Tag: joe platania

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Mack attack

Former governor Terry McAuliffe won big in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Former governor Terry McAuliffe secured the Democratic party’s 2021 gubernatorial nomination in a landslide victory on Tuesday. McAuliffe won 62 percent of primary votes, finishing 40 points ahead of his closest challenger. The longtime Dem politico will run against Republican Glenn Youngkin in the fall for a chance to reclaim the office he held from 2014 to 2018.

Locally, McAuliffe won 60 percent of votes in Albemarle County, where Jennifer Carroll Foy finished a distant second, coming in at 23 percent. In the City of Charlottesville, McAuliffe finished at 42 percent, with Carroll Foy at 33 percent and Jennifer McClellan at 21 percent.

McAuliffe’s win in Charlottesville reflects just how far ahead of the pack he ran. In recent Democratic primaries, Charlottesville has chosen progressive challengers rather than well-known centrists. Local favorite Tom Perriello hammered Ralph Northam in the city in the 2017 gubernatorial primary, winning 80-20. In the 2020 presidential primary, Bernie Sanders won the city, and Joe Biden earned just 32 percent of the vote, 10 points behind McAuliffe’s 2021 tally. 

McAuliffe’s camp will feel good about his chances in the general election. Republicans haven’t won a statewide election in Virginia since 2009. 

Further down the ballot, Delegate Hala Ayala, who has represented Prince William County in the House of Delegates since 2018, won a six-way lieutenant governor race by a comfortable margin. If she wins in November, Ayala will be the first woman of color elected to a statewide office in Virginia. (The Republican lieutenant governor nominee would also tick that box—former House of Delegates member Winsome Sears is a Black woman.) Ayala has served as the House whip for the last two years, helping to shepherd some of the Democrats’ most important bills through the legislature.

Delegate Sam Rasoul of Roanoke beat Ayala in both Charlottesville and Albemarle, but finished a distant second statewide, earning 24 percent of the vote to Ayala’s 38 percent. Rasoul fashioned himself as a progressive voice and out-fundraised Ayala by a large margin, but Ayala’s strong performance in her home area of northern Virginia, coupled with influential endorsements from people like Northam and House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, helped push her across the finish line. 

McAuliffe wasn’t the only moderate Dem to beat a younger challenger. In the attorney general primary, Mark Herring, who’s running for his third term in office, beat Delegate Jay Jones 57-43. 

Statewide, turnout in the primary was about 10 percent lower than the last Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2017, when Dems were energized in an unprecedented way by the election of Donald Trump the year before. This time around, 485,000 votes were cast, compared to 542,000 four years ago.

Closer to home

Charlottesville held a pair of local primaries on Tuesday. UVA planner Brian Pinkston and school board member Juandiego Wade won the party’s nominations for two open City Council seats in November. The odd man out was entrepreneur Carl Brown, who finished with 1,797 votes to Pinkston’s 3,601 and Wade’s 4,910. Pinkston and Wade will compete with independents Yas Washington and sitting Mayor Nikuyah Walker for two council seats in the fall. 

When we spoke to both candidates ahead of the election, Wade said he hopes to work on issues like criminal justice reform, affordable housing, and public education if elected. Pinkston says his top priority will be to “inject a level of collegiality into the council.” Read our extended interviews with the candidates here.

Just like at the state level, Charlottesville’s incumbent top cop beat back a progressive challenger. Public defender Ray Szwabowski hoped to unseat Joe Platania, arguing that Platania’s office had handed out overly stringent punishments for a variety of infractions. Platania touted his work with the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice and his handling of the post-Unite the Right rally trial of James Alex Fields as reasons he should be reelected. Platania won 59-41. Read more about that race here. 

Locally, the roughly 6,000 votes cast in Charlottesville in this year’s primary represents a significant drop from 2017, when more than 8,400 voters participated. Trump’s election, coupled with the presence of former 5th District representative Perriello on the ballot, may have been responsible for the historically high 2017 turnout. There was no primary in 2013, but in 2009, just 3,000 city residents participated in the primary. 

General elections will be held on Tuesday, November 2.

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Courting reform

Joe Platania and Ray Szwabowski are running for Charlottesville commonwealth’s attorney. Photo: File

Here’s one number to cut right to the heart of Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Charlottesville commonwealth’s attorney: 19. That’s how many times Joe Platania’s office says it has prosecuted felony simple possession of hard drugs as a standalone charge in the last two years.     

Platania says that the statistic proves his office isn’t punishing people who break the law too harshly. “In the 19 cases that I had pulled, almost all resulted in treatment and dismissal,” he says. “Very few ended up serving active jail sentences.” He also notes that those cases represent a tiny fraction of the thousands that come across his desk. 

Ray Szwabowski, a public defender running to unseat Platania, sees things differently. “I’m not okay with 10 extra, unnecessary, racist felonies every year, and I won’t be if I’m elected prosecutor,” Szwabowski said at a candidate forum hosted by The People’s Coalition last week. He’s challenging Platania from the left, and the key plank in his platform is a promise not to hand out any felonies for drug possession.

The race between Szwabowski and Platania, who himself worked as a public defender early in his career, offers a peek at the path forward for reforming the groaning, serpentine American criminal justice system.

The United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other country in the world, by a comfortable margin. Both Szwabowski and Platania agree that one driver of that over-incarceration is overly aggressive prosecutors, who seek harsh punitive sentences for crimes that could be handled more gently—in particular, progressive prosecutors argue that drug infractions should result in treatment rather than jail time. That argument has recently won elections for reform-minded prosecutors in places like Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Platania says he’s proud of his progressive bona fides: The jail population decreased 12 percent in his first year in office, and has continued to decrease as many people have been transferred to house arrest as a COVID precaution. “We don’t use cash bail, we don’t charge mandatory minimum [sentences] without supervisor approval, and we reduce all nonviolent first-time felonies to misdemeanors,” Platania says. He’s also a founding member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, a statewide group made of up 12 of Virginia’s 120 elected prosecutors that has advocated for reforms like marijuana decriminalization.

