Tag: Emancipation Park

Categories
News

In brief: Local Park Place, park monikers, parking suit and more

Edgemont Farm is listed for $27 million and is believed to have been designed by Thomas Jefferson. submitted photo

Mansion sweet mansion

Wondering what to do with the extra millions you’ve got lying around the house? Buy a new one!

Edgemont, a Palladian-inspired pad built in 1796 and surrounded by 570 acres of farmland, “is a home whose design is reputed to be the only remaining private residence attributed to Thomas Jefferson,” according to a McLean Faulconer listing on Nest Realty’s website—and it could be yours for the low, low price of $27 million.

The North Garden mansion, which has been on the market for 70 days, also comes with a pool, pool house, guest house and tennis court. In total, it houses eight bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms.

And while the price tag may be shocking for some, it really isn’t that unusual. The most expensive local sale on record was 1,582-acre historic Castle Hill on Gordonsville Road in Keswick, which sold for $24 million in 2005, according to Bob Headrick, an associate broker with Nest. (While others have been listed for more than $20 million—Patricia Kluge put Albemarle House on the market for $100 million in 2009, which her pal Donald Trump bought for $6.5 million in 2012—none have sold for quite that much moolah, he says.)

Quote of the week

“When you all think about policy changes like this, you need to make sure that in any way you’re not being bamboozled to believe that it’s a change that will be beneficial.”—Mayor Nikuyah Walker at the July 16 City Council meeting about discussions on changing the form of city government to a ward system or a strong mayor

In brief

Renaming the renamed

City Council voted 4-1 at its July 16 meeting to rename two parks for the second time in a year. Emancipation Park—the former Lee Park—will now be known as Market Street Park, and Justice Park—the former Jackson Park—will henceforth be called Court Square Park. Got all that?

Parking wars end

A two-year dispute between Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown and the city over the Water Street Parking Garage was resolved at the July 16 City Council meeting. The city will buy 73 CPC spaces and lease the center’s remaining 317 spaces, giving the city full control of the garage for 16 years.

Toscano challenger

photo Ellie Williams

Democrats gained 15 seats in the House of Delegates in 2017, narrowing its minority to 49-51, but some of the newly elected Dem delegates want to oust House Democratic Leader David Toscano, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Critics say more seats could have been won with more party support. Fairfax Delegate Jennifer Boysko wants the leadership post, but it’s unclear if she has the votes to call a vote.

One lawsuit moves forward

A federal judge has ruled that a suit filed against about two dozen white supremacist individuals and groups on behalf of the victims of last summer’s Unite the Right rally can move forward.

One lawsuit gets settled

Rally organizer Jason Kessler and anti-racist activist group Redneck Revolt are the last defendants to enter consent decrees in the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection suit filed on behalf of the city, downtown businesses and neighborhood associations, to prevent paramilitary groups from organizing in Charlottesville.

Unlock your doors

Well, you probably shouldn’t do that. But, according to government data supplied by online electric supply company Elite Figures, it might be ok if you did. When measuring the number of burglaries per capita in each state, they found that Virginia comes in as the third lowest in the country with 238 burglaries per 100,000 people each year—that’s 47 percent less than the national average.

By the numbers

Booze cruising

Those imbibing while driving through the Old Dominion on the Fourth of July likely didn’t enjoy their ensuing arrest. Virginia State Police say they caught approximately one drunk driver every hour during a 48-hour period on July 3 and 4.

  • 42 DUI arrests
  • 4,911 speeders
  • 1,251 reckless drivers
  • 429 safety belt violations
  • 114 child restraint violations
Categories
News

August 12 flamethrower Corey Long to serve jail time for disorderly conduct

Corey Long, center, was convicted of disorderly conduct for pointing a homemade flamethrower at a white supremacist on August 12. Photo by Eze Amos

“It is what it is. It’s no sweat.”

That’s the statement Corey Long gave today outside the Charlottesville General District Courthouse after he was convicted of disorderly conduct for lighting an aerosol can and pointing it in the direction of white supremacists on August 12.

Community activists wiped tears from their eyes and hastily left the courthouse when Judge Robert Downer sentenced Long to 360 days in jail, with all but 20 suspended, after Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania advocated for no jail time.

“I find that this behavior was very serious,” Downer said when he went against the prosecutor’s recommendation.

After the conviction, Long’s legal adviser offered a few more words than his client.

“Corey Long was and is and remains a hero,” said Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, to cheers from the dozens of community activists who showed up in support of the 24-year-old who they say protected the town during the Unite the Right rally that left three people dead and many injured.

Shabazz echoed what the activists have been saying since his client was charged: “Corey Long did nothing wrong.”

He advised that in Virginia, inmates with good behavior only serve half of their sentenced time for misdemeanor charges, and said Long will likely be incarcerated for 10 days. Long was ordered to report to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail on June 22.

Shabazz told Long they’ll be the “proudest days you will serve in your life,” and reminded him and the crowd that Martin Luther King Jr. was also arrested and convicted.

