Tag: legal aid justice center

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Threat of ICE raids creates fear in local immigrant communities

Maria Chavalan Sut, a Guatemalan refugee, has been given sanctuary in the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church while she fights to stay in the United States. Photo by Eze Amos

Although President Trump walked back his order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct mass roundups of migrant families in major U.S. cities over the weekend, the delay did nothing to forestall the anxiety already created in the local immigrant community. 

The raids were postponed to allow talks between the White House and Democrats in Congress after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump.

Priscilla Mendenhall with Charlottesville-area Immigrant Resource and Advocacy Coalition is skeptical about the delay.

“It’s designed to further terrorize children and families and whole communities,” she says. “It’s deliberately manipulative. It’s cruel. I think it’s very intentional.” 

She believes the mass roundups are tied to Trump’s reelection campaign. “This kind of action on his administration’s part furthers a narrative about immigrants that’s dehumanizing, criminalizing, and one that’s recurring in American history.” 

CIRAC and other immigrant advocacy groups are calling upon local law enforcement to not cooperate with ICE.

The Trump administration is targeting  “vulnerable Virginia residents that might’ve fallen through the cracks in their court case for reasons beyond their control,” says Luis Oyola with Legal Aid Justice Center. “We are calling on localities to refuse to assist ICE in their operations.”

Charlottesville Sheriff James Brown says his office has no intention of participating in ICE raids because it’s a federal operation, and the people targeted don’t have state or local offenses.

Oyola offers this advice to Virginia residents: “You do not have to open the door for ICE and you should demand to see a judge’s signature on a criminal warrant.”

Charlottesville’s most high-profile asylum-seeker is Maria Chavalan-Sut, who has taken sanctuary at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church since October while she fights her deportation order through the court.

Before the raids were postponed, the church’s Pastor Isaac Collins urged ICE agents in the state who “are spending Sunday tearing families apart” to quit their jobs. “Walk away from this evil work, repent of these actions, make reparations to the migrant community, and I will help you find new work,” says Collins.

He also calls upon “every church in Virginia to offer sanctuary to undocumented migrants.”

Lana Heath de Martinez, a faith leader and organizer with the national sanctuary movement, notes that the majority of people targeted are indigenous to North America. “It is actually reminiscent of the Trail of Tears and other efforts to forcibly remove Native American folks and First Nations people.” she says. “This is a continuation of our disgraceful history and should be recognized as such.”

Mendenhall pledges resistance and support for migrant residents. “This community really shows what a small place can do when we come together.” 

ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell did not respond to phone calls from C-VILLE.

Updated 11:30am June 24

Updated 3:46pm with Sheriff James Brown’s response.

Original story

President Trump’s order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct mass roundups of migrant families in major U.S. cities, reportedly on Sunday, has created anxiety in the local immigrant community. Activists say raids have already occurred in Washington, D.C.

“Definitely in D.C. and we’ve heard raids are happening in northern Virginia,” says Priscilla Mendenhall with Charlottesville-area Immigrant Resource and Advocacy Coalition. “Whether or not we have raids, the fear they’re invoking here is real.”

CIRAC and other immigrant advocacy groups are calling upon local law enforcement to not cooperate with ICE.

The Trump administration is targeting  “vulnerable Virginia residents that might’ve fallen through the cracks in their court case for reasons beyond their control,” says Luis Oyola with Legal Aid Justice Center. “We are calling on localities to refuse to assist ICE in their operations.”

According to Oyola, Charlottesville Sheriff James Brown says his office has no intention of participating in ICE raids. C-VILLE Weekly was unable to immediately reach Brown.

Oyola offers this advice to Virginia residents: “You do not have to open the door for ICE and you should demand to see a judge’s signature on a criminal warrant.”

Charlottesville’s most high-profile asylum-seeker is Maria Chavalan-Sut, who has taken sanctuary at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church since October while she fights her deportation order through the court.

The church’s Pastor Isaac Collins urges ICE agents in the state who “are spending Sunday tearing families apart” to quit their jobs. “Walk away from this evil work, repent of these actions, make reparations to the migrant community, and I will help you find new work,” says Collins.

He also calls upon “every church in Virginia to offer sanctuary to undocumented migrants.”

Lana Heath de Martinez, a faith leader and organizer with the national sanctuary movement, notes that the majority of people targeted are indigenous to North America. “It is actually reminiscent of the Trail of Tears and other efforts to forcibly remove Native American folks and First Nations people.” she says. “This is a continuation of our disgraceful history and should be recognized as such.”

ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell did not immediately respond to phone calls from C-VILLE.

Correction: Lana Heath de Martinez was misidentified in the original story, as was Priscilla Mendenhall.

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Eviction outrage: Landlord says he’s committed to affordable housing

More than 100 affordable housing activists marched in support of Belmont Apartment residents. Eze Amos

More than 100 people representing a dozen organizations rallied and marched in support of residents of Belmont Apartments May 5, the same day tenants whose leases have expired were told to vacate their apartments at 1000 Monticello Rd.

The Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition gathered representatives from activist and faith groups to march from Belmont to the Free Speech Wall and call for owner Drew Holzwarth to keep the 23 units in the complex affordable and to allow the residents, may of whom are elderly, disabled, or low-income, to stay in their apartments.

In a May 6 statement, Holzwarth says that ultimately, if he can build another 11 micro-apartments at the site, 23 units will remain affordable at the 46-year-old complex.

The property was sold by its longtime owners in January 2018 for $2 million to Core Real Estate, which then sold it to Holzwarth’s Piedmont Realty Holdings a year later for $2.75 million.

Elaine Poon with Legal Aid Justice Center and other members of the housing coalition met with Holzwarth and “suggested he consider selling to a nonprofit,” she says. “He did not take the bait.”

Antoine Parker has lived in Belmont Apartments for six years, and says when the complex sold for the second time in a year, “my antenna went up.” Parker has not found a new place to live, and he notes that most of the tenants are older and are being uprooted from their homes.

He says he understands that the evictions are a “business decision,” but he asks, “At what point do you have a moral obligation to give [tenants] some help?”

Thomas Holden is legally blind from early onset macular degeneration. He says he’s found a new place “across town,” and it costs more than the $600 he’s currently paying for his one-bedroom apartment.

Holzwarth, who built Piedmont Place in Crozet and is president of Stanley Martin Homes Piedmont region, seems astounded that he’s been cast as the bad guy in this scenario. He says he’s a local philanthropist who’s done quite a bit for affordable housing. Of the rally, he says, “I’m a little disillusioned.”

After closing on the apartments, “we learned that the project has been the victim of significant neglect, and the tenants were living in conditions which were and should be unacceptable to them,” he says in a statement.

It was not possible to do the major renovation, including re-plumbing, replacing the HVAC systems, and fumigating the building, while the residents were still there, he says. His company and BMC Property Management will work with tenants to make sure no one became homeless, and he insists that no one’s lease was terminated that was still in effect. “Tenants will not be required to vacate without a safe place to go,” he says.

In meeting with the housing coalition, Holzwarth says he realized he could get a special use permit to add 11 micro-apartments. He’s pledged to keep those units affordable for people earning 70 percent of the area median income, “an ambitious challenge with new construction.”

With 68 percent of the apartments affordable, Holzwarth says that could be a model for other developers. “[W]e are making a significant personal and financial commitment to helping address the affordable housing crisis in the City of Charlottesville.”

Building the additional units “was actually our idea,” Poon says, and she offered to help Holzwarth get affordable housing credits.

And while she appreciates his goal to keep units affordable, “at the moment, disabled individuals are struggling to find a place to live.” She’d like Holzwarth to come back to the table and says, “It’s not a huge ask to let a handful of residents stay at the rent they’re at now.”

Correction May 8: If he’s allowed to build the 11 micro-apartments, Holzwarth plans to make those affordable for people earning 70 percent of the area median income, not 23 units as originally reported. Twelve units in the renovated complex will be affordable under HUD guidelines of 80 percent area median income.

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Unequal justice: City and county seek feedback on criminal justice disparities

MGT Consulting Group held a series of listening sessions to hear about community members’ experiences with the local criminal justice system. The group is working on a disparity and disproportionality study, and plans to make recommendations this summer. Photo by Martyn Kyle

To the list of racial disparities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, we can add arrest rates: According to a new study, African Americans are booked at significantly higher rates than whites at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, and the greatest disproportionality occurs during felony arrests.

This is a national problem—black adults are 5.9 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, according to The Sentencing Project, and racial disparities exist in every stage from arrest rates to the lengths of sentences. But to address the problem locally, City Council hired an independent consulting firm to collect data on both the city and the county, solicit community feedback, and make recommendations for change. While it’s mostly being funded by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, the city is picking up $10,000 of the $100,000 tab.

After 10 months of analyzing data, MGT Consulting Group—a “disparity solutions” consulting group with approximately 10 offices across the country, and one in Richmond—held four community meetings to gather additional, firsthand experiences from folks such as ex-offenders, victims, witnesses, cops, jail staff, and attorneys.

At the first meeting, on April 25 at Jack Jouett Middle School, MGT announced that although the disproportionality is smaller when it comes to misdemeanor arrests, black arrest rates are still considerably higher.

This isn’t news for some.

“You’re probably saying this is something you already know,” admitted project director Reggie Smith. He added that the firm will not release any other, more specific, data until the study concludes in June.

He then turned the floor over to the first speaker, a woman who came to talk about her experiences with law enforcement. She was recently involved in a small fender bender, called the police for safety, and ended up behind bars, she said.

