Eighteen-year-old Michael Stuart Pritchett (right) appeared on a video screen yesterday at 12:55pm, five minutes before the capital murder suspect was scheduled to have a hearing. However, the Charlottesville General District Court hadn’t finished the misdemeanor trials of two young adults alleging police overreaction in their arrest.

So after nearly twenty minutes of watching the motionless image of Pritchett on the screen, wearing his striped jail jumpsuit, friends and family members strolled outside to Market Street. His hearing took place quietly and apparently without live input from him or his co-defendant, 22-year-old William Douglas Gentry Jr. (left), in the November 8 murder of Jayne McGowan.

Joining Rhonda Quagliana for Pritchett’s defense is Steve Rosenfield. Joining Lloyd Snook to defend Gentry is Richard Davis. The two suspects preliminary hearing is set for Valentine’s Day, February 14.

Pritchett’s friends and family declined comment, as did the woman who has been described as Gentry’s fianc�e, Jenna Critzer, who, sitting beside her mother near the back of the courtroom, stared down with her chin tucked against her chest.
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This bit of info on realtor Jim Duncan’s blog jumped out at us. In a post about properties that are selling in Charlottesville, he describes a 2,600-plus square foot, 6-bedroom, 4-bath house at 609 Lyons Avenue being listed for $630k in February. $50k was knocked off in March, then it went to another realtor who listed it for $489k. When they finally knocked the price down to $375k— a reduction of $255k!!!— the house sold in seven days.

“Price it right from the beginning,” writes Duncan, citing lessons learned. “If the market says the price is high, reduce it. Beat the market down, don’t chase it.” Then he offers an even harder pill for cash-strapped sellers to swallow: “What you need to make to buy the next house is irrelevant to what your home is worth today.” Ouch!

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For the thousands who missed the annual holiday extravaganza of lights, angels, music, and food in Ruckersville last year, don’t worry: they missed you too.

Last year, the couple who put on the show, Ginny and James Perkins, made the difficult decision not to put up their annual light show because of James Perkins’ health– his cancer had worsened, and they worried about exacerbating his illness.

“We missed it as much as anyone else,” Ginny Perkins says. “I got phone calls and knocks at the door on a daily basis, and I felt very guilty.”

The couple are thrilled to be back in action this holiday season, and are especially looking forward to (more)

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After two months of legal wrangling and two trials today that took a combined five hours (and even delayed a capital murder hearing), the two young adults who alleged that a police officer nearly ran over them in a crosswalk were found not guilty of the misdemeanors of which the allegedly overreacting officer had accused them.

Richard Silva was found not guilty of being drunk in public, and his fianc�e, Blair Austin [seen in the photo at left with her attorney David Heilberg], was found not guilty of obstruction of justice in Charlottesville General District Court. The charges stemmed from an incident at the corner of Second Street SE and Water Street on the night of September 28 in which Charlottesville police officer Mike Flaherty, while responding to another call, came upon the couple crossing the street.

Silva, Austin, and several witnesses testified that Flaherty nearly collided with the couple, and in making his decision on Silva’s case, Judge Bob Downer said he wasn’t able to conclude that Silva was drunk because “there’s no question that Mr. Silva was startled, as anybody would be.”

As for Austin, whom Flaherty acknowledged he “shoved” while arresting Silva, Judge Downer ruled that while “her judgment was poor” in hanging onto her fianc� while Flaherty handcuffed him, he wasn’t confident that “she had the intent to obstruct what the officer was doing.”

“I’m happy about the outcome,” says Silva, “but what saddens me is that if this were an individual who couldn’t afford an attorney, he would have accepted a guilty plea. Thank God I’ve got a good paying job, and thank God for the witnesses.”