As white supremacists filed out of Emancipation Park on August 12, immediately after law enforcement had declared the Unite the Right rally an unlawful assembly, Frank Buck testified that he heard someone say, “Kill the nigger.” He then saw Baltimore Ku Klux Klan leader Richard Preston point his handgun at Long, who was outside of the park and holding the homemade flamethrower with his arm extended. Buck said the flames were first between 20 and 24 inches, and then a bit shorter.

“I thought [Long] was going to be shot and killed,” Buck said. “I then heard the gunshot.”

He says he saw the bullet hit the ground near Long’s feat, causing a tuft of dirt to shoot into the air. He then saw Preston lower his gun and exit the area.

“I lit the can because he wouldn’t get out of my presence,” Long told the judge, though it is unclear whether he was referring to Preston or another man who can be seen swinging a rolled up flag at Long in a photo of the incident that has since gone viral.

Richmond-based defense attorney Jeroyd Greene said Long had been spit on and called racial slurs that day, and that Long first sprayed his aerosol can without lighting it. He only lit it when he perceived a threat, which doesn’t make a case for disorderly conduct, the attorney argued.

In fact, Greene said two men, including Preston, who fell out of line with their white supremacist allies and moved toward Long once they walked down the steps at the park, were the true aggressors who acted disorderly.

“There’s no evidence that they’re doing anything at all but walking down the steps,” said Platania, who argued that lighting the aerosol can was enough of an “annoyance or alarm,” which is required to prove a disorderly conduct had been committed.

Downer said the state’s disorderly conduct statute is complicated and problematic, and in his 17 years of experience, he’s seen only a few people convicted of the crime.

“I don’t have the least bit of doubt of his guilt of disorderly conduct,” Downer said. “It clearly motivated people to react in a way that involved a breach of the peace.”

Preston pleaded no contest May 9 to a charge of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, a class 4 felony that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and fine up to $100,000.

Long was also accused of assault and battery by rally attendee Harold Crews in a separate incident, but Platania said he was unable to reach Crews, and the charge was dismissed.

In the crowd of activists outside the general district court was Kendall Bills, the daughter of local philanthropists Michael Bills and Sonja Smith, who was also involved in August 12 litigation after Dennis Mothersbaugh, whom she calls a “neo-Nazi,” punched her in the face during the rally.

The video of the Indiana man clocking her has also gone viral. Mothersbaugh pleaded guilty to assault in November.

“He was sentenced to a decent amount of jail time, but, more importantly, I was not subject to the intimidation and harassment that now men of color—especially DeAndre Harris, Corey Long and Donald Blakney—are facing in this community,” she said. “As a white woman, I was protected. My case was settled quickly.”

Bills said she took to the streets on August 12 to do exactly what those three black men did, which was “trying to protect and defend our community,” but she hasn’t faced the same “inappropropriate judicial harassment” and retribution the men continue to face in their personal lives.

“The city of Charlottesville should be ashamed today,” she said. “I am proud to be a Charlottesville community member many days, but today is not one of them.”

 

Categories
News

In brief: FA5 tightens up, free the nipple, another renaming and more

Photo Chris Pecoraro

Fridays new format

Treasured Charlottesville tradition Fridays After Five kicks off April 13, with a not-so-special nod to the realities of crowds gathering in the 21st century. After-Fivers will find enhanced security at the Sprint Pavilion with bag checks and fewer entrances to the area.

“Anyone in the event industry holding mass gatherings understands the shift,” says general manager Kirby Hutto. “We want to provide a safe environment.”

That means professional security will be examining bags and entrance will be limited to the Downtown Mall, Seventh Street at Market and the Belmont Bridge ramp.

And for ticketed events, attendees will walk through metal detectors.

The season will kick off with more rather than less security, says Hutto. “We don’t want to create long lines. We know people come from work with their laptop bags or with strollers.”

Says Hutto, “It’s just a recognition of the changing world we live in.”

In brief

Mayor’s speeding ticket

Staff photo

Nikuyah Walker was in Charlottesville Circuit Court April 9 to appeal a November 14 conviction for driving 43mph in a 25mph zone, but her attorney, Jeff Fogel, didn’t show. The case was continued to June 1.

 

 

More Soering defenders

Another cop has cast doubt on the 1990 conviction of Jens Soering for the double slaying of then-girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom’s parents. Former FBI special agent Stan Lapekas says he’s found documents proving the FBI did a profile in 1985 that said the killer was likely a female with close ties to the Haysoms. Bedford investigator Ricky Gardner has steadfastly denied such a profile existed.

Slowpoke schadenfreude

Thousands of the annoying drivers who hog the left lane while going below the normal speed of traffic have been fined $100 since Virginia enacted fines July 1, 2017, WTOP reports.

Topless buskers

Morgan Hopkins. Staff photo

Jeff Fogel filed a lawsuit against Charlottesville police for the August 12 arrest of Morgan Hopkins, who, amid the violence and mayhem of that day, took off her shirt. Fogel, who represented activist Veronica Fitzhugh when she disrobed at Occupy in 2011, says under state law, “the mere fact of nudity does not constitute indecent exposure,” and that shirtless men with Hopkins were not arrested.

