4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Least pastoral: Former Peace Lutheran Church associate pastor Gregory M. Briehl is arrested July 18 in his Earlysville home and charged with 20 felony counts of possession of child porn and two misdemeanor counts of videotaping women without their consent.
Worst trend: Greene County resident Robert Daniel McGhee, 27, also is arrested July 18 in an Earlysville home and charged with 10 counts of producing child pornography, allegedly between June 2003 and February 2006, NBC29 reports.
Worst Wite-Outing: Former Greene County administrator Julius Lee Morris is found guilty July 25 of changing the site plan for Trailer Town USA, a property he owns off U.S. 29. Altering public records as a public official carries penalties of up to two years in jail and a $5,000 fine. (Morris contended he was merely making the plans accurate.)
Briefest escape: Cortez Orlando Dade takes off from an Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail work-release detail July 19, but is arrested 30 minutes later, according to the Daily Progress. Dade, 30, had four months left on his sentence when he made his break.
Best escape: The 15-year-old Waynesboro boy formerly jailed with a child molester has been returned to juvenile detention, Liesel Nowak reports in the DP. The teen was convicted of drawing a gun on an acquaintance during a robbery.
Worst pizza delivery: Three to five hungry thieves attack a Domino's driver July 21 at the 900 block of Manchester Court and abscond with pies and cash.
Most desecrated: Riverview Cemetery is the scene of a party, employees discover when they arrive at work July 18 and find beer bottles, cigarette butts, and three knocked-over tombstones. NBC29 has the story.
Worst cyber-stalking: Richard Allen Reid, 25, accused of stalking a former high school classmate, now a UVA student, goes to the grand jury. He was arrested last month for making death threats and for misdemeanor stalking and using a computer to harass. WCAV reports police found an AK-47 in his Hampton home.
Biggest bust: State and local authorities seize 4,400 marijuana plants in Southern Albemarle on July 24. Gary Beck of Scottsville is charged with manufacture of the 1- to 9-foot plants, valued at $4.8 million.
Most indictments: Six Charlottesville men are charged with conspiring to distribute crack cocaine as far back as January 2000, according to another Nowak article. Ira Scott Morris, 35, Anthony Scott Quick, 40, David Allen Morris, 28, Leo Thomas Herring Jr., 37, Ernest Wayne Deane, 25, and Leslie Wayne Johnson, 38, have pleaded not guilty.
Least explosive: Northwoods Mobile Village resident Charles Turner, 47, claims to have a bomb in his trailer July 24. Police evacuate the neighborhood and take Turner into custody, but find no bombs.
Ninth most IT savvy: For the fourth year in a row, Albemarle County makes the list of the top 10 most technologically advanced county governments in the nation, according to the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties.
Most dubious mention in Vanity Fair: Donna Somerville, the Orange County woman acquitted in the first-degree murder of her husband, Hamilton Somerville Jr., and the subject of a May 2003 VF story, "The Widow on the Hill," earns a postscript in the August issue. Hamilton Somerville's daughters are pursuing a $15 million wrongful death lawsuit against the widow, who still lives at Mt. Athos.
Best places to live: Columbia, Maryland, and Cary, North Carolina– but not Charlottesville, according to this year's Money magazine list of the top 90 small cities. Whew.
Best find: First issues of the Hook in excellent condition are available on Craigslist as "collectibles." Yeah, we laughed too.
#