Tag: Kristopher Goad

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Coronavirus News

In brief: Happy trails, activists arrested, and more

The new bridge over Moores Creek plugs a gap in the Rivanna Trail. PC: Stephen Barling

Closing the loop

The Rivanna Trail has encircled Charlottesville for more than 20 years. Earlier this month, the trail became a little more complete, when a 140-foot-long pedestrian bridge was lowered into place over Moores Creek, closing one of the few remaining gaps in the trail’s 20-mile loop.

Local environmentalists expressed enthusiasm about the bridge, which was paid for by Albemarle County and the developers working on rehabbing the old woolen mill that overlooks the river.

“This is economic development that focuses on making the community a better place for all,” said Piedmont Environmental Council community organizer Peter Krebs in a press release praising the bridge. “By providing more places to walk and bike, and everyday access to nature, projects like this support residents’ health, productivity, and prosperity.”

                                                              PC: Stephen Barling

Photographs from the middle of the 20th century show that a wooden footbridge once crossed the creek near where the new bridge sits, but the woolen mill changed hands multiple times over the years, and the original bridge disappeared.

Because the pandemic has upended much of our regular forms of recreation, and made gathering indoors unsafe, the Rivanna Trail has had a significant increase in use in recent months. A trail counter from earlier in the spring noted that this year, the trail has seen around four times as much foot traffic as the same period last year.

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Quote of the week

“Nothing would be worse for the economy than UVA students coming back [and causing] a super spreader event.”

—City Councilor Michael Payne, on Charlottesville’s emergency ordinance

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In brief

Richmond arrests

Protests continue in Richmond, and police continue to arrest people willy-nilly. This week, journalists for VCU’s student paper The Commonwealth Times, as well as two activists with Charlottesville ties and large social media followings, Molly Conger and Kristopher Goad, were among those detained on dubious grounds. Conger was held overnight, and after her release, tweeted that the police “are trying to break our spirits, but they’re only proving our point.”

Travelers grounded

Charlottesville-based educational travel company WorldStrides, one of the larger employers in town, filed for bankruptcy last week. Meanwhile, some UVA students received mailers this week from the study abroad office, advertising future trips. That’s optimistic, as most nations have banned American travelers from entering.

Paul Harris PC: UVA

Tenure reversed

UVA made national news earlier in the spring when it unexpectedly denied two well-qualified Black faculty members tenure. Now, the school is eating crow: last week, Dr. Paul Harris, an assistant professor of education, announced that the decision had been overturned, and his tenure case had been approved by provost Liz Magill.

Mask mandate

As the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise, Charlottesville and Albemarle County both decided on Monday to revert to certain Phase Two guidelines. Beginning August 1, masks will be mandatory in public, indoor capacity for restaurants will be capped at 50 percent, and gatherings of more than 50, excluding spontaneous demonstrations, will be prohibited.

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And stay out: Cantwell pleads guilty, banned from Virginia for five years

Crying Nazi Chris Cantwell bids an anti-Semitic adieu to Charlottesville. Photo by Eze Amos

Chris Cantwell, aka the Crying Nazi, came to Charlottesville a year ago to chant “Jews will not replace us” while marching through UVA Grounds. As the self-proclaimed racist shock jock was booted from Virginia July 20, he hurled a final invective at local media outside the Albemarle Circuit Court when he refused to comment to “you Jews.”

Cantwell faced two felony charges of pepper-spraying Emily Gorcenski and Kristopher Goad in front of the Rotunda at the base of the Jefferson statue August 11, 2017, where a group of around 40 counterprotesters were surrounded by several hundred tiki-torch carrying white supremacists.

The New Hampshire man was supposed to be in court July 20 for a bond hearing. Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci filed a motion to revoke Cantwell’s bond for violating the terms of his release by identifying the victims in his broadcasts. It would have been the second time he’d been brought in for bond violation. The first was a drunk in public arrest March 31 in Leesburg, where he’s been housed while awaiting trial.

Instead, Cantwell entered a guilty plea for two misdemeanor counts of assault and battery. He was sentenced to two years in prison, with all but the 107 days he’d already spent in jail suspended.

He was given eight hours to get out of town—and the commonwealth—and is banned from the state for five years. He may not carry a weapon here and he’s forbidden to contact Gorcenski and Goad directly or indirectly, including through social media and radio. He was also ordered to pay $250 for doing so while out on bond.

According to Tracci, Gorcenski and Goad supported the plea agreement. Gorcenski is now living overseas, “partly as a result of harassment associated with this case,” he said.

In court, Tracci told the judge that video evidence would have shown Cantwell pepper spraying a man known only as “Beanie Man,” and that the defense would have argued Cantwell sprayed in self-defense. Gorcenski and Goad were gassed in the spray’s drift.

Little known outside the alt-right circles that listened to his “Radical Agenda” radio show, Cantwell gained more widespread notoriety when he came to Charlottesville as a speaker for last year’s Unite the Right rally, and espoused his white supremacist views to Vice reporter Elle Reeve throughout the weekend. His opinions were aired in a segment called “Charlottesville: Race and Terror.”