 

 

 

“During Aug 12 Nazi rally in #Charlottesville, police ignored assaults by Nazis, didn’t arrest them. Instead, they arrested harmless hippies on the downtown mall. Thanks, CPD, for protecting the public from women’s exposed nipples! Smh”—@Jalane_Schmidt in an April 6 tweet

Hand ‘em over

Judge Rick Moore has ruled that Virginia State Police must turn over a redacted copy of its August 12 operational plan to local freelance journalists Natalie Jacobsen and Jackson Landers, who were represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. They’ve also obtained Charlottesville police plans as a result of the same Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Unsuccessful lobby

The city hired Troutman Sanders Strategies to lobby the General Assembly against Delegate Steve Landers’ revenue-sharing bill, which requires Charlottesville to account for the millions Albemarle pays it each year and for the two localities to meet annually to discuss economic development. The bill passed unanimously in both houses and Governor Ralph Northam signed it into law.

Teen runaway

Margie Araceli Garcia Urbina, 17, was reported missing March 3. Albemarle police say her cellphone is off,  she has not responded to attempts to contact her on social media, and she appears to have used an ATM March 3 in Opelika, Alabama.

 

 

 

 

Elder embezzlement

Renee Magruder Madel was convicted of felony embezzlement for using a power of attorney to bilk an elderly victim of thousands. She was sentenced April 3 to 10 years suspended, 30 days in jail and restitution of over $50,000.

Closure wanted

Robert Hourihan. Submitted photo

Robert Hourihan disappeared seven years ago on April 8. Last seen in Palmyra, his car was later found in a parking lot in Maryland. Police suspect foul play and are still seeking information to provide closure to his family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popular parks monikers

The city conducted a survey March 6-28 to rename the parks formerly known as Lee and Jackson and currently dubbed Emancipation and Justice. Led by longtime resident Mary Carey’s dislike of the name Emancipation, the survey received 7,535 submissions. Lee and Jackson were disqualified, but that did not keep Lee from receiving the most write-in votes, according to “The Schilling Show.”

Most votes

For Emancipation Park: Market Street Park

For Justice Park: Court Square Park

Weighted votes

Emancipation Park

  • Vinegar Hill Park
  • Market Street Park
  • Central Park

Justice Park

  • Court Square Park
  • Justice Park
  • Courthouse Park

Top write-in (aside from Lee and Jackson)

Swanson Legacy Park, in honor of Gregory Swanson, the first African American to attend UVA law school—after he sued the university, a case that was heard in federal court, which was located in what is now the Central Library bordering Emancipation Park.

 

Updated April 12 with the Swanson Legacy Park write-ins.

Categories
News

Confederates convicted: Statue unshrouders say they’ll appeal

Brian Lambert and Christopher Wayne await the outcome of their March 26 trials. They were charged with multiple counts of destruction of property and trespassing for attempting to remove the black tarps from the once-shrouded General Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson statues in their respective parks. Photo by Eze Amos

Immediately following a March 26 trial in which Charlottesville’s Brian Lambert was found guilty of multiple charges of trespassing in Emancipation and Justice parks and attempting to remove the tarps from the shrouded statues, Lambert could be seen applying a trail of Confederate flag stickers on surfaces in the direction of the General Robert E. Lee monument.

Judge Joseph Serkes had just sentenced him to four years in jail, with all but eight months suspended, in a hearing where Lambert flashed a distinctive hand signal behind his back. With his right thumb forming a circle with his pointer finger, and his three additional digits in the shape of a “W,” he held the “white power” symbol for about 30 seconds before turning to wink at the few people who showed up to support him, including Jason Kessler.

Louisa attorney Richard Harry defended Lambert, while Richmonder Christopher Wayne was represented by Thomas Wilson on similar—but fewer—destruction of property and trespassing charges. Wayne was sentenced to three years, of which all were suspended but five months.

The Richmond man’s trial was unorthodox, and he engaged in several debates with the judge. Lambert patted him on the back multiple times in what appeared to be an effort to get Wayne to stop talking.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Cooper Vaughan said Wayne’s frequent outbursts and repeated tampering with the city’s tarps after being arrested were an indicator of his disrespect for the City Council’s August decision to shroud the Confederate statues while the city mourned the deaths that took place during the summer’s Unite the Right rally.

“He’s absolutely right,” Wayne said.

“They believe these laws do not apply to them,” said Vaughan, who added that active jail time was the only way to convey to the men that there are consequences for breaking the rules.

Lambert also was charged with assaulting the Reverend Seth Wispelwey, a United Church of Christ minister, in the early morning hours of November 5, when the clergy member testified he was walking to his parked car on Second Street when he saw and heard what appeared to be someone cutting down the orange fencing surrounding the Lee monument.

Wispelwey said he called out to Lambert that he was trespassing.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I’m trespassing. What are you going to do about it?’ And started coming at me with a knife [with a six-inch blade] in his hand,” said Wispelwey.

But a Charlottesville police officer testified that when he apprehended Lambert, the man had a box cutter and a firearm on him, but no such knife.

Lambert was found not guilty of assault in that interaction, but the officer said he was unsteady on his feet, his speech was slurred, and he told the cop his name was “Brian Brian.” He was charged with public swearing or intoxication and paid the $25 fine on December 28.