This was a story that other people in the room knew too well, and some nodded their heads in support. “The whole call went so wrong, and I felt like, ‘Lord, I shouldn’t have called the police,’” the woman said.

When the man she collided with became aggressive, she said she felt unsafe and called for help. And when the cop arrived on the scene of the already-tense situation, she said, “He automatically assumed I was the aggressive person. …We went back and forth, but nothing disrespectful, and he placed me under arrest.” Her charges? Disorderly conduct and DUI.

When the officer indicated that he smelled alcohol, she said she admitted to having a beer, which she told him wasn’t against the law. She said she then refused a breathalyzer test because she didn’t know her rights. The cop took her to the magistrate’s office to swear out a warrant for a blood test, which was then administered at UVA. After the test, she said he took her back to the jail, where staff gave her the option of staying locked up until they could ensure she wasn’t drunk, or taking the breathalyzer test to prove her sobriety. When she opted for the latter, she blew a 0.02 percent, she said, well below the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Her car was towed from the scene—even though she said her sister and neighbor were on-hand to park it in her driveway—and now she’s hoping to be reimbursed for the $250 it took to get her car back.

“If it had been a white woman, then it would have been handled totally differently,” she told the consultants.

Another person talked about the disproportionate police presence at race-related protests compared to demonstrations about gun control or the environment, and specifically noted the large number of undercover cops in unmarked vehicles at the recent Charlottesville High School Black Student Union protest in McIntire Park.

“It’s something about race,” she said. Referring to the police, she added, “Something about anti-racist activists just trips their trigger.”

A man told the consultants about recently buying a house in a new neighborhood. One day before move-in, he went to check out his new digs during his lunch break, and said he noticed a white woman following him through the neighborhood in her car. When he parked outside his new house, she did, too. And when he introduced himself, he said she refused to give him her name, said he was “harassing her,” and called the police.

“I just walked away because I didn’t want to be the next Trayvon Martin,” he said. “It’s just this idea that I can’t even exist without the police being called on me for being in a place that someone thought I shouldn’t be.”

The last person to speak was Darrell Simpson, a former Sheriff’s deputy in Rockingham County who has also worked as a case manager for the Department of Corrections.

“One of the reasons I left that line of work is the disparity and disproportionality that I witnessed, and the fact that my viewpoints were in the extreme minority,” he said, adding that he often witnessed racism from “inside the walls. …I didn’t feel like I was really a part of the family in any of those settings, so I decided to get out.”

Harold Folley, a community organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center, attended the April 27 meeting at the Carver Recreation Center, where he says approximately 10 or 15 people shared their stories.

He notes that MGT didn’t share any specific data it has collected, and that most people are already aware of the local disparity.

“You didn’t have to do a $100,000 study to say, ‘Oh my God, this is happening,’” he says.

And perhaps there was a relatively low turnout because people have little faith that this study—or any study—could actually have any influence on the criminal justice system.

Says Folley, “They just feel like nothing’s going to change.”

 

Corrected May 1 at 12:55 to show that the disproportionality is smaller when it comes to misdemeanor arrests. We originally reported the study showed that the disparity is smaller when it comes to misdemeanor arrests.

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UPDATE: Northam calls for end of automatic driver’s license suspensions

Governor Ralph Northam was at Legal Aid Justice Center to call for an end to suspending driver’s licenses without consideration of ability to pay. Courtesy Legal Aid Justice Center

Governor Ralph Northam was in Charlottesville today to announce a budget amendment that would end the automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court fines and costs. The amendment would also reinstate driving privileges for 627,000 Virginians whose licenses are suspended.

At Legal Aid Justice Center, which has filed suit against the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles for the automatic suspensions that don’t consider someone’s ability to pay, Northam said, “It is time that we end this unjust practice and allow hardworking Virginians to get back to work”

A bill to end the practice failed in this year’s General Assembly, and one concern of legislators was that part of at $145 license reinstatement fee goes to the DMV and the Trauma Center. Northam said he’s providing $9 million in his budget amendment to cover the impact of the loss of the fee revenue.

Brianna Morgan, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, described losing her license over a minor traffic infraction during a high-risk pregnancy when she had no money. She was unable to take her father, who’d had a stroke, to doctor’s appointments. When her son had an asthma attack at school, it took an hour on the bus to get there. “Suspending people’s driver’s licenses for court debt they can’t pay hurts families,” she said. “It hurt mine.”

Plaintiff Brianna Morgan, center, with Delegate Cliff Hayes, Legal Aid Justice Center executive director Angela Ciolfi, Senator Jennifer McClellan, and Legal Aid policy coordinator Amy Woolard following the governor’s announcement that he wants to end automatic driver’s license suspensions. Legal Aid Justice Center

“The practice of suspending a person’s driver’s license for nonpayment of court fines and costs is inequitable—it’s past time we end it,” said Northam. “A driver’s license is critical to daily life, including a person’s ability to maintain a job. Eliminating a process that envelops hundreds of thousands of Virginians in a counterproductive cycle is not only fair, it’s also the right thing to do.”

