempt and said she’d start fining the Terrys for every day they defied her order.

Quote of the Week

“Out in the fresh air and sunshine, he could just have walked away.” —Judge Rick Moore at the trial of Alex Michael Ramos, who was convicted of the malicious wounding of DeAndre Harris.

Misidentified racist

Don Blankenship, Larry Sabato and MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell

It’s always best if the offended has a sense of humor.

A Huffington Post Instagram account called @huffpostasianvoices posted a photo of UVA’s Larry Sabato along with a story called, “GOP Senate Candidate: ‘Chinaperson’ Isn’t Racist,” referring to Don Blankenship, the West Virginian who recently used the racial slur, and who CNN editor Chris Cillizza has called “the worst candidate in America.”

Sabato did appear in an interview for the story, and on Twitter, he said, “After a loyal former student alerted me to the photo mix up, we reported it and it was quickly corrected.”

Blankenship isn’t his only doppelgänger. Two years ago, reporter Megyn Kelly noted that Sabato looks strikingly similar to the MyPillow infomercial salesman.

Tweeted the founder and director of the university’s Center for Politics, “After all, Don Blankenship, MyPillow guy and I all have a mustache, and everyone knows all mustachioed men look alike.”

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Guilty again: Ramos second person convicted in garage assault

Alex Michael Ramos, with arm raised, was convicted of the malicious wounding of DeAndre Harris.

 

 

In the second trial of the week for the brutal August 12 attack on DeAndre Harris, a jury deliberated 35 minutes before entering a second guilty verdict May 3 for an out-of-towner here for the Unite the Right rally.

Georgia resident Alex Michael Ramos, 34, sat expressionless through most of the two-day trial for his charge of malicious wounding. And in the sparsely filled courtroom, he did not appear to have family members or supporters present, although at closing arguments, Hannah Zarski, the woman whose offer to house Ramos a judge rebuffed during a bond hearing, showed up, and Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler sat in a back corner for most of the trial.

Even for those who have seen videos before of the beatdown in the Market Street Parking Garage, it was hard to watch, and a couple of the jurors glared at Ramos after they were shown footage of him, clad in a red Make America Great Again baseball cap and white wifebeater, run into the garage and throw a punch at Harris, who already was on the ground and being beaten by four other men.

For Harris, 20, his testimony May 2 made the third day in a row he took the stand. He previously testified April 30 and May 1 in the malicious wounding trial of Jacob Goodwin, 23, who came from Ward, Arkansas, to take part in the rally. A jury found Goodwin guilty, and two other men charged in the attack—Daniel Borden and Tyler “Boonie Hat” Davis—have trials this summer.

Harris, a teacher’s aide who worked last summer as a YMCA camp counselor, described going to the Unite the Right rally with his brother and several others that he didn’t really know, including Corey Long.

A girl dressed in black gave him a mask, and a man gave him a Maglite, he said.

After the rally in Emancipation Park was declared an unlawful assembly and the white supremacists and neo-Nazis were funneled on to Market Street where counterprotesters were massed, Harris and his party walked east on Market trading barbs with the ralliers.

Harris said he was in front of his group when he turned and saw what appeared to him to be “an alt-right guy driving his flag into Corey.”

What Harris didn’t see, said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina Antony, was Long run up to League of the South member Harry Crews and attempt to grab his flag.

“I ran up with the flashlight,” said Harris. “I hit the pole to break up the altercation.” Harris was found not guilty of assault March 16.

He was immediately sprayed with a chemical substance, ran and fell down, he said. “I get up and try to run and I fall again,” he said as jurors watched a video of the incident. “I was just trying to get away.”

Nurse practitioner Evan Pryse treated Harris at Sentara Martha Jefferson after he’d taken a shower for chemical decontamination. Harris had eight staples for the gash in his scalp and had difficulty forming sentences, said Pryse, which he thought could be the result of a concussion.

Harris also suffered a fractured left forearm, which Pryse said is in the medical world is known as a “nightstick injury,” and typically occurs when one raises an arm to block a blow.

Detective Declan Hickey was gathering intelligence from news and social media on the third floor of the Charlottesville Police Department August 12 and saw from a surveillance camera the attack on Harris. A former combat paramedic, Hickey found Harris “covered in blood” and looking confused.

Hickey testified that he started investigating the attack and identified Ramos from social media and working with local law enforcement in Georgia.

“We stomped some ass,” Ramos posted on Facebook. “Getting some was fucking fun.”

Ramos was arrested August 28. During cross examination from Ramos’ attorney, Jake Joyce, Hickey said Ramos seemed remorseful when the detective interviewed him.

Joyce did not call any witnesses, and Judge Rick Moore denied Joyce’s motion to strike the malicious wounding charge. Joyce argued that one punch is not sufficient to establish malice, but Moore said four people were beating Harris on the ground when Ramos joined in. “It really is malice to hit someone on the ground,” said the judge.

“Out in the fresh air and sunshine, he could just have walked away,” said Moore.