In the same November interaction, the officer said Lambert made a “spontaneous utterance” that he had cut the tarp off the statue “at least seven times” by that point, and when he was caught doing so—also while apparently drunk—in a January 9 encounter, he told police he was “doing a public service,” according to another officer’s testimony.

“He told me he was never going to stop,” a third officer told the judge.

Judge Serkes reminded the men that they couldn’t keep taking matters into their own hands. “That’s why we’re a country of laws,” he said.

Outside the courthouse, Lambert took a drag from a cigarette.

“We’ll take our punishment like men,” he said.

The two plan to appeal their verdicts.

Christopher Wayne (center) was unhappy to see the media outside of the hearing in which he and Brian Lambert (right) were sentenced to jail time. Staff photo

 

Corrected March 27 at 4pm to more accurately reflect the length of the blade Lambert was allegedly carrying November 5.

Categories
News

This week in brief: Snuffing out tiki torches, ‘really dank bud’ and too cute puppies

Close up of a burning tiki torch on a blurred colored background.

Candles in, tiki torches out

Just ahead of Jason Kessler’s March 6 lawsuit against the city complaining that City Manager Maurice Jones unconstitutionally denied his permit for a two-day August 12 anniversary rally—Jones also denied five other applicants’ permit requests for the weekend—City Council updated its event permit regulations February 20.

  • 45-day notice if street closure requested, 30 days if not
  • Prohibited: Open flames, except for hand-held candles for ceremonial events
  • Prohibited (partial list): Pellet guns, air rifles, nunchucks, tasers, heavy gauge metal chains, poles, bricks, rocks, metal beverage or food cans or containers, glass bottles, axes, skateboards, swords, knives, metal pipes, pepper or bear spray, mace, bats, sticks, clubs, drones and explosives
  • Prohibited: Dressing like cops, military or emergency personnel
  • Small group exception: Up to 50 citizens may spontaneously demonstrate without a permit

Highlights from Kessler’s complaint:

  • The city couldn’t guarantee a clear path to enter Emancipation Park for his fellow Lee statue-loving protesters.
  • The permit denial is based on crowd size, but there’s plenty of room in the one-acre park, which could hold as many as 20,000 people “cheek to jowl.”
  • Because of the city’s “misconduct,” fewer people will attend and a “reduced crowd will dilute” Kessler’s message.
  • The city’s denial was based on Kessler’s viewpoint and violates his First and 14th Amendment rights.

 

Quote of the Week: “You’re more likely to be killed by @timkaine running mate @HillaryClinton than you are by an AR-15.” —A March 8 tweet by failed gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, who stopped by Charlottesville March 10 during his campaign for Senate.

 

How much is that puppy in the browsing window?

Attorney General Mark Herring says his consumer protection team continues to receive complaints from people “who thought they were buying an incredibly cute puppy from an online breeder, only to find out it was a scam and the dog didn’t exist.” Red flags for this scam include stock photos, exotic or designer breeds for cheap, and poorly made websites that include misspellings and grammatical errors, he says.

Life and then some

Cathy Rothgeb

A jury recommended a 184-year sentence for Cathy S. Rothgeb, the former Orange County youth softball coach found guilty on March 12 on 30 of 34 charges, which include forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and object sexual penetration of two former athletes. The alleged molestations began in the ’90s, when one victim testified that she was 9 years old.

Assault and battery

A Western Albemarle High School teacher has been placed on administrative leave after he was arrested for a physical altercation with a student on February 16. Oluwole Adesina, a 53-year-old Crozet resident, faces up to a year in jail or a $2,500 fine for the misdemeanor assault and battery charge.

Green acres

Hogwaller Farm, a nine-acre development with 30 apartments and an urban farm, has been proposed near Moores Creek along Nassau Street, according to the Daily Progress, which reported March 11 that developer Justin Shimp submitted a zoning amendment pre-application last summer to ask Albemarle officials to change the light-industrial designation to rural so he could plant seven acres of “really dank bud.”

New hire

Roger Johnson. Courtesy of Albemarle County

Albemarle County announced its hiring of economic development director Roger Johnson from Greenville, North Carolina on March 7, for a job that’s been open for over a year. The last person to hold it lasted for 19 months.

Guilty plea

Joshua Lamar Carter, 27, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on March 12 for firing a gun at city police officers in 2016. In a plea agreement, he entered an Alford plea to one charge of attempted second-degree murder and pleaded guilty to shooting a gun in a public place and illegally possessing a firearm as a felon.

A headline we’re starting to get used to: Another August 12 lawsuit

Georgetown Law’s Civil Rights Clinic filed a federal defamation lawsuit March 13 on behalf of a Unite the Right rally counterprotester who claims to be a victim of fake news conspiracies.

Brennan Gilmore’s cell phone footage of the deadly car attack on Fourth Street went viral on August 12, and “Gilmore was contacted by media outlets to discuss his experience and soon became the target of elaborate online conspiracies that placed him at the center of a ‘deep-state’ plot to stage the attack and destabilize the Trump administration,” says a press release from the law group.

