Tsaye Lemar Simpson was found not guilty on May 29 on all counts relating to the October 2013 death of UVA dining staff coworker Jarvis Brown. Simpson, 23, had been charged with first-degree murder and three weapons charges for shooting and killing Brown, 22, with a shotgun in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. After Simpson’s defense […]
Tsaye Lemar Simpson was found not guilty on May 29 on all counts relating to the October 2013 death of UVA dining staff coworker Jarvis Brown. Simpson, 23, had been charged with first-degree murder and three weapons charges for shooting and killing Brown, 22, with a shotgun in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. After Simpson’s defense […]
In the wake of multiple tragedies involving sexual violence over the past nine months, Virginia lawmakers passed three bills on campus assault prevention and response policies that Governor Terry McAuliffe signed into law May 28. HB 1785, introduced by Delegate Jimmie Massie (R-Henrico), mandates that campus police notify the local commonwealth’s attorney of a victim-initiated […]
At a scheduled May 28 court hearing, the prosecution asked for more time to review the Virginia State Police investigation into the bloody March 18 arrest by Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control agents of 20-year-old UVA student Martese Johnson. Prosecutors said in a motion that a final meeting with state police is set for the first week […]
There have been, in the history of this column, a grand total of three all-timers. The first was U.S. Representative Virgil Goode—a genial doofus with a white-cloud coiffure and career-long propensity for grandly offensive pronouncements. The second was good ol’ George “Macaca” Allen, former governor, one-term U.S. senator and presidential aspirant, whose awesome display of […]
In the past year, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo stood in front of the national media scrum multiple times to deal with a horrific murder and a searing rape allegation, while nationwide people were protesting fatal police encounters with black men. Then came the arrest of Martese Johnson by Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control agents on […]
A former federal prosecutor has filed to run as a Republican in the Albemarle race for commonwealth’s attorney against two-term incumbent Denise Lunsford, the Democratic nominee. Robert Tracci, 43, served as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Department of Justice in Charlottesville. He worked as a deputy assistant attorney at the U.S. Department of […]
The man who successfully sued Charlottesville over a panhandling law has now filed suit on behalf of the Public Housing Association of Residents and the local branch of the NAACP. Attorney Jeff Fogel said at a May 21 press conference that Charlottesville police denied his Freedom of Information Act request to see narratives of stops and […]
The abrupt departure of the staffer in charge of implementing Charlottesville’s 2-year-old civil rights ordinance has set the volunteer Human Rights Commission (HRC) that worked with her office on the defensive, but some involved with the creation and oversight of the city’s anti-discrimination efforts say there’s reason to be optimistic. Zan Tewksbury resigned from her […]
The trial for the accused murderers of Waynesboro reserve police officer Kevin Quick was already one for the record books when it began May 4: Six defendants, 10 defense attorneys, three prosecutors, a jury panel of 134 and six weeks set aside for arguments in front of the Honorable Glen E. Conrad, chief U.S. District […]
Liz Herlevsen and Ken Ward agree on one thing: When he passed her on her bike on Craigs Store Road, he came really close. From there, their stories diverge—and highlight the challenges for bikers and for drivers on Albemarle’s most rural roads. Herlevsen, who describes herself as an “intense” biker who goes out three to […]