Flaherty’s actions seemed to be as much at issue as the couple’s. While nobody quite agreed on (more)

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Darrell David Rice is the convicted attacker once suspected of being both the Route 29 stalker as well and the Shenandoah Park murderer, as detailed in a pair of Hook stories last spring. But he gets a more sympathetic treatment by the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star last week. While the now-free Rice has been reviled by neighbors in his idyllic Maryland island town, the Fredericksburg paper points out that investigators have inexplicably refused to cross-check forensic evidence from four unsolved murders to a known serial child-killer active in Central Virginia in the mid-1990s, Richard Marc Evonitz. Readers can click on a new Rice-friendly site to see a friendly new photo of Rice and get linked to the book-length package published in Fredericksburg.

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Hook reporter Courteney Stuart went into Charlottesville General District Court this morning prepared for the worst, adamant that she would not testify after being subpoenaed as a witness by a prosecutor. Represented by the Rutherford Institute, Stuart filed a motion to quash the subpoena and was ready to argue that it violated her First Amendment, freedom-of-the-press rights. Instead, the Commonwealth and defense attorneys stipulated her article on a misdemeanor drunk-in-public case was accurate, and she was excused as a witness.

“I’m pleased that the situation was taken care of in this one instance,” says Stuart after her ordeal. “I hope in the future that will not happen again.” That, however, is one thing the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office will not guarantee.

“We talked to the Commonwealth and they made it clear if reporters gather evidence they need, they will subpoena reporters,” says Ned Michie (pictured, right), who, along with Doug McKusick, staff attorney with the Rutherford Institute (pictured left, large photo), represented Stuart. “People are going to worry the press are an arm of the police,” says Michie.

Neither attorney recalls members of the media being subpoenaed locally, although they say it is happening across the country and is a problem of national importance. (more)

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Hogwaller’s identity crisis; Police accusers become the accused; Razor wire remains

Plus:
*Who’s moving into the old A&N space on the mall
*A sea of orange and blue at this year’s UVA-Virginia Tech football game
*Why one woman says biofuels are bad for the environment– and for people

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Just months after many an angry Cavalier was calling for his headset, UVA head football coach Al Groh is laughing all the way to both the bank and the trophy case today. Having led his Cavaliers to a 9-3 record overall and a 6-2 record against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, sportswriters voted Groh the ACC Coach of the Year. The award comes on the same day the Associated Press reports that Groh has signed a one-year contract extension that will keep him stalking the sideline at Scott Stadium through the 2011 season.

In a UVA press release, Groh deflects the credit for the accolades. “This is our team trophy this year,” he says. “There have been no individual agendas along the way and that’s required a lot of people to be very selfless along the way.”

Wearing the orange and blue hasn’t always been so comfortable for Groh. After leading his team to a 5-7 record in 2006, many fans had grown nostalgic for the days when predecessor George Welsh could be relied upon to deliver at least seven wins per year (he did so 13 consecutive seasons of his 19-year tenure). Then came the ignominy of being named the “Worst Coach in America” by (more)

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As the public drunkenness trials of Richard Silva and his fianc�e, Blair Austin [photo left], loom large on this week’s Charlottesville court docket, questions persist about what exactly happened the night of September 28 as they made their way from the Downtown Mall to the Water Street parking garage and literally crossed the path of Charlottesville police officer Mike Flaherty.

According to Police Department records from that night, a call went out from the central dispatcher’s office at 12:41am regarding a possible “domestic in progress” at 322 E. Main Street, the building that houses Timberlake’s Drug Store and a few apartments.

“We look at that as two people in an intimate relationship,” says Charlottesville Police spokesperson Lt. David Shifflett. “The dispute could be anything.”

The dispatcher’s report doesn’t specify whether it was a simple argument or full-blown fisticuffs (or a false alarm, as the building owner suspects), but according to police officials, Flaherty was rushing to respond to that call when his marked police SUV came down Second Street SE past the X Lounge. At the foot of the hill, he encountered Silva and Austin crossing the street as he attempted to make the turn onto Water.

“He was going so fast it didn’t look like he was going to stop,” says passerby Treva Smith, who saw the incident from across Second Street. “If he’d gotten there a second sooner, he would have hit them. So [Silva] was trying to cross the street and put a hand out like, ‘Can you give us a chance to cross?’”

