A woman arrested on three charges, including felony assault of a law enforcement officer at the July 8 KKK rally, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.
Jordan Romeo was protesting the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park when she allegedly assaulted a city cop and City Council critic John Heyden.
She was also charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, to which the 28-year-old Roanoke resident pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court on January 19.
“Despite the commonwealth’s expected evidence in this case, the arresting officer that was assaulted agreed with a sentence involving an alternative to incarceration,” said a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania released that day.
Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in court that the officer agreed to nolle
prosequi the felony assault charge in exchange for Romeo’s guilty plea of disorderly conduct. At the request of Heyden, who “would like to put the matter behind him,” the misdemeanor assault charge was also dismissed.
Romeo was sentenced to 105 days in jail, with all suspended on the condition that she complete 80 hours of community service and stay on good behavior for two years.
“Allegations of assaultive behavior directed towards law enforcement officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties are extremely significant events and will be investigated and prosecuted as the serious offenses that they are,” said Platania in the statement.
Jordan Romeo. Courtesy of the Charlottesville Police Department
A woman arrested on three charges, including felony assault of a law enforcement officer at the July 8 KKK rally, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.
Jordan Romeo was protesting the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park when she allegedly assaulted a city cop and City Council critic John Heyden.
She was also charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, to which the 28-year-old Roanoke resident pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court on January 19.
“Despite the commonwealth’s expected evidence in this case, the arresting officer that was assaulted agreed with a sentence involving an alternative to incarceration,” said a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania released that day.
Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in court that the officer agreed to nolle
prosequi the felony assault charge in exchange for Romeo’s guilty plea of disorderly conduct. At the request of Heyden, who “would like to put the matter behind him,” the misdemeanor assault charge was also dismissed.
Romeo was sentenced to 105 days in jail, with all suspended on the condition that she complete 80 hours of community service and stay on good behavior for two years.
“Allegations of assaultive behavior directed towards law enforcement officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties are extremely significant events and will be investigated and prosecuted as the serious offenses that they are,” said Platania in the statement.
Community members sat shoulder-to-shoulder in City Council Chambers at the December 4 meeting, where people also spilled into at least two remote viewing locations within City Hall. Protest signs called for Mayor Mike Signer’s resignation, and the abolition of police. Photo by Eze Amos
Emotions ran high at the December 4 City Council meeting that began at 7pm when Councilor Kristin Szakos placed two paper plates piled with homemade cookies at the podium and ended at midnight.
Mayor Mike Signer opened the meeting, during which former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy presented his $350,000 independent review of the summer’s white supremacist rallies, with a plea for civility.
But anyone who’s been following council meetings since August 12, knows that Signer would have needed a Christmas miracle for that wish to come true. And he didn’t get it.
Tim Heaphy. Photo by Eze Amos
Heaphy and the councilors were continually criticized, heckled and shouted over, but the first roar of laughter from the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd came when Heaphy announced that members of the Charlottesville Police Department told him and his Hunton & Williams legal team that they felt prepared for August 12 because they had worked the annual Wertland Street block party and dignitary visits, like when the Dalai Lama came to town in October 2012.
They hadn’t, however, coordinated with Virginia State Police, and most of them had never used riot gear or had relevant training, Heaphy said.
And though Heaphy detailed several instances of a lack of police intervention on August 12—and an apparent order for police not to act “unless someone’s getting killed”—the crowd erupted in caustic applause when he showed a still taken from a police body camera of an officer coming between a white supremacist and an anti-racist activist.
“Y’all fed us to those wolves,” interjected someone from the crowd when the attorney discussed police behavior.
As Heaphy wrapped up his presentation, which lasted an hour longer than scheduled, members of the crowd—some identifying with activist group SolidarityCville—began raising protest signs. The largest one read, “Blood on your hands,” with “Abolish the police” and “Resign Signer” also making an appearance.
Photo by Eze Amos
Vice-mayor Wes Bellamy, whom some blame for summoning the neo-Nazis with his initial call in March 2016 to remove the General Robert E. Lee monument from then-Lee Park, began his comments with an apology.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “We let you all down. I think it’s important we acknowledge that.”
And trying to speed the meeting along, he said, “For $350,000, I got two questions: One, how do we stop the Nazis from coming back. And secondly, how do we protect our citizens?”
Heaphy replied he didn’t have the answers, and the crowd erupted again, asking the attorney what he was paid almost half a million dollars for. Heaphy reminded attendees several times that his job was to review what went right and wrong during the summer of hate.