In his closing argument, Joyce tried to convince the jury Ramos, who goes by Michael, was not guilty of malicious wounding. “Michael threw one punch. He had no weapon. That is a classic assault and battery.”

But ultimately the jury believed Antony’s story of “a man who joined a violent attack on a defenseless, unarmed man.” She reminded the jurors, “We saw him sprinting toward the garage, so eager to get in, he catapults himself into the fray.”

The jury took a bit longer to come up with a sentence for Ramos than it did in finding him guilty, and returned with a recommendation of six years in prison. Ramos will be sentenced August 23.

At one point during closing arguments, Harris left as Antony was describing the attack and Ramos “winding up” his arm and hitting Harris at the same time white-helmeted Borden slams him with a two-by-four.

Afterward, Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania noted the “emotional toll” the trials and testimony are taking on Harris, but added, “He’s a resilient young man.”

 

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Guilty: First August 12 parking garage beater convicted

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

 

A Charlottesville jury decided May 1 that a man from Ward, Arkansas, who took part in a brutal beatdown of a local black man in the Market Street Parking Garage on August 12, was guilty of malicious wounding, potentially setting the bar for three other assailants accused of the same crime in the same incident, and who are set to go on trial in the very near future.

In videos from the Unite the Right rally that have since been viewed tens of thousands of times, Jacob Goodwin can be seen wearing all black tactical gear, a helmet, goggles, and two pins—one that said “88,” or code for “Heil Hitler,” and one with the logo of the Traditionalist Worker Party—and carrying a shield when kicking DeAndre Harris multiple times among a gaggle of other white supremacists.

Jurors were visibly disturbed while watching.

“He has yet to express any regret for his actions that day,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, when asking the jury to consider a jail sentence recommendation. “And I would submit he has none.”

The man identified as a self-described white rights activist in an NBC documentary sat in court wearing a suit and tie and with a long, brown braided ponytail. During his testimony, he said he thought he was being attacked by Harris, and he was using his feet to defend himself.

“To be honest, I was terrified,” he said, adding that he thought he’d be sent to the hospital “terribly hurt,” or that he might even “perish.”

The jury of nine women and three men didn’t buy it, and they recommended giving Goodwin a 10-year sentence with perhaps some time suspended, a $25,000 fine and empathy training. Judge Rick Moore set an official sentencing for August 23.

Goodwin’s mother had her head in her hands when defense attorney Elmer Woodard wrapped up his closing argument, in which he insisted that Goodwin was legally allowed to defend himself from a perceived threat, which protects the Arkansas man from being convicted of malicious wounding. For that specific charge, a prosecutor must show an attempt to kill, maim or disable, or evidence of ill will or spite, according to the attorneys.

“They want you to convict this man because he’s a white man and DeAndre’s a black man,” Woodard said to the jury. The white man’s parents and a handful of other supporters, including Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, were present for the two-day trial.

So were community members who have aggressively praised Harris for his fight against white supremacy that day in August, and who demanded that Platania drop a malicious wounding charge that Harris was initially given from the event, when he allegedly bashed a man in the head with a Maglite moments before he was beaten to the ground.

Harris’ charge was amended to assault and he was acquitted in Charlottesville General District Court in March.

Woodard argued that while his client was wearing armor, the Maglite and towel Harris carried were the real weapons, and that the man beaten by white supremacists was the true aggressor.

“Body armor’s a defensive thing,” said Woodard. “Nobody ever got beaten to death with body armor.”

And while the defense attorney argued several times that Harris’ most significant injuries, such as the head laceration that required eight stitches, were a result of the other men involved and not Goodwin, Nina-Alice Antony, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said they were acting in concert.

“Each person is responsible, not just for his specific action, but the action of the group,” she said, adding that concert of action can happen in an instant, even between people who are unknown to each other. “You don’t have to have a handshake agreement before that.”

The three other men charged with malicious wounding in the parking garage beatdown are Alex Ramos, Daniel Borden and Tyler Watkins Davis. Ramos goes on trial today.

Woodardisms

Attorney Elmer Woodard. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

This Blairs, Virginia, attorney was largely unknown in the Charlottesville area until he began representing a bevy of white supremacists with Unite the Right-related charges, including Jacob Goodwin, “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell and Richard Preston, the KKK leader charged with firing his gun on August 12. Now he’s one of the most talked about defenders in town. Here’s what he had to say at Goodwin’s May 1 trial:

”Gravity applies to DeAndre just like it applies to you and me.”

—on why Harris didn’t fall back down, but rather stood up after the prosecutor argued that Goodwin kicked him so hard that he lifted off the ground

“Why DeAndre, you have upset me.”

—on what Goodwin would have said if he truly felt anger, and was acting out of malice

“Is it concert of action to stand in the Hardee’s line together?”

—on how people who don’t know each other can act together and share similar views

”If it’s raining, you put on a raincoat. If there’s fighting, you put on a helmet.”

—on why Goodwin was wearing tactical gear and a helmet