A federal judge raised questions about an Albemarle police officer’s unprecedented late-night search of two African-American plaintiffs’ home for a piece of paper, and said a jury may find it was based on racial profiling. Fewer than two weeks before trial date, Judge Glen Conrad seemed inclined to allow Bianca Johnson and Delmar Canada’s lawsuit against […]
In the wake of the August 11-12 events, the 30th Virginia Film Festival harkens back to its earlier days when it had a theme every year. This year, it’s morphed into a sub-theme of “race in America” in partnership with Montpelier, according to festival director Jody Kielbasa. Previously announced director Spike Lee had been asked […]
The Georgia man charged with kicking a counterprotester who was on the ground in the Market Street Parking Garage August 12 was denied bond this morning in Charlottesville General District Court. Alex Michael Ramos, 33, appeared before Judge Bob Downer seeking bond for his release from Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail. Ramos surrendered August 28 to […]
The Albemarle County police officer who is the defendant in three lawsuits alleging racial profiling picked up a fourth complaint last month. Officer Andrew Holmes heads to court September 21 and says that although his number of stops and arrests of black people far exceeds the rest of the department, he was not profiling when […]
The University of Virginia has chosen James E. Ryan, a UVA law school graduate and faculty member for 15 years, and the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, as its ninth president, succeeding Teresa Sullivan in fall 2018. Ryan addressed the Board of Visitors and the university community in front of the Rotunda this […]
After City Council’s chaotic August 21 meeting where outraged attendees commandeered the meeting to vent about the deadly Unite the Right hate fest, many have suggested that trying to immediately conduct business as usual probably wasn’t the best idea, and that a wounded citizenry needed a chance to vent its hurt, anger and frustration. At […]
The battle over Charlottesville City Council’s vote to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee continued in a packed courtroom September 1, with the lines pretty clearly drawn between statue supporters and those who want Lee to make a final retreat. The hearing was to argue the city’s demurrer, which alleges that even if […]
One year after the arrest of former UVA film studies professor Walter Korte for the possession of child pornography sent the local cinephile community reeling, he appeared in court August 8 ready to enter a plea—and the judge asked for more information before okaying the agreement. During his 46-year-career, Korte, 73, advised the fledgling […]
Charlottesville City Council now has a mayor on restriction. Council is made up of five elected equals, with the mayor playing a largely symbolic role, and that was a lesson Mayor Mike Signer appears to have forgotten. On August 30, his fellow councilors held a three-hour closed door meeting to discuss the “performance and discipline […]
Usually it’s hard to squeeze personnel matters discussed in closed session out of city councilors. That’s why the August 25 leaking of a confidential Mayor Mike Signer-written memo to City Manager Maurice Jones demanding explanations of the events leading up to the August 12 hate rally was such a shocker—as was Jones firing back a […]