Northam’s amendment goes back before the legislature when it reconvenes April 3.

The lawsuit, Stinnie v. Holcomb, was back in U.S. District Court March 25  after a big victory before Christmas. That’s when federal Judge Norman Moon issued a preliminary injunction reinstating the plaintiffs’ licenses, and said they were likely to prevail in their arguments the “license suspension scheme” is unconstitutional.

In the latest hearing, the state argued a motion to dismiss, still insisting driving is not a fundamental right, and that a traffic summons and a form given in court offered people plenty of notice that their license would be suspended 30 days after their conviction if they didn’t pay up—and if they read the form, they’d know they could request a payment plan, community service, or just ask the judge to forego the fine and court costs all together.

“What if a person 15 days later runs into a government shutdown and doesn’t get a check?” asked Moon. “What tells them they’re entitled to a hearing?”

“There is no notice before the automatic suspension,” said McGuireWoods attorney Jonathan Blank, who, with Legal Aid Justice Center, represents the plaintiffs.

He said the automatic suspension of driver’s licenses is a coercive way to collect debt, a technique private creditors can’t use. “It’s crazy and it’s not constitutional,” said Blank. “People are threatened with jail if they can’t pay their debts.”

He also called the state law “one of the worst statutes that’s in the Code of Virginia today.”

The plaintiffs filed a motion to certify a class action that would include everyone whose license is currently suspended and all future suspensions.

The commonwealth disagreed, and said the class was way over broad and would include people who could afford to pay.

“Every individual deserves the right to notice [of license suspension] regardless of their ability to pay,” said McGuireWoods attorney Laura Lange.

Judge Moon did not rule on either motion, and a weeklong trial is scheduled to begin August 5.

Legal Aid Justice Center executive director Angela Ciolfi says she can’t predict when or how the judge will rule, but “relief can’t come soon enough for the hundreds of thousands of families living under this brutally unconstitutional law.”

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Punishing: Repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions dies in subcommittee

Delegate Rob Bell was on the subcommittee that killed a repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions.  AMY JACKSON SMITH

Things were looking good for opponents of Virginia’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court costs. A federal judge had opined the state law is likely unconstitutional, a Republican state senator carried a bill that repealed the law, and it passed the Senate 36-4.

Then it got to a House subcommittee, where four Republicans, including Delegate Rob Bell, torpedoed the measure 4-3.

Senator Bill Stanley, a criminal defense attorney who represents a chunk of Southside, was not pleased, particularly with Bell and House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert and their grip on the Courts of Justice subcommittee.

He told the Roanoke Times February 11, “They just want to continue to punish people, they just want to continue to punish the poor, they just want to continue to put their will forth as the will of the commonwealth, two people determining the fate of 600,000 Virginians. This is rule by fiat.”

Stanley, who carried the same bill last year, figured it had a better chance this year, particularly after Judge Norman Moon issued a preliminary injunction in Stinnie v. DMV ordering the reinstatement of the plaintiffs’ licenses, which had been automatically suspended when they couldn’t afford to pay the fines and court costs, which thrust them into spiraling debt and, in some cases, jail for driving on suspended licenses.

Legislators who didn’t support the measure last year told Stanley they would vote for it this year, he says. “When Judge Moon made his decision, I thought we’re either going to fix this problem of debtors prison or a federal judge will,” says Stanley. “It looks like the judge will.”

He calls the automatic suspensions “punitive,” and the $145 DMV reinstatement fee a tax. “This has nothing to do with bad driving,” he says.

Bell “respectfully disagrees” with Stanley. For serious offenses like passing a school bus or texting while driving, “when someone violates those, I do think it’s appropriate they be punished and they pay some penalty,” he says.

The General Assembly passed a law in 2017 that requires courts to offer payment plans or community service. “As long as you’re on the payment plan, you have your license and you can drive,” says Bell. “We do require you to have some punishment.”

“You miss one payment and your license is suspended,” retorts Stanley. And those plans are used “exclusively for those who are in front of the court. It does nothing for the 600,000 who have already had their licenses suspended.”

Stanley says the automatic license suspensions punish people for being poor, and makes it difficult for them to get to jobs and provide for their families. “It perpetuates poverty,” he says. “I don’t think you can have economic growth without removing the crushing cycle of poverty.”

He adds, “You’d think Republicans would want to get people off dependency.”

Angela Ciolfi, executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center, represents the plaintiffs in the federal case. She says her team did an analysis of the results of the payment plan legislation and found that the new policy made almost no difference in the number of licenses suspended.

“And the suspension law hasn’t changed, either,” she says. “When someone doesn’t pay or falls off a payment plan, the law says that suspension is automatic, with no notice, no hearing, and no consideration of why the person didn’t pay.”

