News

The 15-year-old Albemarle County High School student found guilty of plotting with three other teens to use explosives on two area high schools has been allowed by an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge to return home to his family. Reached for comment, neither the teen\’s mother, nor his lawyer, David Bruns, would comment on why the court decided that the 15-year-old could—or should—go home, because the case remains closed to the public. The teen\’s mother did say that her son is home permanently, and that she and her husband have plans to home-school him. She says that he needs to catch up on the last quarter of 10th grade since he\’s fallen behind due to his legal woes. He will have the summer off and then, his mother says, will continue his 11th grade studies at home in the fall. She also says that, “He\’s doing great. He\’s doing very well,” and that both she and her husband are pleased with the outcome.

After two weeks of testimony in federal court, a jury came back with a guilty verdict for Louis Antonio Bryant on Monday morning, May 22. The ringleader of the Charlottesville gang the Westside Crew, otherwise known as Project Crud, was found guilty of racketeering and one count of attempted murder. He faces life in prison.

The 17 students who took over UVA\’s Madison Hall for four days in April are off the hook on their trespassing charges. On Monday, May 23, Judge Robert Downer in Charlottesville General District Court dismissed the charges against all the students. He said that because UVA Chief Financial Officer Leonard Sandridge had told the students that they had five minutes to vacate the building, and yet UVA police began arresting students before that five minutes was up, that the case had to be dismissed on lack of grounds. The judge also said that the University had been sending mixed messages to the students, by agreeing to have a dialogue with them, then having them arrested.

What you do with the other guy\’s recruits never matters as much as what you do with your own. UVA head basketball coach Dave Leitao won a berth in the National Invitational Tournament in his first season, but that won\’t satisfy UVA fans (and administrators) when the Cavs are playing in the swanky John Paul Jones Arena next year.

When William Harvey arrived at UVA in November, the campus was still in full boil over a series of racial incidents—epithets yelled from a passing car, racial slurs anonymously scrawled on dry erase boards.

Last week UVA entered the ACC baseball tournament ranked No. 5 in the nation, capping UVA\’s best season in years. UVA finished the regular season with a 46-11 record (21-9 in the ACC) and the team hopes to appear in the College World Series to be held next month in Omaha.
Observers credit UVA\’s ascendency to head coach Brian O\’Connor, who inherited a mediocre team with a 29-25 record when he took over in 2004.

Despite controversy heading into last Saturday’s Democratic nominating convention for the Fifth District that includes Charlottesville, as expected Nelson County farmer Al Weed won the honor of again challenging Republican incumbent Virgil Goode for his congressional seat.
Earlier this spring, each locality in the Fifth District held a caucus, during which party faithful elected delegates to represent them in a primary. After the caucuses, Weed emerged with the most delegates. However, the race was contested up to the end because Weed’s opponent, Bern Ewert, kept his hopes alive by challenging delegates to renege on their pledge and switch their votes from Weed to Ewert.

Do you get mad when you find a $25 parking ticket stuck under your windshield wiper? Then imagine CBS\’ reaction on March 15 when the Federal Communications Commission fined it a record $3.6 million for airing “indecent” material in an episode of “Without a Trace.” The network, along with Fox (which was also penalized for a separate incident), fired back by filing suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.