“Our philosophy is diversion and treatment over incarceration and prosecution, and jail as a last resort not a first option,” the prosecutor says. “But at the same time, we’ve tried to keep an eye on prosecuting violent offenses. It’s a complicated tension that we navigate through.”

Szwabowski, however, says the way Platania’s office operates allows individual prosecutors too much discretion, and that cases have slipped through his fingers as a result.

“I’ve heard Joe brag that culture eats [strategy] for breakfast,” Szwabowski says. “The idea is if you create the right office culture, then people who work for you will make the right decisions in the cases.” 

“Having lived through that on the defense side, I don’t think it works,” the public defender says.

Szwabowski wants to bring a more policy-focused approach, and says that his office would have rules in place that would guarantee fewer people are put on probation, probation terms are shorter, and drug possession felony charges would be downgraded to misdemeanors. 

At the candidate forum, Szwabowski put his frustration in straightforward terms. “Charlottesville has no systemic approach to criminal justice reform,” he said. 

Giving out fewer felonies is a key tenet of progressive prosecution, as a felony charge can derail a person’s life, making it harder to rent housing, take out loans, and find work. And drug felonies in particular are handed out to Black people at heartbreakingly disproportionate rates. Around the country, “African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost six times that of whites,” reports the NAACP.

“Generally speaking, a prosecutor should always be thinking, ‘I am wielding a very powerful sword. I should be careful swinging it,’” Szwabowski says. 

The commonwealth’s attorney race might not jump off the page when you eye your ballot. Four years ago, Platania swept past local criminal justice lawyer and advocate Jeffrey Fogel, winning 62 percent of the vote in an election where less than 8,000 votes were cast. In 2011, Dave Chapman won re-election for his sixth term in a primary with just 2,500 votes. The results have real and immediate differences in the city, however.

In a small race, in a small city, in a small legal community, personal relationships loom large. Platania and Szwabowski have been on opposite sides of plenty of cases in the last few years. “There’s a collegiality in the court system that I think is appropriate—we all are professional and try to treat each other with professional respect,” Szwabowski says. “And that’s why I think it was maybe a little surprising to Joe [that I ran]…There’s a way to advocate for change that is polite and professional but forceful.”

Was Platania surprised? “I’m not politically sophisticated enough to predict or know,” he says. “I knew that I thought we had done a good job and I feel like our team should be rehired.”

“For me, these issues are so important that you have to push past the awkwardness,” says Szwabowski. “He says his piece, I say mine, and the voters can decide.”

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In brief: Hope for the holidays

A scene for Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church’s “Christmas in Crisis” video is filmed underneath the Belmont Bridge. PC: Courtesy Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church

Holiday hope

COVID-19, like the Grinch, has threatened to stop Christmas. But Dr. Alvin Edwards, senior pastor at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, says, “We decided early on we weren’t going to let this crisis drive us, we were going to make it work.”

Jonathan Spivey, Mt. Zion’s minister of music worship, agreed. Back in July, recovering from COVID-19 (“I wouldn’t wish this virus on my worst enemy,” he says), inspiration struck. Since the church couldn’t stage its annual Christmas Cantata, the group would make a Christmas video that would also address the challenges of the pandemic.

Spivey recruited his friend Kelvin Reid, a musician at New Green Mountain Baptist Church in Esmont, and Caruso Brown, Mt. Zion’s drama director. Soon they had a working group to produce four episodes of “Christmas in the Crisis,” one posted every Sunday during Advent on Mt. Zion’s YouTube channel. Each episode focuses on an issue of these times: depression, grief, suicide, and racial inequality. The volunteer videographers, musicians, and actors come from all walks of life—other churches, other religions, no religious affiliation at all.

“Christmas in the Crisis” is uplifting but also moving and real. In episode three, the holy family beds down underneath Belmont Bridge; the Magi are homeless men who offer the Child their treasures. When the group was staging a Black Lives Matter rally on the Downtown Mall for episode four, a white family strolling by stopped to watch, and used the filming as a teaching moment for their children.

“We posted each episode Sunday at 4 pm, so families could watch together,” Spivey says. “Within 15 minutes, I’d start getting texts and emails from people saying ‘This is the real thing.’” After the episode in which a pastor grapples with depression, Spivey heard from a real-life preacher: “I feel validated.” 

Spivey is glad the series is being seen and shared. “So many people are hurting right now,” he says. All four episodes are still available online. The final episode, to be posted on Christmas Eve, will be a Christmas message from Edwards. All are welcome.—Carol Diggs

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Quote of the week

“That was one of the most disturbing press conferences that I’ve ever seen.“

—Initial Police Civilian Review Board member Katrina Turner, addressing City Council about the police department’s December 10 press conference

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In brief

Attorney aims

Charlottesville-Albemarle public defender Ray Szwabowski announced last week that he’s running to become Charlottesville’s next commonwealth’s attorney. Szwabowksi says that, should he win, he’ll end felony drug prosecutions. “Our community knows that incarceration can’t treat addiction. We must do better,” reads his announcement. Current Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania has not yet said if he’ll seek reelection.

A dime a dozen

A dozen candidates—eight Democrats and four Republicans—have so far announced bids to become Virginia’s next governor. The field includes six state delegates or former delegates, and will begin to narrow as we approach the summer’s primaries.

Back to class

After nearly a year of virtual learning, students in Charlottesville will return to the classroom for face-to-face instruction early next year. While all pre-K through second graders, along with select special education students and English language learners in third through sixth grade, will start classes January 19, Buford Middle and Charlottesville High School will not return until February 1. On January 7, the Charlottesville School Board will decide when the remaining third through sixth graders will participate in in-person learning.

Keeping it civil?

