The Hitler birthday connection
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Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos, on WINA this morning to discuss the alleged bomber case, revealed a key factor in the decision to quickly arrest three youths suspected of conspiring to blow up high schools: “The ringleader was born on Hitler’s 100th anniversary of his birthday”– and the anniversary of Columbine.
The Third Reich founder became a more significant player in this local drama when Camblos mentioned again about the 17-year-old former Western Albemarle student, “Remember, he was born on Hitler’s birthday.”
The Hook discovered that Academy Award-winning actress Jessica Lange also shares that April 20 birthday with Hitler. She lived in Scottsville for over a decade, but was never implicated in a conspiracy to blow up anything.
Camblos defended the quick arrests of three teens: “This was a conspiracy caught in its very early stages.” As for gathering more evidence, for instance having police wiretap the suspects before making arrests, “That’s absurd,” Camblos objected. “The police didn’t want to miss someone who said, ‘I’m going to go down in flames for my compatriots.’”
Albemarle’s top prosecutor seemed chafed that someone on a radio show call-in show had said that everyone in the juvenile court is presumed guilty, and that Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Darby Lowe, who’s prosecuted the alleged conspiracy cases, has taken some heat. “Darby’s a very, very good prosecutor,” said her boss.
Saturday 8/26 update: Local �ber-blogger (oops– did we just use a German word?) Waldo Jaquith has a little fun with Camblos’ own birthday and concludes, with an astrologer’s help, that if the birthdate fits, you must convict!
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I, too was born on 4/20 (meaning long-haired grocery store clerks inevitable say, “Like your birthday, man, heh, heh, heh,”) and have never had the inclination to blow anything up, either. Glad to hear about Jessica Lange, though. NowI have a surefire conversation starter if we meet.
I wondered if anyone else picked up on that implied guilt by association.
Did he deny that the juveniles were presumed guilty and also proclaim those who appealed their cases as “found guilty”?
Did I hear Mr. Camblos say that one absolutely “cannot talk about the closed trial…period” and then talk about it?
I’ve gotta get a podcast of this. My head is spinning.
[...] Whaaa? I’m not quoting anything out of context here: Camblos made a single statement in which he asserted that this kid was a suspect because of the date on which he was born. The Hook picked up on the same bit, pointing out that Jessica Lange was born on the same day. Presumably Mr. Camblos will be having her arrested shortly. [...]
[...] The most interesting news is that most decisions around here are made base on the date of birth. If you share a birthday with Hitler you are in big trouble here in VA. [...]
what a total boob
[...] Prosecutor Jim Camblos must be pleased with that last development, as he had claimed that a “court order” barring discussion had existed back in April when no such order was shown to exist. Three months later, the Hitler-birthdate-wary prosecutor has got one! [...]
[...] Additionally, the initial public discourse about the Tennessee case seems remarkably similar to that of the Albemarle arrests, specifically with regard to the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School. Roger Thomson, a professor of criminal justice told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “It’s Columbine… It taps the nerve of every parent. It needs to be taken seriously.” Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos said last March that his handling of the case was “absolutely colored by Columbine,” and later revealed in an interview on WINA that one reason he took the threats so seriously was that the alleged “ringleader’s” birthday is April 20, the same date as the Columbine shooting. [...]
[...] The father of one of the teens imprisoned last year during the Albemarle school bomb scare plans to testify tomorrow in Richmond in support of a bill that would ensure that all juveniles interrogated without a parent get a video of the session. [...]
[...] The Daily Progress reports this morning that the General Assembly bill supported by the father of one of the teens imprisoned last year during the Albemarle school bomb scare was defeated yesterday. The bill, HB 1693, introduced by Arlington Democrat Al Eisenberg into the House Courts of Justice Committee, would have given all parents what this teen’s parents received in Albemarle (minus the 60 days behind bars, of course): a copy of the videotaped interrogation of their juvenile child. [...]