She’s working on making the case a class action suit, and anticipates the parties will be back in court soon.

Stanley believes that if Judge Moon orders the DMV to reinstate all the licenses suspended for nonpayment of fines, “it will create havoc in the DMV” that could be avoided if legislators fixed the problem.

And he’s still not happy that a subcommittee killed a bill he thought had broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly. “The rule of a few is determining the future of 600,000 people.”

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Prosecutors pump the brakes on suspended license cases

A lawsuit to help prevent those unable to pay court fines from spiraling into further debt and prosecution got a significant boost last week.

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania announced January 4 that he will no longer prosecute people charged with driving on a license that was suspended solely for failure to pay court costs or fines.

Platania’s announcement comes on the heels of a December 21 preliminary injunction by a federal judge in Charlottesville, which ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. Judge Norman Moon predicted attorneys will win the case, and said such automatic suspensions are unconstitutional.

Platania said the injunction raises “significant concerns” about prosecuting people who have had their licenses suspended in that way. He will continue to prosecute other suspensions for DUIs or restitutions, he says.

“I think Joe did the right thing and I’m really proud he did it,” says Liz Murtagh, head of the public defender’s office. “It’ll make a big difference for people,” she adds, particularly her clients, who often can’t afford to pay their fines as they’re leaving the courtroom, starting a “vicious, vicious” cycle.

Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci says his office put a halt to prosecuting the cases because of the injunction. The cases have been continued in general district court until the constitutional issues have been resolved or the injunction is lifted.

Before Tracci confirmed that his office was not prosecuting those cases, local immigration attorney Tanishka Cruz predicted it wouldn’t happen in the county “as long as Robert Tracci is the commonwealth’s attorney.”

She says Tracci’s office has historically taken a “one size fits all” approach and has sent many of her clients to jail for such an offense.

Says Tracci, “Commonwealth’s attorneys have no more discretion to ignore a federal injunction than to ignore federal immigration laws.”

Attorneys with the Legal Aid Justice Center are representing the three plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against the DMV.

“We are very hopeful that between the judicial ruling and the bipartisan momentum for repeal, the time has come to end this destructive practice,” says Legal Aid Executive Director Angela Ciolfi. “Meanwhile, the ruling casts doubt on the constitutionality of all suspensions flowing from the statute, and it makes sense for law enforcement to press pause on enforcement.”

Updated January 9 at 12:12pm to clarify that Robert Tracci stopped prosecuting these cases when the injunction was issued.

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In brief: Out of business, second wettest, medically deficient and more

staff photo

Knock, knock. Who’s [not] there?

Sears. Sweethaus. Performance Bicycle. And Brown’s Cleaners, just to name a few recent local closings that left community members shocked, and in at least one case, without their clothes.

The closing of Sears at Fashion Square Mall heralds the demise of one of America’s most iconic retailers, known for its mail-order catalogue more than 100 years before Amazon appeared on the scene. The Charlottesville store has been at the mall since it opened in 1980.

Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce president Elizabeth Cromwell says it’s not unexpected that companies will move away, merge, or close their doors for good—but it matters how they do it.

“There is a natural cycle for business communities,” says Cromwell. “How these organizations communicate changes to their customers is critical.”

While most of the closings were abrupt, Brown’s is of a different magnitude.

Signs suddenly posted on the doors of its four locations on Christmas Eve directed customers to check the legal section of the Daily Progress for information on where and when to pick up their held-hostage dry cleaning. It then took about a week and a half for any information to be published on how to reunite people with their belongings.

If you’re wondering, clothes can be picked up from 8am to noon at the High Street location, and 1:30pm to 5:30pm at the Preston Avenue location January 7-11 and January 15-18. Dry cleaning left at the Millmont Street and Ivy Road stores can be picked up on High Street. All furs will be at the Preston location.

And a GoFundMe has been started for the reported 34 employees who learned on that December holiday that they no longer had a job. At press time, it had raised approximately $7,000.

Quote of the week

“I didn’t want to be that person that has to see a sports psychologist … [but] it didn’t just help me on the court, it helped me in life.”—UVA basketball player and ACC Player of the Week Kyle Guy talks about anxiety and stress to SB Nation

In brief

Legal Aid roll

After persuading a judge to issue an injunction on the suspension of driver’s licenses for unpaid fines, Legal Aid Justice Center scored another victory in federal court January 2, when Judge Norman Moon ruled the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women had violated a 2016 settlement agreement to improve its “constitutionally deficient” medical care. At least four women have died since the settlement, and Moon gave the prison 45 days to correct violations.

Legendary coach dies

George Welsh UVA athletics

Former UVA football coach George Welsh, who led the Cavaliers to a pinnacle unseen since he retired after the 2000 season, died January 2 at age 85. Hall of Famer Welsh took over the Virginia program in 1982 and guided the team to 12 bowl games, two ACC co-championships, and a 9-10 record against Virginia Tech, which has since beaten UVA for 15 straight seasons.