In their Thursday meeting, the city’s Police Civilian Review Board expressed frustration at the options available to them when considering how to respond to Chief RaShall Brackney’s press conference from the week before. In the press conference, the chief called on church leaders who had filed a racial profiling complaint to resign from their posts. But the civilian review board, as currently constituted, cannot initiate a further investigation, or even officially comment on the incident.

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False alarm?: CPD refutes racial profiling claims, calls on church leaders to “apologize or be terminated”

Leaders at the Unitarian Church on Rugby Road accused the police department of racial profiling in October. The police department denies the claim. PC: Staff photo

In October, leaders at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlottesville penned a blog post accusing the Charlottesville Police Department of racial profiling. According to the clergy, CPD unnecessarily detained and intimidated a Black congregant as he was walking to church.

On December 10, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference during which she shared body camera footage, and announced that an internal investigation conducted by her department found no evidence of police misconduct during the October 7 stop.

After sharing the results of the investigation, Brackney demanded that Unitarian church leaders “apologize or be terminated,” calling the church’s claims “baseless and race-baiting.” The press conference drew concern from activists in town, and placed renewed scrutiny on the department’s internal investigations policy.

Profiling incident

In an open letter released October 15, the clergy accused the department of harassing one of their church members, a 63-year-old Black man. According to the church, the man was allegedly surrounded by five police cars after a UVA student called the police on him while he was walking to church. The officers asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood, and demanded his social security number and identification, suspecting him of committing a recent series of break-ins.

The church claimed he looked nothing like the photo of the suspect, but was still interrogated until a white church member came over to investigate the situation. The clergy called on the department to apologize to the man.

After reviewing the 911 call, radio transmissions, and body camera footage, and interviewing the parties involved, CPD’s internal affairs unit concluded that the church’s claims were false, said Brackney last Thursday.

According to audio and visual evidence, the 911 call that sparked the incident was not made by a UVA student, but a teenager. She claimed that a Black man was loitering on private property, and that he had previously broken into a neighbor’s house.

While standing on the sidewalk, the church member flagged down the responding officer because he had seen someone run into the house and assumed the homeowner had called the police. A second officer soon arrived on the scene, and explained he should not cut through private property to get to his church, in light of the recent break-ins.

Body camera footage showed that the church member, who had a tracheostomy and could not speak, was visibly upset. He believed the officers were accusing him of committing the break-ins, which they clarified they were not.

“The thing is, if I lived there, and somebody walks behind my house every day, it would make me nervous too,” said the second officer. “If you’re freaked out, and they’re freaked out, and the common denominator is not to walk through there, then why don’t we do that?”

When the man claimed the police were called because he was Black, the second officer, who is also Black, insisted “it [had] nothing to do with race,” and told the three detectives who arrived on the scene that the man was playing “the race card.” A church member later came over to check on the man, who was never detained or charged with a crime.

Press conference sparks strong feelings

The police department initiated an investigation into the incident after it received the letter from interim lead minister Reverend Dr. Linda Olson Peebles in October, but it wasn’t until a month later, when the letter was shared on Twitter, that the activist community took notice. In late November, the Defund Charlottesville Police Department Campaign and other advocacy groups penned an op-ed in the Cavalier Daily, calling for the firing of the officers involved in the alleged racial profiling incident.

During the press conference, Brackney fired back. The chief listed the names of the church members who signed the open letter, accusing them of leveraging “their privilege and self-serving agendas.” She also called for the activist groups who “co-signed this smear campaign” against CPD to issue apologies.

Shortly before the press conference, Peebles issued a statement to her congregation, expressing the church leadership’s concern over the investigation’s findings. She claimed there were “a number of discrepancies between the testimony of the police and the account of the church member,” but that the church member no longer wanted them to address the situation.

Peebles later said Brackney made “unfair accusations” about the church leadership during the press conference. She claimed the church leadership penned the letter after talking directly with the church member, and had him approve it before sending it to CPD. They also never asked for the officers to resign.

“We are disappointed…as it seems [CPD] has minimized our member’s experience, our concerns, and our right to ask for the police to respond to us without malice,” she stated.

In a statement released December 12, Defund CPD also criticized Brackney for her retaliatory rhetoric during the conference.

“Brackney [attempted] to publicly intimidate those who rightfully questioned and criticized the police,” read the statement. She “intended to discredit the voices and experiences of the Black community…and to silence anyone who might think of filing a complaint against the police in the future.”

Defund CPD demanded Brackney resign immediately for abusing her power, and called on City Council to take action.

Sarah Burke, a member of the city’s initial Police Civilian Review Board, hopes Brackney’s behavior will not deter local residents from filing complaints about police misconduct, which they can also send to the oversight board, with the department.

“When you have a press conference…where the narrative is so spun to be protective of police and critical of anybody who wants to report what they believe to be racial profiling, [that] is part of a bigger pattern of the way people have been silenced historically,” she says. “It begs the question of how impartial the police can be in investigating their own conduct.”

Internal affairs

Usually, the police department publishes the results of its internal investigations on its website, describing the outcome with a single word: sustained, unfounded, exonerated, or not resolved. The department found the church’s racial profiling complaint to be unfounded.

The internal affairs data on the police department’s website was last updated on September 28 of this year, and from January 1 to September 28, the department opened 28 internal investigations. Ten were sustained, meaning the officer “acted in violation of applicable procedures.”

The results of the department’s internal accountability procedures don’t always align with outside sources’ assessments of the incidents.

After officer Jeffrey Jaeger, who is white, slammed a Black man’s head into a fence while responding to a verbal dispute in March, he filed a use-of-force report and was cleared by the department. But when body camera footage from the incident was shown during a trial in July, a complaint was filed with CPD concerning potential criminal wrongdoing. Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania reviewed the case and ordered a full-scale investigation, charging Jaeger with misdemeanor assault and battery.

On December 11, Jaeger was found guilty, and handed a 12-month suspended sentence and two years of unsupervised probation, meaning he will not spend time in jail. He appealed his conviction to the Charlottesville Circuit Court, and currently is on administrative leave without pay. As things stand now, the police department’s examination of the incident cleared an officer who was later convicted by a court of law.