Now he’s suing defendants Alex Jones, Infowars, former Congressman Allen West and others for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “mobilizing an army of followers to pursue a campaign of harassment and threats against him.” The lawsuit seeks punitive damages and compensation for Gilmore’s alleged reputational injuries and emotional distress.

“From Sandy Hook to Pizzagate to Charlottesville, Las Vegas and now Parkland, the defendants thrive by inciting devastating real-world consequences with the propaganda and lies they publish as news,” says Gilmore. “Today, I’m asking a court to hold them responsible for the personal and professional damage their lies have caused me, and, more importantly, to deter them from repeating this dangerous pattern of defamation and intimidation.”

Categories
News

In brief: Medicaid expanded, Building Bridges crashed and more

With so much going on in the executive branch, it's easy to neglect what's happening in the General Assemblyl as the session hits its . midpoint. File photo.

Medicaid expansion clears House

For Terry McAuliffe’s entire term as governor, Medicaid expansion for 400,000 uninsured Virginians remained out of grasp. Last week, after Republican Delegate Terry Kilgore broke rank in favor of expansion, the House voted 68 to 32 in favor, with local delegates Rob Bell, Steve Landes and Matt Fariss in the no column. The measure still has to clear the Senate, which did not approve expansion in its budget.

“For too long, we’ve allowed the Virginia way to be shouted down by a charlatan whose record doesn’t match his rhetoric, and right now, I’m done with fake politicians.”—Delegate Glenn Davis slams wannabe GOP U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart February 23 to a standing ovation in the House.

UVA event disrupted

Pro-Palestinian, megaphone-carrying protesters disrupted a Brody Jewish Center and Hoos for Israel event February 22 and may have violated UVA policies, says Dean of Students Allen Groves. The demonstrators were invited to join the Building Bridges panel, but chose to shout at participants instead, the Cav Daily reports.

DP escapes ax—this time

The Daily Progress is not affected by BH Media’s latest layoffs that cut 148 employees and leave 101 vacant jobs, according to DP publisher Rob Jiranek. Last April, the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary canned 181 employees, including three at the Progress and 33 at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Statue stripper arrested again

Christopher James Wayne, the 34-year-old Richmond man charged with removing tarps from the city’s Confederate statues, picked up his third trespassing charge February 23. Police say he was between the orange barricade and the Stonewall Jackson statue in Justice Park. Wayne is barred from both Justice and Emancipation parks.

Park déjà vu

City Council will look at renaming Emancipation and Justice parks—again—after Mary Carey objected to the name Emancipation and collected approximately 500 signatures on a petition.

Crisis management

CHS students get four lockdown drills during the school year.

They hope it won’t happen here, but if it does, they want to be prepared.

On the heels of a Valentine’s Day massacre—the fourth most deadly school shooting in American history at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—local schools are discussing their own crisis plans.

Students in city schools participate in four lockdown drills each year. Through an agreement with the Charlottesville Police Department, three armed resource officers and several unarmed community service officers rove the school district, primarily at Charlottesville High School, Buford Middle School and Walker Upper Elementary, according to Kim Powell, an assistant superintendent.

Among other security features, city schools have buzz-in systems at their front doors and interior doors that route visitors through the school’s main office. A crisis plan for each school, which is not available to the public, is reviewed and updated annually.

This spring, city schools will install new locks on classroom doors to ensure they all lock from the inside, something that’s already been implemented at all county schools.

Phil Giaramita, a spokesperson for Albemarle County Public Schools, adds that all school entrances are numbered, so first responders know exactly where to enter in the event of an emergency. Classroom door windows in county schools have also been coated with a protective material that’s harder to break.

About 14 Monticello High students walked out of their lunch period for 15 minutes on February 21 to protest gun violence, according to Giaramita. Both county and city schools are discussing preparations for upcoming national walkout events and marches, including the National School Walkout on March 14.

Charlottesville High is among the city schools that are patrolled throughout the day by three armed resource officers and several
community service members.

Categories
News

Clean slate: Mason Pickett cleared of two assault charges

On August 29, Mason Pickett was once again spotted writing "Bellamy is a jackass" on the Downtown Mall's Freedom of Speech Wall. File photo

 

“Wes is a jackass” became a familiar slogan to those living in Charlottesville last summer, as it was scrawled on a giant cardboard sign carried by local retiree Mason Pickett, and its derivative, “Bellamy is a jackass,” was often chalked on the Downtown Mall’s Freedom of Speech Wall as well as several sidewalks.

It’s a phrase that took a shot at City Councilor Wes Bellamy, who was vice-mayor at the time and called for the removal of the monuments of Confederate war heroes General Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from their eponymous downtown parks. The verbiage with an unfavorable adjective left Pickett scorned by many and at the center of two misdemeanor assault charges.

Judge Joseph Serkes heard testimony from two alleged victims—Davyd Williams and Lara Harrison—who described what they deemed aggressive behavior from Pickett on two separate occasions.

On the first occasion, Williams said he was erasing “Wes is a jackass” off the free speech wall with a newspaper and a bottle of Windex on August 24. When Pickett approached Williams, the retiree allegedly “shoulder-checked” him as he was erasing, smacked his hand twice and snatched the bottle of liquid cleaner out of his hand “hard enough that the handle broke,” according to the testimony.