Another A12 sentence

Daniel Borden, an Ohio man who was 18 when he came to the Unite the Right rally, will serve three years and 10 months for his part in the brutal parking garage beating of DeAndre Harris. The prosecutor and judge agreed Borden appeared “gleeful” in videos taken after the attack, but his age and guilty plea mitigated the sentence. Two others charged in the event are serving six and eight years.

‘Mass exodus’

Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney says the department is currently down 22 officers, and salary, lack of take-home cars, post-August 12 attitudes, and the demeanor of those on the Police Civilian Review Board are to blame, according to the Daily Progress. Outgoing Sheriff Chip Harding suggested Brackney could be the problem, prompting an impromptu press conference by City Manager Mike Murphy.

Election season

Three people have announced runs for open seats on City Council now held by Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin, and Mike Signer. Community organizers Don Gathers and Michael Payne launched campaigns January 8 for the June 11 Dem primary nomination, and Sena Magill joined the race January 9. No word yet from the incumbents on their plans.

By the numbers

Second-wettest year ever

skyclad ap

Record-breaking rainfall made 2018 the second-soggiest year since McCormick Observatory started keeping records 118 years ago. The week before Christmas, 2018 held the No. 4 spot with 68.69 inches, but over the holiday more than three inches drenched the area to put the year’s total at 72.14 inches, barely eking by No. 3, 1937, and over two inches shy of the No. 1 year—super-moist 2003, which followed worst-drought 2002.

And in top 25 wettest years since 1900, six of those have happened since 2000. Time to invest in rain boots?

Top five rainiest years

1. 2003 74.55″

2. 2018 72.14″

3. 1937 72.07″

4. 1948 69.72″

5. 1972 66.03″

Numbers provided by Jerry Stenger, director of the State Climatology Office at UVA.

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In brief: DMV’s court order, Brown’s abrupt closing, Murray’s lump of coal and more

Courtesy DMV

Driver’s license suspensions under siege

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction December 21 and ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. The judge said they are likely to prevail in their arguments that such automatic suspensions are unconstitutional.

That same week, Governor Ralph Northam called for an end to the practice. And Republican state Senator Bill Stanley has filed a bill that would end the automatic suspensions.

The class-action lawsuit—Stinnie v. Holcomb—challenges the automatic loss of driving privileges regardless of a person’s ability to pay and without notice or a hearing. Brought by the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, the case alleges that approximately 650,000 Virginians have had their licenses suspended for reasons that have nothing to do with driving violations and solely for failure to pay fines.

In his ruling, Judge Norman Moon says, “While the Court recognizes the Commonwealth’s interest in ensuring the collection of court fines and costs, these interests are not furthered by a license suspension scheme that neither considers an individual’s ability to pay nor provides him with an opportunity to be heard on the matter.”

Two of the plaintiffs—Damian Stinnie and Adrianne Johnson—are from Charlottesville, and Moon’s injunction noted how the inability to drive affected their ability to find employment and “created a cycle of debt.”

His ruling only affects the plaintiffs in the case, and the DMV is ordered to reinstate their licenses without charging its $145 reinstatement fee.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for the Constitution and for common sense. The Court stated unequivocally that Virginia’s driver’s license suspension statute likely violates procedural due process rights, says Angela Ciolfi, executive director of Legal Aid Justice Center, in a release.

Since the case was filed in 2016, the issue, which advocates call a “modern-day debtors prison,” has gained national attention. Lawsuits have been filed in six other states and a federal judge in Tennessee recently issued a similar injunction there.

Quote of the week

“We cannot ignore the role of firearms in mass school shootings, nor should we avoid our responsibility as legislators to act.”—Democratic minority report to a House of Delegates committee report on school safety that does not address gun violence

In brief

Eugenics landmark closes

The Central Virginia Training Center outside Lynchburg, where 4,000 Virginians were sterilized, often without their knowledge, will close in 2020. Charlottesvillian Carrie Buck was sent there in 1924, because she was pregnant and accused of promiscuity and “feeble-mindedness.” In Buck v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court famously ruled that “three generations of imbeciles are enough,” and okayed her later sterilization. The institution stopped performing sterilizations in 1952 but continued to care for the intellectually disabled.

Hung out to dry

Brown’s Cleaners abruptly shuttered its four stores Christmas Eve, leaving employees without paychecks—and customers wondering how to retrieve their dry cleaning. A sign said to check legal notices in the Daily Progress about how to pick up orders, but as of December 28, the Progress said it had received no info from the 71-year-old business, which took its website down and left phones unanswered. NBC29 reports the company declared bankruptcy.

Virginians favor pot decriminalization

A new ACLU poll shows 71 percent of registered voters favor dropping criminal penalties for small amounts of marijuana, and 63 percent say it should be legal and regulated like alcohol. The poll also shows a majority believe that race or economic status influence how one is treated in the criminal justice system, and 62 percent say fewer people should be sent to prison because it costs taxpayers too darn much.