“We’ll fucking kill these people if we have to,” he said after the rally that left counterprotester  Heather Heyer dead and dozens more injured.

He became known as the Crying Nazi after he posted a teary YouTube video about the warrant for his arrest before turning himself in in Lynchburg.

“This agreement reflects the defendant’s acceptance of criminal responsibility for his dispersal of pepper spray on August 11, 2017,” said Tracci in a statement. The agreement does not preclude additional prosecution for conduct on that date, added the prosecutor.

Cantwell left the courthouse accompanied by mutton-chopped attorney Elmer Woodard, who’s representing several white supremacists charged following last year’s Unite the Right rally.

It was Daily Progress reporter Lauren Berg’s last day, and she filmed Cantwell’s response to a request for comment. As Woodard tipped his boater hat to the press, Cantwell answered, “You can contact me through my website instead of this gotcha garbage, you Jews.”

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In brief: Bad prank, bad parking, bad practices and more

Staff photo

Meter’s not running

Crews are set to start ripping meters out of the ground this week after City Council voted at its January 2 meeting to indefinitely suspend the parking meter pilot that began on streets surrounding the Downtown Mall in September.

“It seemed pointless to try to convince the manufacturer to continue to loan us this equipment,” says parking manager Rick Siebert, who was initially hired to implement the program. “We obviously didn’t want to pay rent with no revenue coming in.”

With no reimplementation date in sight, Siebert says he’s disappointed that the city seems to have permanently pumped the brakes on the pilot, and he’ll continue to work toward a solution to Charlottesville’s well-documented parking problem.

“We had some issues with parking before that led to hiring Nelson\Nygaard to do the study, which led to the initiation of the meter pilot,” he says. “Those issues haven’t just evaporated.”

By the numbers

  • 28 meters
  • 13 pay stations
  • 71 days in service
  • $51,490 generated in revenue
  • $42,995 paid in rent
  • $20,000 for a 2016 parking meter pilot implementation plan by Nelson\Nygaard
  • $500,000 for startup funds allocated by City Council in 2016 for personnel and initial equipment costs, including a $73,000 salary for hiring a parking manager

“Voting is the civic sacrament of democracy.”—James Alcorn, chair of Virginia Board of Elections, before a random drawing to determine the winner of House District 94 and control of the House of Delegates

Not funny

A teen hoaxer who on social media advised Monticello High students to not go to school January 8 underneath a photo of guns was charged with a Class 5 felony for making threats to harm people on school property. The post alarmed other schools around the country with MHS initials, and at least one in Pennsylvania canceled classes.

Malpractice

Mark Hormuz Dean. Photo Albemarle County Police

Police arrested Mark Hormuz Dean, 50, a physician at the Albemarle Pain Management Associates Clinic, on January 5 for two counts of rape, two counts of object sexual penetration and one count of forcible sodomy, which he has allegedly committed on the job since 2011. Dean has worked in pain management in Charlottesville since 2003, and performed more than 10,000 interventional pain procedures, according to the clinic’s website.

 

 

It’s about time

At the January 4 Board of Supervisors meeting, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed a 99-year lease that gives Albemarle County control of the 1,200-acre Biscuit Run Park, which the state has owned since 2010 and agreed to help open to the public.

Town crier

Photo Eze Amos

Christopher Cantwell has filed a lawsuit against anti-racist activists Emily Gorcenski and Kristopher Goad, who accused the “Crying Nazi” of spraying them with a caustic substance at UVA on August 11. Cantwell’s complaint claims the activists “framed” him in the alleged attack by spraying themselves with mace.

 

 

 

 

New county leadership

File photo

While perhaps not as monumental as Charlottesville’s election of its first African-American female mayor, Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors has also picked new leaders. Ann Mallek has been named chair for the fifth nonconsecutive year and Norman Dill will serve as vice chair.

 

 

 

Trial date set

A three-week jury trial is scheduled to begin November 26 for James Alex Fields, the man who plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters on August 12. Fields is charged with first-degree murder, five counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash.

 

 

 

Another missing person found dead

Three days after missing woman Molly Meghan Miller was found dead in her home on January 1, police found Arthur Mills, the Fluvanna County man who was reported missing January 3, dead on the side of Oliver Creek Road. His cause of death is unknown.

 

Downtown loses some sparkle

Submitted photo

Frances Gibson Loose, longtime owner of Tuel Jewelers, died January 5 at age 86. For 65 years, she showed up for work, always professionally dressed, until about a week before she passed away.

When Loose bought the store in 1975, she was the only female business owner downtown, and according to her daughter, Mary Loose DeViney, she told another woman in a male-dominated field, “I’m going to do it my way and you will, too.”

She was a member of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, which named her Small Business Person of the Year in 2009.

Loose was well-known and well-liked and was often called “Mom” by her many friends, says DeViney. “She extended credit to people that others wouldn’t have—and they paid her. She just believed in people.”

People from all walks of life came to the store just to talk to Loose. “I’ve got to talk to Momma,” DeViney heard regularly. “I shared my mom with all kinds of people.”