In its internal affairs data, the department does not explain the reason for each case ruling, or disclose which disciplinary measures were taken against the officers found guilty of violating department policy, or the law.

The “opacity” of internal affairs investigations has long been a concern for many community members and activists, says Maisie Osteen, a civil rights attorney for the Legal Aid Justice Center.

“In so many cases, the problem [is] the process being so impermeable to citizens being a part of it and understanding it. The public only knows what the police want us to know,” she says, “What comes out of the investigation is a curated lens from the police department—good or bad.”

Osteen has also seen many people hesitate to file police complaints because they are afraid they won’t get taken seriously, nothing will be done, or they’ll face retribution.

“What’s going on right now is showing how necessary it is to create a robust police civilian oversight board,” she says. “[It] adds legitimacy and accountability to both the peoples’ understanding of what’s going on, and the police internal investigations.”

Community activist Walt Heinecke also feels that the internal investigations process has been “pretty tightly held,” especially given the limited advisory role currently afforded to the Civilian Review Board.

Heinecke ultimately hopes that the church member who filed the complaint will appeal it so it can be reviewed by the CRB. (The board will be allowed to independently receive and investigate complaints with subpoena power when new state criminal justice reforms go into effect next year.)

“There may be another version of the story that is possible from a larger review by the [CRB], if asked to review the case, of evidence beyond the edited version presented,” says Heinecke. “If that does not happen, the mistrust of the police by some in the community may be exacerbated.”

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In brief: Remembering John Conover, flicking off UVA, and more

Former city councilor John Conover, pictured here in 2007 with his wife, Virginia Daugherty, passed away on October 4. PC: Eze Amos

A fond farewell

Charlottesville superstar John Conover, 74, passed away over the weekend. Conover arrived in town in 1970 and started a printing press, before serving as a city councilor from 1980 to 1984. He later worked as an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center, served on the board of Live Arts, and helped spearhead the creation of the Rivanna Trail.

Conover was a “creative and quirky thinker,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook at council’s Monday meeting. “I didn’t always agree with him, but I always listened to him…His was a full life, a life of service to the community and the poor.”

Conover’s personality shines through in all of the stories written about him during his time in Charlottesville—in a 2004 interview with The Hook, Conover said his perfect day featured “some competition, some reading, some affection,” and that his proudest accomplishment was “consistency in love and community.”

Court conflict 

For nearly 25 years, the Charlottesville Albemarle Adult Drug Treatment Court has helped local residents struggling with addiction get the treatment they need, rather than punish them with jail time. However, one aspect of the court has been a recent point of contention: Participants must plead guilty to their charges in order to enter the program.

Charlottesville attorney Jeff Fogel has brought up the issue numerous times to City Council, leading Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania and Deputy Public Defender Liz Murtagh to give a presentation on the program during Monday’s meeting.

“With the post-plea docket, there’s an acceptance of responsibility and a desire for intensive treatment very quickly,” said Platania. “That is a component that leads to more success.”

Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who worked directly with clients battling substance abuse while at Region Ten, pushed back on Platania’s definition of responsibility.

“They don’t walk in the door, even after those guilty pleas, saying ‘I’m going to change my life and I’m thankful…’ All the people usually know at that time is that they don’t want to go back into jail, which they know does not serve them well either,” she said.

During public comment, community organizer Ang Conn urged council to think about the many people who did not graduate from the program, and in turn were given a sentence, as it considers future changes.

Since there have been only 400 graduates in the program’s history, “that’s approximately 16 successful cases per year,” said Conn. “That doesn’t seem to be a successful program to me.”

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Quote of the week

“Even if businesses fail, they can start another business…What we cannot do is bring someone back to life if they die.”

—Mayor Nikuyah Walker, on her Facebook post suggesting that indoor dining should be banned

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In brief

Disproportionate contact

For the third year in a row, crime charges dropped in Charlottesville—yet Black residents continue to be disproportionately arrested. According to the Charlottesville Police Department’s new annual report, 52 percent of the people arrested last year were Black, even though only about 18 percent of the city is Black. In 2018, 57 percent of people arrested were Black. Meanwhile, complaints made against the department have resulted in few repercussions: Out of the 50 internal affairs cases conducted last year, only 10 percent were sustained.

Sign up

UVA prez Jim Ryan penned an open letter to the university community this week, expressing his distaste for the controversial “Fuck UVA” sign on a student’s Lawn room door. Ryan didn’t like the profanity and also didn’t appreciate that the sign “fail[s] to acknowledge any of the progress that this University has made.” Though the sign is protected under the First Amendment, Ryan claimed UVA admin would consider “additional regulations” for the Lawn before next school year. Many students have pointed out that, ironically, last week the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education ranked UVA the No. 6 university for “open climates for free speech” in 2020.

Blair with me, here

With Dr. Tarron Richardson’s resignation finalized last week, Charlottesville’s new interim city manager appeared at Monday’s council meeting for the first time—or rather, appeared for the first time as a city manager. John Blair has been the city attorney since 2018, and has been a fixture at City Council meetings, sorting out the council’s procedural questions in a measured, deliberate drawl.

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The Power Issue: People and organizations that hold us together in tough times

Mental health advocate Myra Anderson warns that the social service systems need reform too. PC: Eze Amos

 

Every year, C-VILLE publishes a power issue. It’s usually a rundown of local real-estate moguls and entrepreneurs, tech tycoons, arts leaders, and big donors. This year’s issue is a little different—most of the people and groups listed here aren’t the richest folks in town. They don’t own the most land, they don’t run the biggest companies. But when things got really rocky, they stepped up, and exercised the power they do have to help those around them. This isn’t a comprehensive or objective list, of course, but we hope it highlights some of the many different forms that power can take in a community like ours. —Dan Goff, Brielle Entzminger, and Ben Hitchcock

The Organizers: Black Lives Matter movement in Charlottesville 

There’s a revolution brewing. Activists all over the country and the world are taking a stand against police brutality, and Charlottesville is no different. Over the last few weeks, local black activists young and old have organized events in support of the national Black Lives Matter movement and its associated goals, including a march from the Charlottesville Police Department to Washington Park and a Defund the Police Block Party that marched from the John Paul Jones Arena parking lot to hold the intersection of Barracks Road and Emmet Street. Other organizations such as Congregate Charlottesville and its Anti-Racist Organizing Fund are supporting the activists calling for defunding the police department. Little by little, change is happening—on June 11, Charlottesville City Schools announced it will remove school resource officers and reallocate those funds for a new “school safety model.”—D.G.