About 40 members of the public spoke at the meeting, with Dave Ghamandi firing up the crowd as he roasted the police, Chief Al Thomas, City Manager Maurice Jones, Heaphy and Signer.
Dave Ghamandi. Photo by Eze Amos
“You and Signer are two crony gangsters spit out by UVA law school,” he said to Heaphy, also calling him a “glorified ambulance chaser” who “profited off tragedy and death.” Ghamandi said Jones is afraid to fire Thomas because he’ll drag Jones down, too.
Councilor-elect Nikuyah Walker also took the podium to address centuries of racism, systemic oppression and public chatter that Jones and Thomas could be held accountable for the failure of the rallies and lose their jobs.
Nikuyah Walker. Photo by Eze Amos
“There should not be rumors that the two people who are going to be asked to leave potentially are two black men,” she said. “That should be unacceptable.”
But perhaps tensions were at their highest boiling point at the conclusion of Heaphy’s presentation, when he said, “Things could have been worse.” Without missing a beat, someone in the crowd fired back, “How dare you?”
Nic McCarthy was one of nine people to have an obstruction of justice charge dropped after the July 8 KKK rally. Photo by: Eze Amos
In the never-ending string of court cases stemming from this year’s run-ins with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, 15 people went before a judge October 30 for charges brought against them during the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.
Approximately 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, a North Carolina-based group, dropped by over the summer to protest the tearing down of the General Robert E. Lee statue—and were met by intense opposition in the form of hundreds of angry counterprotesters. Just over 20 people were arrested that day, primarily for obstruction of justice and free passage.
Kandace Baker was among those in Charlottesville General District Court October 30.
After pleading not guilty to obstruction of justice, she testified that she was looking for her husband near Justice Park around 4pm when a Virginia State Police trooper told her an unlawful assembly had been declared and she needed to leave the area. Baker tried several times to turn and walk back through the alley she initially came through, but the officer pushed her and would not allow her to exit the way she entered, she said. He arrested her and another VSP trooper “dragged [her]” to the courthouse to press charges, she said.
Though Judge Robert Downer said he had probable cause to believe she was obstructing justice, he said he’s not sure she’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and he let her off the hook.
“Just because you make their job a little more difficult, that’s not enough for obstruction of justice,” Downer said.
He dropped charges against nine counterprotesters who were arrested for obstructing free passage at the rally, likely in a demonstration where several anti-white supremacists linked arms in front of a gate that police planned to usher the robed Klan members through. These people include Kendall Bills, Cameron Bills, Jo Donahue, John Neavear, Nic McCarthy, Jeanne Peterson, Evan Viglietta, Whitney Whitting and Sara Tansey, who wore teal lipstick and matching tights to court in true Halloween fashion.
Tansey was found guilty of destruction of property in the same court October 16 for nabbing homegrown white rights advocate Jason Kessler’s phone while he was live-streaming a Corey Stewart rally in Emancipation Park February 11.
Also on October 30, Morgan Niles and Erika Ries pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and were both sentenced to 30 days in jail, with all of that substituted for 40 hours of community service.
Three people had their cases continued. Tracye Redd, also charged with obstruction of justice, will appear December 1. Jarrell Jones, charged with assault and battery, and Rashaa Langston, charged with failing to disperse in a riot, will be back in court March 5.
Updated Tuesday, October 24 at 3pm with a second story about court appearances on Monday, October 23.
Even months prior to August 12, the community was up to its figurative elbows in lawsuits stemming from the emergence of Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler into the local spotlight and the people who’ve made it their goal to publicly confront him.
At the end of last week and the beginning of this one, several familiar faces from the alt-right, as well as its rejectors, were in Charlottesville General District court to learn their fate from Judge Robert Downer.
Wearing a hot pink wig and carrying a Donald Trump mask as a purse, Black Lives Matter activist Veronica Fitzhugh was found not guilty October 20 of obstructing free passage at the summer’s Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.
An arresting officer with the Charlottesville Police Department testified that Fitzhugh refused to leave a passageway police had secured to safely usher the KKK into the park for its permitted demonstration July 8.
The Klan was in town to protest the removal of the city’s General Robert E. Lee statue, and Fitzhugh and about 10 other counterprotesters locked arms in front of a gate into the park, delaying the white supremacist rally for about an hour, according to the CPD officer’s testimony.
When Fitzhugh was instructed to step away from the gate, she laid down in front of it and was carried out by four officers.