When officers with the Charlottesville Police Department spotted the interaction and intervened, Pickett allegedly walked a few hundred feet to a CVS, bought a bottle of Windex and gave it to an officer to give to Williams. He offered that he made a mistake and was sorry.

Williams told the judge he had erased multiple times Pickett’s “obscenities,” which were written on the wall directly outside the Virginia Discovery Museum, a hotspot for young kids.

“Did anyone designate you to be the obscenity police?” Sirks asked, and eventually said justice would not be furthered by finding Pickett guilty of assaulting him.

Pickett racked up his second assault charge on September 11, when he was holding a large cardboard sign, painted black and decorated with his aforementioned catch phrase in thick red letters, in front of the Albemarle County Office Building on the corner of McIntire Road and Preston Avenue.

Harrison testified she was driving past when she saw Pickett and his sign. She decided to park and display one of her own.

“I had seen him several times and I wanted to be able to counter his sign with a sign that I thought was accurate and protective of our community,” she gave as the reason she wrote “racist” on a legal pad she found in the backseat of her car and took her position on the sidewalk in front of him. The two had never met.

Pickett called police, and testified that he and Harrison were beside each other on the sidewalk. She allegedly stepped onto the street to get in front of him, and as he was moving his sign from side to side to face oncoming traffic, he says he may or may not have hit her in the face with it.

“He assaulted me,” said the woman who has attended meetings of the activist group Showing Up For Racial Justice. Its members are known for accosting people with beliefs that don’t match their own, according to Pickett’s defense attorney, Charles “Buddy” Weber, but Harrison said she has studied and taught nonviolent intervention.

You may recognize her from an August 15 image taken in Emancipation Park, where a lone young man dressed as a Confederate soldier and carrying a rifle and semi-automatic handgun was surrounded by numerous anti-racist activists, including members of SURJ. Harrison is photographed sticking her two middle fingers mere inches from the North Carolina man’s face.

In Pickett’s assault trial, prosecutor Nina Alice-Antony entered a photo of a red mark on Harrison’s left cheek as evidence, but the defendant insisted that he had “certainly no intention to hit the young lady.” The judge found him not guilty, citing that Harrison had witnessed Pickett turning his sign from side to side and still stepped in front of him on the street.

“Everyone has a right to protest, but you gotta use your common sense,” Serkes said. “Next time, use your common sense.”

 

Updated February 26 at 1:05pm with clarifications.

Correction: Judge Serkes’ name was misspelled in the original story.

Categories
News

Kessler calls for Unite the Right redo

Jason Kessler's permit for the anniversary Unite the Right rally was denied. Photo by Eze Amos

It’s a day those living in Charlottesville would rather not relive. That it left three people dead and countless injured, or that it was shut down before it was scheduled to begin last August 12 has not stopped Jason Kessler from planning a second Charlottesville rally—on the one-year anniversary of Unite the Right.

While many may wonder why the homegrown right-winger, who’s been denounced by several former conservative comrades, would bring that kind of hate back to Charlottesville, he explains in a November 29 post on his blog, Real News w/ Jason Kessler: “I simply will not allow these bastards to use the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville government violating a federal judge’s order and the U.S. Constitution, in conjunction with violent Antifa groups, to further demonize our activists.”

For citizens in Charlottesville still recovering from this summer’s violent invasion of neo-Nazis, the reaction was one of shock and dismay.

“Immediate repulsion,” says activist Don Gathers when he heard about Kessler’s anniversary plan. “People say they throw up in their own mouth. That’s what it was like.”

He wonders, “What kind of mentality does it take to have that kind of gall to say you’re going to do that again, especially on that same weekend?”

City spokesperson Miriam Dickler has confirmed that Kessler’s application, filed November 27, for what he calls a “rally against government civil rights abuse and failure to follow security plans for political dissidents,” is under review, and says the city has no further comment.

The organizer, currently awaiting trial for perjury in Albemarle County, says 2018 Unite the Right attendees oppose any changes to Emancipation Park and are “memorializing the sacrifices made by political dissidents in Lee Park August 12, 2017.”

But on his blog, Kessler claims that this one, called Back to Charlottesville, will be different.

“At Unite the Right, I was just coming into my own as an event organizer and had faith in the Charlottesville Police Department to abide by the terms of the security arrangement and keep hostile groups separate,” he writes. “Obviously, that is no longer the case. Whereas I once took it in good faith that authorities were keeping the security arrangements secret so that hostile groups like Antifa would not learn of the plans and therefore create a security risk, I now understand that they did that to screw us over.”

The white nationalist continues, “They did it to ENABLE the Antifa to attack us while claiming that WE actually screwed this up by not following the security plan, which, oh-by-the-way, they refuse to release to the public so people can judge for themselves.”

Kessler, also known for his unfavorable reaction to being called a “crybaby” by local attorney Jeff Fogel, says he already has lawyers lined up for his latest event—because when he organized “UTR 1.0,” he was “flying by the seat of [his] pants”—and now when “Charlottesville rejects [his] permit, as [he] fully expects them to do,” he says “we will push back.”