Garrett’s swan song

Tom Garrett file photo

In his last days as 5th District representative, Tom Garrett saw President Donald Trump sign his bill renaming the Barracks Road Shopping Center post office in honor of Captain Humayun Khan, a UVA grad who died in Iraq in 2004. The Republican also delivered a bipartisan letter to Trump opposing the president’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria, calling it a threat to national security.

Lump o’ coal

Jim Murray contributed photo

The office of UVA Vice Rector Jim Murray got a visit from one of “Santa’s elves,” who delivered a piece of coal and said the venture capitalist had been naughty this year for opposing a living wage and calling its proponents “intellectually lazy,” according to a video circulated by Virginia Organizing.

Another Landes challenger

Ivy resident Lauren Thompson, 30, became the second Democrat to seek the nomination to run against 12-termer Republican Delegate Steve Landes, 59, whose 25th District, mainly in Augusta and Rockingham counties, includes a swipe of western Albemarle. Thompson, a Navy veteran, faces Augusta activist Jenni Kitchen, 37, for the Dem nod.

By the numbers

Housing affordability

The folks at the Virginia Public Access Project are always crunching the numbers, and last week they published how much of your take-home pay goes to housing, depending on where you live.

While Charlottesville may seem like one of the most expensive markets in the state, in Emporia City, 32.7 percent of median household income goes for housing, compared to nearly 25 percent in Charlottesville and 20.14 percent in Albemarle County. Highland County is the cheapest place to live, taking only an 11.6 percent bite out of paychecks, according to VPAP.

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‘Modern-day debtors’ prison’: Injunction sought to stop practice of suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid fines

Caption Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Angela Ciolfi wants a judge to order the DMV to stop automatically suspending driver’s licenses because of unpaid fines and court costs. Staff photo

It’s a tough argument to make: That a woman with three children who makes around $9 an hour, who can’t buy enough groceries to meet minimum nutritional needs, and who shares a bedroom with two kids in an apartment with another family, has plenty of money left over to pay $100 a month to get her suspended driver’s license back.

Yet that was the case the Commonwealth of Virginia made at a November 15 hearing. The state suggested that if the woman gave up her cellphone, she’d have the $100 a month and that losing access to communication would in no way would cause her “irreparable harm.”

The case is Stinnie v. Holcomb, and it was filed in 2016 by the Legal Aid Justice Center, which claims the state’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court fines and fees that often have nothing to do with actual driving infractions, is unconstitutional because it happens with no notice of the suspension, no consideration of the person’s ability to pay, and falls disproportionately upon the poor.

At a four-and-a-half-hour hearing in U.S. District Court, plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Judge Norman Moon for a preliminary injunction to immediately stop the automatic suspensions.

Moon has seen this case before. In early 2017, he heard the state’s motion to dismiss, which argued that Richard Holcomb, the DMV commissioner, was not the proper defendant and federal court not the proper venue. Moon agreed and dismissed the case, but a federal appeals court sent it back to him.

This time, Moon asked a lot more questions about how indigent people were supposed to pay staggering court costs—and then the additional $145 the DMV charges to reinstate a license. At times he called a driver’s license a “property right,” veering from the state’s assertion that a license is a privilege.

“We’re seeking an order declaring the statute unconstitutional,” said Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Angela Ciolfi. That’s a possibility Moon had considered last year in his decision dismissing the case, because people get no notice or hearing about the license suspension—in effect no due process.

Adrianne Johnson, 34, is one of the plaintiffs. The native Charlottesvillian has three children and worked as a certified nursing assistant until she was convicted of a drug charge in Brunswick County. She didn’t get jail time, but had court costs of $865. She was paying $100 a month until she lost her job. Unaware that her license had been suspended for the unpaid fines, she was then charged with driving with a suspended license. After a second suspension, she stopped driving because a third conviction carries jail time.

Not having a license has affected her job opportunities, she testified. Though she managed to find another job, the lack of a driver’s license is preventing her from being promoted to manager, she said, because that position requires driving to make daily bank deposits.

“It’s very stressful, very inconvenient to me and my children,” she said. Her daughter has medical issues and her son plays sports. “I can’t take him or go to any of his games.”

With a license, she said, “I would be able to have a better paying job. I could pay the court costs and fines.”

Assistant Attorney General Margaret O’Shea asked Johnson if she’d gone to the Brunswick court to ask for community service.

“No, I didn’t know about that,” said Johnson. “And how am I going to get to Brunswick? I don’t have a license.”

O’Shea suggested that with Johnson’s $200/month rent for a room she shares with two of her children, she should have plenty of money left over to pay her fines.

“I have nothing left over after I pay my expenses,” said Johnson. “It just leaves me with nothing. Nothing at all.”