Eze Amos: Photo: Eze Amos

The Documenters: C’ville Porchraits

How do we preserve art and community during a pandemic? It’s been a question addressed by many creatives, perhaps none more successfully than the creators of Cville Porch Portraits. Headed by Eze Amos, the “porchrait” takers, who have photographed 950 families outside their Charlottesville-area homes, also include Tom Daly, Kristen Finn, John Robinson, and Sarah Cramer Shields—all local photographers in need of work once the city shut down. The group has donated $40,000 to Charlottesville’s Emergency Relief Fund for Artists. “This is for everyone,” says Amos of the project, which has been successfully emulated by other photogs, including Robert Radifera.—D.G.

The Musicians: The Front Porch

As most concert venues were struggling to reschedule shows and refund ticket money, The Front Porch, Charlottesville’s beloved music school and performing space, wasted no time in pivoting to COVID-friendly programming. Executive Director Emily Morrison quickly set up Save the Music, a livestreamed concert series that brings performances by local artists like David Wax Museum and Lowland Hum to the comfort and safety of your home. If you haven’t tuned in yet, there’s still plenty of time—as the city tentatively reopens, Morrison recognizes that live music will likely be one of the last things to return, so she’s extended Save the Music to late August.—D.G.

 

Jay Pun. Photo: John Robinson

The Innovator: Jay Pun

All restaurant owners have had to get creative to keep their businesses alive during the pandemic, but almost no one has been as creative as Jay Pun, co-owner of both Chimm and Thai Cuisine and Noodle House. Pun has gone further than just a pickup/delivery model by starting a virtual cooking series on Instagram and Facebook Live, and selling kits to be used in tandem with the lessons. He’s also donated significant amounts of food to UVA health workers, and most recently has brought other Thai restaurants into the conversation: A recent discussion with the proprietor of famed Portland institution Pok Pok focused on food, but also touched on the issue of race in America.—D.G.

The Reporter: Jordy Yager

Through his work as a Digital Humanities Fellow at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and as a reporter for multiple local news outlets, journalist Jordy Yager addresses equity or the lack thereof in all its forms. This is showcased most notably in his Mapping Cville project, which takes on the enormous job of documenting Charlottesville’s history of racially restrictive housing deeds, but also through in-depth coverage of Home to Hope, a program dedicated to reintegrating formerly incarcerated citizens into society, and other studies on the redevelopment of Friendship Court and the day-to-day lives of refugees. Yager’s also extremely active on Twitter, retweeting the content of community organizers as well as his own work, and keeping his followers up to date on, well, almost everything.—D.G.

Kat Maybury (left) and Sherry Cook volunteering at the Haven. Photo: Zack Wajsgras

The Safe Places: The Haven and PACEM

Since the onset of the pandemic, the places that serve some of our community’s most vulnerable members have ramped up their efforts to keep guests and staff safe. Downtown day shelter The Haven has opened its doors to women who needed a place to sleep, while also continuing to provide its regular services, including daily to-go meals, with cleanliness and social distancing measures in place.

PACEM has remained open, serving more than 40 people per night, even though its volunteer staff is smaller than usual. Guests are screened for virus symptoms, and they’re given face masks, among other safety precautions, before being admitted to either the men’s or women’s shelter, where there’s at least six feet between every cot. Though it had to move its male guests out of a temporary space at Key Recreation Center on June 10, PACEM will offer shelter for women at Summit House until at least the end of the month.

Thanks to funding from the city, county, and a private donor, PACEM has also housed 30 high-risk homeless individuals in private rooms at a local hotel, in addition to providing them with daily meals and case management. Men who still need shelter after leaving Key Rec have been able to stay at the hotel for at least 30 days.—B.E.

The Sustainers: C’ville Mutual Aid Infrastructure

One of the most heartwarming nationwide responses to COVID-19, and all of the difficulties that came with it, was the widespread creation of mutual aid networks. Charlottesville joined the trend in March, creating a Facebook page for community members to request or offer “time, money, support, and resources.” Since it was launched, the page has gained hundreds of followers, and posts have ranged from pleas for a place to sleep to the donation of a

half-used Taco Bell gift card. The page’s moderators have also shared resources such as a continually updated list of when and where food-insecure community members can access pantries. Though it came about through dire circumstances, the C’ville Mutual Aid Infrastructure network is proof that our community looks after its own.—D.G.

Howie and Diane Long. Photo: Keith Sparbanie/AdMedia

The Nourishers: School lunches

Before COVID, over 6,000 students relied on our public schools for free (or reduced price) breakfast and lunch. To make sure no student has gone hungry since schools closed in March, Charlottesville City Schools and Albemarle County Public Schools have given away thousands of grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches to anyone under age 18, regardless of family income. With the help of school staff and volunteers, both districts have set up dozens of food distribution sites, as well as sent buses out on delivery routes every week. During spring break, when CCS was unable to distribute food, Pearl Island Catering and Mochiko Cville—backed by the Food Justice Network and area philanthropists Diane and Howie Long—stepped up and provided 4,000 meals to kids in neighborhoods with large numbers enrolled in free and reduced-price meal programs. Even though students are now on summer break, that hasn’t slowed down staff and volunteers, who are still hard at work—both districts plan to keep the free meal programs going until the fall.—B.E.