The pro-white advocate also promises better organization at this rally than the one where white supremacists and counterprotesters clashed in the streets with weapons, shields and helmets.

“This time around I worked my ass off,” he says, critiquing his reliance on existing infrastructure—or passing off security to others—earlier this summer. “I don’t like that I didn’t have a megaphone on August 11 to warn marchers that Antifa were waiting for us at the base of the Thomas Jefferson statue. …the morning of August 12, I should have been notified that police didn’t show up to escort our VIPs. That was a huge red flag that I should have been able to use to warn people.”

The new permit requires special event liability insurance of at least $1 million. Insurance Kessler obtained online for the 2017 event was canceled after underwriters learned more about the Unite the Right rally.

Insurance professional Harry Landers says, “If anyone understands all the facts of who he is and what he’s doing, the chances of him obtaining insurance are nil.”

The governor’s task force on the events of August 12 recommended Charlottesville tighten its permit process and restrict weapons and the length of events. Kessler is requesting a two-day permit for a festival from 7am to 11pm Saturday, August 11, 2018, and from 6am to 11pm Sunday.

The announcement comes on the eve of the release of former U.S. attorney Tim Heaphy’s independent review of the city’s handling of the summer of hate, which is on the agenda for the December 4 City Council meeting.

Though traveling outside the country, Mayor Mike Signer says in an email, “I believe public safety should be our paramount concern, with the benefit of the recommendations from the Heaphy report and upcoming advice from our counsel on how to reform our permitting for public events.”

Says former mayor Dave Norris, “The city needs to revisit its ability to manage situations where there’s no assurance of peaceable assembly. This is an organizer who has clearly demonstrated a propensity for unpeaceable assembly.” And because of that, Norris says Kessler has ceded his right to hold public events in Charlottesville

“We need to prove to them that we are the good guys,” Kessler writes. And reiterating his “commitment to nonviolence,” he quotes Ecclesiastes 3:8: “There is a time for war and a time for peace.”

Says Gathers, “White supremacy: the gift that keeps on giving.”

This is an evolving story. We will update it as we get more information. Additional reporting by Lisa Provence.

Updated at 4:15pm November 29 with Mike Signer’s comment.

Updated at 5:24pm.

 

Categories
News

In brief: Emmet Street revival, guerrilla knitters and suing reporters

Emmet Street Station, a one-story, 11,000-square-foot retail center, will house two restaurants and two retail stores, all around 2,500 square feet. Courtesy Neighborhood Development Services

Emmet Street revival

The vacant lot on the corner of Barracks Road and Emmet Street that once housed an Exxon station is finally seeing signs of life. Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development purchased the corner at 1200 Emmet St. for $2.1 million in April, a slightly better price than the $2.25 million Chevy Chase Bank paid for the corner in January 2008, just as the real estate market was beginning to crumble.

The site had a “bunch of challenges,” says Riverbend’s Alan Taylor, including a number of easements and a complicated site plan.

Originally dubbed Barracks Row, a one-story, 11,000-square-foot retail center will go by Emmet Street Station. The owners of Barracks Road Shopping Center, Federal Realty, across the street “were getting all trademarky on me, so we changed the name,” says Taylor.

The under-an-acre lot will house two restaurants and two retail stores, all around 2,500 square feet. One of the restaurants could be announced any day now, says Taylor, but he refuses to give any hints. “Everyone’s really going to like the tenant lineup,” he says.

And with three electric car-charging stations powered by solar panels, the corner could be a magnet for Tesla owners by next summer.

Other drivers should notice better flow through the Barracks-Emmet intersection. The developers gave the city a strip of land that will afford an extra lane, allowing two dedicated left-turn Barracks lanes on each side of intersection, which means left-turners can go at the same time.

Emmet Street Station is part of a redevelopment revival taking place on the entrance corridor. Across the street at the increasingly derelict Meadowbrook Shopping Center, the former Carriage House, Tavern and ALC Copies are slated for demolition to make way for a CVS.

Farther north, at 1248 Emmet St., Zaxby’s restaurant with a drive-through window is going up at the site that was once Lord Hardwicke’s. And a car wash at 1300 Emmet St. on the other side of Cook Out is well underway.

Widow-bilker sentenced

Former Farmington Country Club president Victor Dandridge was sentenced to seven years in prison November 9 for defrauding his best friend’s widow over 10 years—and lying to her about it—as well as his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Blue Ridge Bank. Dandridge’s lawyer asked that he be allowed to self report, but the federal judge said he didn’t trust Dandridge and immediately remanded him to custody, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Knitters with a kudzu attitude

The Kudzu Project. Photo by Tom Cogill

As part of what they call the Kudzu Project, anonymous guerrilla knitters covered the lesser-known Confederate soldier statue in front of Albemarle County general district and circuit courts with a knitted swath of kudzu on the morning of “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell’s November 9 appearance, noting in a press release that the plant “grows on things that are abandoned and no longer relevant.”

FOIA suit

C-VILLE Weekly contributors Jackson Landers and Natalie Jacobsen, who made the documentary, Charlottesville: Our Streets, sued Charlottesville Police, Virginia State Police and the state Office of Public Safety after those orgs refused to turn over August 12 safety plans. More than a dozen attorneys representing the government showed up in court November 7, and the judge ruled the reporters must refile and sue the city, not the police department.

