4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Worst backfire on a Good Samaritan: Marilyn Baker, 62, is struck in the head with a child's scooter while trying to break up a fight outside her home in Orange July 4 and dies early the next day, Rob Seal reports in the Daily Progress. Charles Washington, who sometimes helped Baker with chores, is charged with first-degree murder.
Luckiest booze-buying adult: Alisha Stewart, 24, former Western Albemarle softball coach, pleads guilty July 9 to contributing to the delinquency of a minor for buying vodka for one of her players, who showed up drunk at school, vomited, and blew a 0.19, according to Liesel Nowak's account in the Progress. Judge Dwight "Eight Years" Johnson, who sentenced George Robinson and Elisa Kelly to eight years in jail in 2003 for an alcohol-related offense, gives Stewart a three-month suspended sentence.
Biggest bust: Police break up a parents-out-of-town Fourth of July party at 3510 Meriwether Hill Lane and arrest 25 teens for underage drinking.
Biggest irony: Fifteen of the teens are 18 and charged as adults, but the charge is still illegal underage drinking.
Biggest burglary bust: A DNA cold hit leads police to Zachary Austin Eustace, 20, whose blood was found at a January 16 break-in at the Rocky Top Gym, according to a release. Eustace is charged with nine counts of breaking and entering, including Arlington Hair Studio, Vision Works, and Ben and Jerry's– twice.
Most improved performance: Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force takes 48 grams– an estimated $4,800– of cocaine, a small amount of marijuana, and two handguns off the streets, it announces in a press release. Larnie Alton Minor of Rockville, Maryland, a fugitive, and Antonio Rodriguez Minor are charged. In March, JADE trumpeted the seizure of six grams of coke with an estimated street value of $600.
Worst news for the UVA golf team: Player Daniel Georgis Kefale, 20, is arrested on Wertland Street July 9 and charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute.
Worst doctor/patient relations: A man believed to be a former patient of a 29-year-old doctor attacks the physician early July 1 in the 200 block of Water Street near Club 216, the DP reports. The attacker was with several other men who assaulted friends of the doctor when they tried to intervene. No one required hospitalization.
Latest proposed new YMCA location: McIntire Park, according to a Seth Rosen story in the DP. In 2005, the Y explored locating on the PVCC campus.
Most familiar refrain: As it did in the discussion over funding the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority and its current budget deficit, the City Council discussion about ponying up $2 million for the YMCA– the same amount as Albemarle County's contribution to the $14-million facility– has councilors complaining whether the county is shouldering its fair share.
Latest Gail "for Rail" Parker effort: The 2006 U.S. Senate candidate with the catchy slogan sets her sights on the National Green Party U.S. presidential nomination, running once again on a high-speed rail platform.
Best spitter: Joshua Koolik, 5, takes the watermelon-seed spitting championship July 4 at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, the News Virginian reports.
Best way to get tickets to the Virginia Tech game: Donate at least $6,200 to the Virginia Athletics Foundation– and you should have done that by July 2. Tickets will not go on sale to the public.
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