The Superheroes: Frontline workers

After Governor Ralph Northam issued his stay-at-home order in March, most Charlottesvillians did just that: stayed at home. But the city’s essential workers didn’t have that luxury. In the language of Northam’s executive order, these are employees of “businesses not required to close to the public.” Frontline workers’ jobs vary widely, from health care professionals to grocery store cashiers, but they all have one thing in common: The people who do them are required to put on their scrubs or their uniform and go into their physical place of employment every day, while the rest of us work from the safety of our sofa in a pair of sweatpants. Their reality is one that the majority of us haven’t experienced—and the least we can do is thank these workers for keeping our city running.—D.G. 

Jim Hingeley. Photo: Elli Williams

The Reformers: Commonwealth’s attorneys/Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail

The area’s commonwealth’s attorneys are some of the most powerful people you might never have heard of. During normal times, Albemarle’s Jim Hingeley and Charlottesville’s Joe Platania have tremendous influence over sentencing decisions for those on trial in their localities. They’ve both worked toward progressive reforms since taking office, but since the pandemic took hold, they’ve accelerated their efforts.

The effect has been especially pronounced at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Under the guidance of the commonwealth’s attorneys and Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer, around 90 inmates have been transferred to house arrest. As prisons across the state have fought coronavirus outbreaks, the ACRJ has yet to report a single case among those incarcerated.

“It’s a shame that it took this crisis to motivate the community to get behind decarceration,” Hingeley said at a panel in May, “but it’s happened now, and when the crisis has passed, we’re going to work to continue doing this.”—B.H. 

Zyahna Bryant. Photo: Eze Amos

The Voices: Charlottesville Twitter

“Twitter isn’t real life,” some say. (Most often, they say it on Twitter.) But Charlottesville’s ever-growing group of dedicated tweeters has recently used the platform to make real-life change.

The synergy between social media and protest is well-documented, and the demonstrations against police brutality that have taken place across town have been organized and publicized on Twitter, as well as on other social media platforms. Meanwhile, people like Matthew Gillikin, Rory Stolzenberg, and Sarah Burke have used Twitter to call out the police department for botching its collaboration with state forces and dragging its heels on revealing important budget details. And Molly “@socialistdogmom” Conger—perhaps Charlottesville Twitter’s most recognizable avatar—continues to digest and interpret dense city government meetings for the public, making real-life advocacy easier for everyone.

The effect is felt on UVA Grounds, as well—this month, tweeters shamed the university into changing its new athletics logo to remove a reference to the school’s historic serpentine walls, which were designed to conceal enslaved laborers. After UVA abruptly laid off its dining hall contract employees in March, outraged tweeters raised tens of thousands of dollars for those workers, while pushing the university to create an emergency contract worker assistance fund. And recently, Zyahna Bryant drew attention to UVA President Jim Ryan’s limp response to the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, when she tweeted her resignation from the school’s President’s Council on University Community Partnerships. Keep tweeting, people. It’s working.—B.H.

 

Updated 6/24 to clarify which organizers were responsible for recent demonstrations to support Black Lives Matter.

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Zero crimes, zero cases: Charlottesville’s progressive pandemic response has long-term implications

Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Photo: Skyclad Aerial

 

As the pandemic took hold in mid-March, Charlottesville and Albemarle’s criminal justice decision-makers started letting people out of jail. Two months in, it looks like the emergency measures have paid off: The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail has not reported a single coronavirus case among inmates, and those transferred to house arrest have not posed any notable threat to public safety.

When the pandemic began, jails and prisons were quickly identified as potential coronavirus hotbeds, given the crowded living conditions and low quality of medical care. The area’s commonwealth’s attorneys, judges, and jail administration responded accordingly: They ended pretrial detentions, meaning people awaiting trial no longer had to sit in jail simply because they could not afford bail. And they transferred non-violent prisoners with short remaining sentences to home electronic incarceration (house arrest). That’s resulted in the lowest number of inmates inside the ACRJ in decades.

Local advocates have long hoped to see these decarceration policies put into practice. The pandemic offered a chance to speed that process along. Speaking to C-VILLE in March, Albemarle County’s reform-minded Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley framed the pandemic as a sort of experiment: “We are going to be accumulating information about the effects of liberalized policies with respect to sentences and bail decisions,” Hingeley said. “We’re going to see how instituting these different practices works out…My hope is that it’s going to work out well.”

Two months later, early returns show that the liberalized sentencing policies have had just the effect that Hingeley and other advocates envisioned. 

The ACRJ has transferred around 15 percent of its pre-COVID population to house arrest, and the jail has recorded zero cases of COVID among inmates. By contrast, the state prison system has transferred just 217 of its 30,000 prisoners (less than 1 percent) out of the prisons, and the system has seen more than 1,100 cases of the virus in facilities around the state.

Meanwhile, in Charlottesville, allowing ACRJ prisoners to serve their time on house arrest has not endangered the public. In the last 70 or so days, more than 90 people have been released on house arrest, and “no new criminal offenses were committed,” says jail superintendent Martin Kumer. Eight people, out of 90, have been transferred back into the jail, all for technical violations such as drug use or unauthorized travel. 

Last week, the Tom Tom Foundation convened a panel of local criminal justice leaders to discuss reforming the justice system during and after the pandemic. For some, the conclusions from the past two months support arguments they’ve been making for years. 

“The data has already been there,” pointed out panelist Cherry Henley, who runs Lending Hands, an ex-offender aid service. “Most people like myself already recognize that if you can release people into the community, they are not that high risk. At the jail, at the work release department, most of these people go out anyway, every day.” 

Even so, the pandemic has given these reformers new momentum, and keeping that going is important to them. “People forget stuff really quick,” said Harold Folley, a community organizer at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Folley thinks that moving forward, advocates for decarceration must “constantly remind [people] that releasing folks is safe. Those folks that were released didn’t go and do something criminal here in Charlottesville.”