“No one was allowed in there except for the people authorized by the police, so this was not a public passageway,” argued her attorney, Jeff Fogel, who noted that the CPD officer’s body cam footage showed a cameraman was also standing in front of the gate that officers later corralled the Klan through. “I don’t know how they could claim Ms. Fitzhugh was obstructing the gate and that gentleman wasn’t.”
The following Monday, in the same courtroom, her attorney had several wins and losses—for additional clients and himself.
On June 1, Kessler’s own video evidence shows he and his buddy, Caleb Norris, approached Fogel outside Miller’s on the Downtown Mall. They were surrounded by members of activist group Showing Up for Racial Justice, as its members shouted “Nazi, go home” at the alleged alt-righters.
The video shows Kessler chastising Fogel for calling him a “crybaby” in April, and Norris can be heard calling the attorney a “communist piece of shit.” Fogel replies, “What did you say?” and is seen putting his hands toward Norris.
“Oh my God, this guy just assaulted my friend,” an elated Kessler says, and urges his friend to press charges against the lawyer who was running for commonwealth’s attorney at the time.
Back in the courtroom, Fogel, represented by his law partner Steve Rosenfield, said Norris leaned over at him and put his hands up to keep Norris from coming any closer. In the video, it was unclear whether Norris leaned into Fogel, but Downer cited Fogel’s unaggressive disposition when Kessler was lambasting him earlier in the clip, and said he couldn’t find Fogel guilty.
Fogel also represented Sara Tansey October 16, who was charged with destruction of property for snatching Kessler’s phone while he was live-streaming a February 11 Corey Stewart rally in Emancipation Park.
Joe Draego, best known for suing the city for being dragged out of a City Council meeting in June 2016 (after he called Muslims “monstrous maniacs” and lay down on the floor), testified that he took the phone out of Tansey’s hand and gave it back to Kessler.
While Tansey was found guilty for nabbing Kessler’s cell phone, Draego was also found guilty of assault and battery of Tansey when he took the phone back.
The judge waived Tansey’s $50 fine, and Draego was ordered to fork over $100.
Fitzhugh was also charged May 31 with assault and disorderly conduct stemming from an encounter with Kessler, in which she allegedly screamed in his face and told him to “fucking go home” as he was sitting at a table on the Downtown Mall.
The activist, known for her outlandish wardrobe, will go to trial for the assault and disorderly conduct charges November 20. What will she wear next?
Among the familiar faces in court this week was Veronica Fitzhugh, wearing a hot pink wig and carrying a purse that resembled Donald Trump’s head.
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Original story:
Wearing a hot pink wig and carrying the head of Donald Trump as a purse, activist Veronica Fitzhugh was found not guilty of obstructing free passage at the summer’s Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.
An arresting officer with the Charlottesville Police Department testified in the city’s general district court October 20 that Fitzhugh refused to leave a passageway police had secured to safely usher the KKK into the park for their permitted demonstration July 8.
The Klan had dropped by to protest the tearing down of the city’s General Robert E. Lee statue, and Fitzhugh and about 10 other counterprotesters locked arms in front of a gate into the park, delaying the white supremacist rally for about an hour, according to the CPD officer’s testimony.
Police warned the crowd that they would be arrested if they did not clear the pathway for the North Carolina group called the Loyal White Knights, and as some counterprotesters began to disperse, Fitzhugh laid down in front of the gate, the officer said. He and three Virginia State Police troopers then carried her out of the vicinity, and she was charged with obstruction of free passage.
“No one was allowed in there except for the people authorized by the police, so this was not a public passageway,” argued her attorney, Jeff Fogel, who noted in the CPD officer’s body cam footage that a cameraman was also standing in front of the gate that officers later corralled the Klan through. “I don’t’ know how they could claim Ms. Fitzhugh was obstructing the gate and that gentleman wasn’t.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman, who prosecuted the case, said she was arrested for “admirable reasons” and “she simply took it too far.”
Judge Robert Downer found her not guilty, and Fitzhugh and Fogel emerged from the courthouse to a crowd of about 30 supporters, who cheered and clapped and lined up to hug the activist who wore a hot pink, rhinestone handcuff necklace that matched her bodacious wig.
Fitzhugh was was also charged May 31 with assault and disorderly conduct stemming from an encounter with homegrown white nationalist Jason Kessler on the Downtown Mall, in which she allegedly screamed in his face for him to “fucking go home.” Her attorney was charged with assault after a confrontation with an associate of Kessler’s June 1.
The activist, known for her outlandish wardrobe, will go to trial for the assault and disorderly conduct charges November 20. What will she wear next?
Veronica Fitzhugh knows how to accessorize. Staff photo