The plaintiffs called Diana Pearce, a University of Washington professor who created the self-sufficiency standard, which determines that amount of income needed to meet basic needs.

Pearce looked at Johnson’s income and expenses, and said, “She’s not able to meet her basic needs based on her income.”

O’Shea asked if the numbers meant Johnson had $400 a month left over, and that with the $200 rent, “she had a roof over her head.”

The money is not extra income, maintained Pearce. Johnson is “not spending enough on housing and nutritional needs,” and sharing a room with two kids was not meeting basic needs, she added.

Steven Peterson is a microeconomist who testified that the loss of a driver’s license for unpaid fines “disproportionately affected poor people,” with 40 to 45 percent losing their jobs. If they found another job, he said, 88 percent had lower incomes.

Using numbers from the DMV, he said in 2017, 977,891 people had their licenses suspended, and 647,517 of those were suspended only as a result of not paying fines and court costs.

McGuireWoods attorney Jonathan Blank asked the judge to declare the suspensions unconstitutional. “You cannot punish a person who lacks the resources to pay a debt,” he said. “We’re here because this is a modern-day debtors prison.”

Moon seemed skeptical of the commonwealth’s arguments that the costs on indigent people caused no “irreparable harm,” and said, “They shouldn’t be punished if they cannot pay.”

But with an eye toward the weather, Moon recessed the court without ruling and said he had to get to Lynchburg.

“I feel very heartened by the judge’s questions,” said Ciolfi. “He clearly gets the unfairness” and the “devastation” to people’s lives.

 

 

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Suspended licenses: Lawsuit back in federal court

Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Angela Ciolfi again will try to convince a federal judge that suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court costs without consideration of the defendant’s ability to pay is unconstitutional. Staff photo

It’s not just bad driving that has caused nearly 1 million Virginians’ licenses to be suspended. Failure to pay court costs—often unrelated to being behind the wheel at all—has put indigent citizens in a downward spiral of debt, unemployment, and incarceration, according to a civil suit filed by the Legal Aid Justice Center two years ago.

In a February 2017 hearing in U.S. District Court for Stinnie v. Holcomb, lawyers from the state attorney general’s office representing defendant Richard Holcomb, commissioner of the DMV, argued that Holcomb was not the appropriate defendant and the federal district court in Charlottesville was not the right jurisdiction to hear the case. Judge Norman Moon agreed and dismissed the case.

In May, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case back to district court to allow the plaintiffs to amend their suit, which they did September 11.

“We spent a lot of time on what the DMV commissioner does,” says Angela Ciolfi, Legal Aid’s director of litigation and advocacy. License suspension “cannot be accomplished without the DMV, which gets revenue to reinstate licenses.”

The amended complaint adds four new plaintiffs from across the state. “They’ve all been treated exactly the same by the DMV,” says Ciolfi.

Two of the plaintiffs are from Charlottesville. Adrianne Johnson, 34, was working as a certified nursing assistant making $8.86 an hour in 2013 when she was convicted of a drug-related charge. She did not get jail time, but she was ordered to pay $865 in court costs, much of that for her court-appointed lawyer.

“So many people who live paycheck to paycheck don’t have a dime to spare,” says Ciolfi.

Although Johnson was on a payment plan, she couldn’t afford to make regular payments and her license was suspended, according to the suit. She continued to work—and to drive to get to her job, take care of her family, and take her daughter to medical appointments. In November 2017, she was convicted of driving on a suspended license.

The court put her on a payment plan requiring her debt be paid in six months, which the minimum wage earner could not afford, and when she missed a payment, her license was again suspended in May 2018, according to the complaint.

Johnson stopped driving after the November conviction, lives with her two children in a crowded apartment with another family—and struggles to pay rent and buy groceries, much less pay the roughly $900 she owes in court costs and the $150 it would take to reinstate her license.

“It’s not just about the people whose licenses have been suspended,” says Ciolfi, “but it’s about their families who can’t move forward.”

And in the two years the case has been pending, “we know of hundreds of thousands more suspensions and convictions of driving while suspended,” says Ciolfi.

She points out that states like California have repealed laws requiring license suspension for unpaid court debt, and in Mississippi, the state official in charge of suspensions has stopped enforcing the statute.

“These statutes are not holding up to constitutional scrutiny in other states,” she says.

The suspensions fall disproportionately on “low-income persons and communities of color,” alleges the complaint. African Americans make up 20 percent of Virginia’s population, but receive nearly half the orders of suspension for unpaid court debt and almost 60 percent of convictions for driving with licenses suspended because of court debt, according to the suit.

Ciolfi would like the General Assembly to repeal debt-driven suspensions, and says the Senate passed a bill to do so earlier this year, but it died in the House of Delegates.

In the meantime, she’ll ask the court for a preliminary injunction to stop the suspensions and a certification for a class action against the state law she says is unconstitutional.