It’s also important to remember that the house arrest system is far from perfect. “We’ve been dealing with a lot of inmates being released, and they’re on HEI, and they don’t have identification,” says Whitmore Merrick, who works for the city’s Home to Hope offender aid program. “So they’re not able to be employed. They’re stuck in the house with nothing to do. That’s been a major struggle.”

Martize Tolbert, an ex-offender who now works for the Fountain Fund, a re-entry support program, said that this moment feels like an opportunity to make change. “Let’s talk about things that we can radically do now,” Tolbert said. “Programs over prisons. Now is the time to [be] thought-provoking, to try to figure out institutions that we can use here in Charlottesville.”

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, who supports these alternatives to incarceration, outlined the challenges ahead. Not everyone in the system is on board. “You have victims, you might have detectives or police officers that have worked on the investigation, you have judges that are going to have to buy in…maybe probation officers that are involved in a violation hearing,” Platania said. “They feel a responsibility that might be at odds with some of what Jim [Hingeley] and I are trying to do. There’s a lot of different interests that you have to factor in as a prosecutor.”

“It’s a shame that it took this crisis to motivate the community to get behind decarceration,” Hingeley said, “but it’s happened now, and when the crisis has passed, we’re going to work to continue doing this.” 

Stay tuned for the next edition of the Tom Tom Foundation’s Com Com Live! series, which will feature some of the leaders mentioned in the article and will be free and open to the public. Date to be announced.

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Get out of jail virus-free: Coronavirus crisis sees local justice system adopt progressive reforms, for now

Chanell Jackson is one of 61 people recently transferred from the ACRJ to home electronic incarceration. Photo: Zack Wajsgras

 

Chanell Jackson is home early.

The local resident and mother of three had about seven weeks left on her six-month sentence in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail when she was transferred to house arrest in late March. She’s one of the 61 non-violent offenders who have so far been released with ankle monitors, as the ACRJ braces itself for the worst-case scenario playing out in prisons across the country: a coronavirus outbreak within the jail. 

“It feels good to be home and with my family, especially with everything that’s going on,” Jackson says. “In the jail it’s scarier if you get sick. I don’t feel like I would be able to quarantine properly.”

Jackson’s concerns are legitimate: more than 5 percent of inmates in New York’s huge Rikers Island complex have already tested positive for COVID-19, meaning the jail has a higher infection rate than any country in the world. In Virginia, as of April 8, 11 inmates and 12 staff at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women have confirmed cases of the virus. Some Virginia prisons have had serious health care problems even in the best of times—in 2019, a judge determined the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women had failed to provide sufficient care after four women died while incarcerated there. 

Also nearby, local advocacy groups report that 100 immigrants held in a Farmville ICE detention center have gone on hunger strike to protest their continued incarceration despite confirmed cases of the virus in the jail. The facility, run by the for-profit company Immigration Centers of America, experienced a mumps outbreak last year. ICE denies that the current strike is occurring.

“The jails and prisons already don’t have adequate health care for people who are inmates,” says Harold Folley, a community organizer at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Given the virus, “if you lock somebody up, I feel like it’s a death sentence to them.” 

Under normal circumstances, ACRJ has six “hospital cells” for more than 400 inmates. 

ACRJ Superintendent Martin Kumer understands the concern. “I want to be clear, jails and prisons are not set up for social distancing,” he says. “They’re designed to house as many people as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

 

Emptying out

Across the country, advocates have demanded that local justice systems reduce the risk for incarcerated populations by letting as many people as possible out of jails. Some such programs are underway—in March, California announced it would release 3,500 people over the next two months. 

Locally, some prosecutors have enacted progressive emergency measures designed to reduce jail populations. Others haven’t deviated from their usual practices. 

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania and his Albemarle counterpart Jim Hingeley have worked with the jail to identify nonviolent prisoners with short amounts of time left on their sentences, and transfer those people to house arrest or release them on time served. The commonwealth’s attorneys have also recommended releasing nonviolent prisoners being held pre-trial. That’s resulted in 122 of the jail’s 430 inmates leaving the premises so far. 

Nelson County prisoners also go to ACRJ, but Nelson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Daniel Rutherford, a Republican who campaigned on aggressively prosecuting drug crimes, has not participated in the efforts to decrease the jail population, says Hingeley. Rutherford did not respond to a request for comment.

“People don’t understand, the commonwealth’s attorneys have so much damn power,” Folley says. “Joe and Jim have the ability to release people to home monitoring free of charge.” Normally, offenders must pay their own home monitoring costs, up to $13 per day.

“Home electronic incarceration is not release,” says Hingeley, a point Platania also emphasizes. People on HEI are still incarcerated, and can be returned to the jail without any court getting involved if they violate the terms of their house arrest by doing things like traveling without permission or failing a drug screening.

A history of violent convictions will ensure an inmate stays in jail, Kumer says, but there are other considerations, too, like if the inmate is medically vulnerable or where they might go upon release. “We have a large number of individuals who are otherwise nonviolent but they have no place to live,” Kumer says, so they have to stay in jail.

Police Chief Rashall Brackney supports the shift to home monitoring. “I am very confident in the commonwealth’s attorneys, as well as the superintendent, that they are reviewing those cases and taking a very careful look at each of those individuals who would qualify,” she says. That’s a more tempered tone than some other police chiefs in Virginia: “The COVID-19 pandemic is NOT a get-of-out-jail-free card in Chesterfield County,” the county’s police chief wrote in a Facebook post. Last week, two employees at the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Chesterfield County tested positive for COVID-19.

The jail is emotionally isolating in the best of circumstances, Jackson says, and coronavirus precautions won’t help—all visitation has been halted, except attorneys. The jail is offering two free emails and two free phone calls per week to try to ameliorate the situation. (Normally, an email costs 50 cents—“a stamp will cost you more than that,” Kumer notes—and a phone call costs 12 cents per minute.)