Requested rename

The General Robert E. Lee monument in Emancipation Park. Staff photo
The General Robert E. Lee monument in Emancipation Park. Staff photo

Activist group the Unity Coalition is circulating a petition to have Emancipation Park renamed—again. “How can we reunite this community when the name of a park is related to slavery,” says petition author Mary Carey. She calls the former Lee Park’s new name “insulting, disrespectful, hurtful, heartless, thoughtless, inhumane” and “mean-spirited,” adding that it “shows a lack of care for the people of color.”

Big spill

The Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority released an extra 109 million gallons from the South Fork Rivanna in August before issuing a drought watch October 3, followed by mandatory water restrictions about a week later, according to Allison Wrabel in the Daily Progress. The reservoir is full but the restrictions are still in place.

Spike Lee. Image: © Buckner/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA Press

Quote of the Week: The truth is the United States was built upon the genocide of Native Americans and slavery. This university was built upon slavery. —Director Spike Lee at the Virginia Film Festival on how Americans must accept the country’s ugly history to move forward

Categories
Arts

Local artists perform to benefit Indivisible Charlottesville

Devon Sproule and John D'earth join more than a dozen local artists for Disturbing the Peace: A Benefit Concert for Indivisible Charlottesville at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church-Unitarian Universalist on Sunday. Publicity photos

When Scott DeVeaux was growing up in New York in the 1950s, he encountered “a lot” of Civil War specters. Several relatives were named after Confederate generals, displayed Confederate figurines throughout their homes and celebrated memorabilia like trading cards commemorating the centennial of the War Between the States. Though he didn’t know what to make of the nostalgia, DeVeaux became fascinated by that period in American history.

After moving to Charlottesville in 1983 to begin his career as a music professor at UVA, DeVeaux discovered a surprise about his Yankee family tree involving his great-great grandfather Robert Bowles.

“My grandma’s grandfather was actually from Virginia,” DeVeaux says. “I went to Alderman Library to research [Bowles] and after getting debriefed by my grandmother, I found out he was in the 19th Virginia Infantry.” An “ardent Confederate,” Bowles fought and was captured during the Battle of Gettysburg.

“My great-great grandfather was in Pickett’s Charge, and I want the [Emancipation Park’s Robert E. Lee] monument to be taken down,” says DeVeaux. “It’s important for someone in my position to take a stand like this.”

As a member of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church–Unitarian Universalist for three decades, the church’s choral director for the past six and a talented jazz musician, historian and professor, DeVeaux has faith in music as a model for society. He believes elements like rhythm unite diverse audiences and performers in the same “groove,” and that versatile musicians have the power to blur lines of race, class and artistic genre. He’s also a big fan of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which DeVeaux has “watched religiously” since the election, and he’s felt drawn toward her reporting on the Indivisible Movement.

“[Indivisible’s] principle is that you bug your own representatives, rather than senators, because they’re sensitive to their constituents,” says DeVeaux. “As soon as I heard about it, I wanted to join.”

After attending an Indivisible Charlottesville planning meeting at The Haven, DeVeaux says he was ready to do anything to support the organization. With the help of friend and fellow jazz musician John D’earth, DeVeaux coordinated an impressive lineup of artists for Disturbing the Peace: A Benefit Concert for Indivisible Charlottesville, on November 5 at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church–Unitarian Universalist.

The bill includes hip-hop artist A.D. Carson, jazz musicians DeVeaux, D’earth, Pete Spaar and Greg Howard, percussionists Robert Jospé and Kevin Davis, poet Deborah McDowell, and singer-songwriters Devon Sproule, Mariana Bell, Wendy Repass, Peyton Tochterman and Bill Wellington.

“We want people to understand the ecumenical quality of music, to play effectively with each other, to say ‘Wow, I didn’t know that a jazz trumpet player could play behind a folk singer,” says D’earth. Though he doesn’t identify as religious, D’earth’s grandparents were Unitarians and he empathizes with the Unitarian concept of religion as rooted in social justice.

“I hope people will take away the idea that, ‘Yeah, I should do that,” D’earth says. “Let’s do something and say things, not just absorb.”

Carson hopes that the concert highlights other “institutional monuments” of white supremacy, “not just those named after Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson,” he says.

“While it’s not surprising that the events of August 11 and 12 took place, what we find ourselves needing to do is improvise and collaborate to find our way forward,” says Carson. He will perform work from his recent album, Sleepwalking, Vol. 1, including pieces he hasn’t performed live.

Sproule initially struggled with where to put her energy as a musician. The current climate gives her “chronic low-level anxiety,” and she compares the stress to feeling like a child living in a house where she doesn’t feel safe. Sproule will perform “Turn Back to Love” at the concert. It’s a new tune and the culmination of her effort to find an authentic, resonant voice in the face of anger, hate and violence.

“It feels like you can’t do anything, but you definitely can,” Sproule says. “Charlottesville is a place where you can reach out to people and say, ‘I’m sorry. I’m feeling scared by myself, can I go with you to this concert or meeting?’ That’s being indivisible.”