Fewer people behind bars means prisoners can be more spread out and the facility requires fewer staff to operate. Kumer says the plan is to segregate—the jail has emptied out and rearranged one wing to house all inmates who start exhibiting symptoms. 

For now, inmates and officials wait with bated breath to hear the virus’ dry cough rattle through the cell blocks. So far, “no one has been symptomatic enough to test,” says Kumer.

Despite these precautions, Kumer isn’t rosy-eyed about the situation. “There’s not a lot we can do if an outbreak does occur,” he says. 

 

Looking ahead

The 308 inmates currently inside the jail is the smallest number in at least 20 years, says Hingeley. 

The emergency measures represent baby steps towards a more equitable justice system. The city-commissioned Disproportionate Minority Contact report earlier this year concluded that black people were disproportionately punished at every level of the local justice system. As it turns out, releasing non-violent offenders and people serving short sentences disproportionately helps black people: A little less than half the jail’s total population is black, but two-thirds of the people transferred to HEI due to coronavirus are black. 

“There’s a lot of folks who are not paying attention to people who are incarcerated,” says Folley. “When you think of people incarcerated you think, automatically, they are criminals, right. But what people should know is they are human, too.”

“I think they definitely should offer [HEI] more,” Jackson says. “There’s still rules and regulations that you follow, but some people have minor violations and they’re being incarcerated and taken away from their family. At least on home monitoring you can stay home and take care of your family. Because every day is precious.”

Jackson says she loves cooking, and she’s been doing plenty of it since she got home. Her favorite thing to make is lasagna; she just pulled one out of the oven. “I’m very family oriented. I’m very happy to be home with them,” she says. “I have a younger daughter, she’s 1, so I’ve been catching up with her, spending time with her…Everything is mama, mama where’s my mama,” she says, laughing. 

Will the change last? That depends who you ask. 

“We’re taking some calculated risks with some of these decisions,” Platania says—he doesn’t want to “overreact one way or another.”

He says it’s “absolutely” possible that the local justice system takes a more progressive view of sentencing and bail decisions after coronavirus. “But you know to turn that on its head,” he adds, “if we make a decision to release someone on a nonviolent larceny offense, and they break in to someone’s house and steal something or hurt someone, do we then say well, everything we did was unsafe and foolhardy?” 

Hingeley, who ran his 2019 campaign as a candidate for prosecutorial reform and alternatives to incarceration, is more direct. “Absolutely it is my goal to have these practices last,” he says. “From my perspective these are things that we should be doing.”

The emergency measures offer an unusual opportunity to see progressive policies in practice. “We are going to be accumulating information about the effects of liberalized policies with respect to sentences and bail decisions,” Hingeley says. “I am optimistic that that experience—as hard as it comes to us, in this emergency—that experience nevertheless is going to teach us valuable lessons. And we’ll see big changes going forward.”

“I can take the initiative, but other people have to agree,” Hingeley says. Platania also emphasizes that judges are a coequal branch of government to prosecutors, and though there’s been great “judicial buy-in” during this emergency, that won’t necessarily be true in the future.

“I do hope that this will change the system,” Folley says, “but it takes a number of people with courage.”

 

Updated 4/8 to reflect the number of confirmed cases in the Virginia Correctional Center for Women.

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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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Guilty plea: Paige Rice agrees to misdemeanor in embezzlement case

Paige Rice leaves the Charlottesville courthouse with attorney Andrew Sneathern (center) and her husband Joe. (Photo: Matt Weyrich)

Carolyn Paige Rice, a former Charlottesville chief of staff and clerk of council, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor embezzlement charge Wednesday for failing to return an iPhone X and Apple Watch that were paid for by the city during her tenure.

As part of the plea agreement, Rice was charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony and was sentenced to six months in prison; the sentence is suspended two years with the opportunity for her to avoid doing time contingent on good behavior. Rice, 37, is also required to complete 200 hours of community service.

“We [originally] charged it as a felony because [reducing] a charge shouldn’t have happened behind closed doors,” Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania says. “We wanted it to be transparent and wanted the public to see what the initial charge was. A grand jury heard the evidence and then it got reduced in a public open courtroom so transparency was very important to me as part of this process.”

Rice resigned from her post in September, citing a pay cut she received just two months after the city gave her a raise. Her last day as a city employee was October 5, when Platania says she also called AT&T and asked for her iPhone to be unlocked so that she could switch it to another provider.

Four days later, Brian Wheeler, Charlottesville director of communications, contacted Rice to ask for the watch, phone, and an iPad to be returned. Rice told Wheeler that the screen on the iPhone was broken and had no trade-in value, and that she’d paid for the Apple Watch herself.

In an email conversation between Wheeler and Rice later that week, Rice claimed that she’d mailed the iPhone in to AT&T’s recycling program but agreed to return the iPad. Wheeler tried to confirm with AT&T that the phone had been received.The cell phone provider told him in late December that it had been transferred to Verizon and was never returned.

The Charlottesville Police Department opened up a criminal investigation in January and found that the phone had been added to the Verizon account of Carol Barfield, Rice’s mother. Wheeler also located a December 2017 AT&T bill that confirmed the Apple Watch was purchased by the city itself.

CPD obtained a search warrant March 14 for Rice’s home and confronted her that day. When Detective David Stutzman approached Rice, she was wearing the Apple Watch and using the iPhone X. A month later, she admitted to police that she had not paid for the watch nor did the phone screen break.

A grand jury indicted Rice on felony embezzlement charges June 7 but her attorney was able to negotiate the charge being lowered to a misdemeanor as part of the plea agreement. Rice, who’s now the chief of staff of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, declined to comment through her lawyer Andrew Sneathern.

Rice’s made $72,842 as clerk of council, and her salary was raised to $98,328 as clerk and chief of staff before the pay cut. Platania says Rice’s motive for keeping the devices is “unclear” but that the city felt it needed to pursue a criminal investigation because “there were multiple attempts made to get the devices back and the requests to have it returned were not met with truthful responses, and so we sort of didn’t feel like we had any other options.”