While that account matches three others quoted in the original Hook story about the incident, Edwin Banks reports a slightly different version of the events from his vantage point working in the booth at the Water Street parking lot.

“They walked into the street in front of the officer,” says Banks. “They were intoxicated. I see a lot of that down here.”

Smith, who says she had a drink herself two hours earlier, argues that she knows intoxicated people when she sees them, and neither Silva nor Austin fit that description.

“They weren’t drunk or anything,” she says. “Maybe they had some kind of alcohol with dinner, but they weren’t stumbling or making noise.”

As Flaherty was bearing down to make the turn onto Water, and Silva and Austin were scrambling out of the crosswalk to avoid him, Silva spoke the words he now regrets.

“He yelled, (more)

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Today, a Surry County judge set a trial date of April 2 for beleaguered NFL superstar Michael Vick to face charges of animal cruelty and organizing dogfights. On that date, he’ll have two Charlottesvillians to thank– or curse– for creating the laws that could put him behind bars for up to 10 years.

When Carolyn Betts (then Carolyn Foreman) became executive director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals over six years ago, she had already seen her share of abused animals. But she was unprepared for what awaited at her new post.

“We had 40-50 animals dropped off per year who were either torn apart or had old wounds from dogfighting,” she says. “We consider ourselves to be an educated, somewhat affluent area, and I never would have thought this is where you’d find dogfighting.”

The more Betts learned, the more disturbed she became.

“I started working with law enforcement and saw videos of these fights,” she says. “There was a twisted, desensitizing, cult quality to it. I saw the bloodlust these people get and the thrill they get watching these dogs ‘play through the pain’ as these fights went on not just for a couple of minutes, but for hours.”

When she began to work with Delegate Rob Bell (R-Albemarle) on the matter, they found that (more)

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Twenty-two years since last touring with the legendarily flamboyant frontman David Lee Roth, a band known for its over-the-top guitar work has reunited for an international tour that’s coming to Charlottesville. Officials announced this morning that Van Halen will perform on Friday, February 22 at John Paul Jones Arena. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, December 1, at 10am.

The news comes less than three weeks after JPJ hosted another epic band’s reunion tour, although calling this is a reunited Van Halen misses a few details, such as the fact that this is the fifth different lineup in the band’s 30+ year history. And the reunion is not complete, as original bass player Michael Anthony left the group last year and was replaced by guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. However, this tour is the first to feature original frontman Roth since he went solo in 1985.

The tour’s commencement was delayed when Eddie entered rehab in March, forcing (more)

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Parents accustomed to mailing care packages to their sons at Blue Ridge School have been using a different address for the last few years– but who (besides them) knew? Yep, mail that formerly went to the school at Dyke, VA (population ~3050) has been going to St. George, VA since 1999.

Robert Murphy, assistant headmaster for advancement at the all-boys prep school in Greene County, says officials at the school decided to return to the community’s original name in time for the school’s centennial in 2009. But the paperwork moved through the post office faster than expected, and it’s been St. George since 1999– unbeknownst to everyone we know.

The little burg of St. George, which got its name from the school’s patron saint, was one of several along Bacon Hollow Road a hundred years ago, Murphy says, each one with its own post office, usually in a country store. When zip codes arrived, and it was necessary to combine them all in one convenient drop spot, Dyke won because it was situated on Rt. 810, which Murphy calls the “main road.”

People who wonder how an all-boys school survived so long in a town called Dyke– which has become a pejorative term for lesbians– will understand that didn’t seem so bad compared to the previous option.

It turns out, Murphy says, that even before St. George, the care packages went to another post office. Because the school’s original name was Blue Ridge Industrial School, the first post office was called Bris, VA.

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Four years ago, Bland Circle resident Shirley Presley erected a pair of razor wire fences to keep hikers from crossing her brush pile-covered property along the Rivanna River. Today the brush pile is gone, but the razor wire remains, and Presley heads back to court early next year with her $1.5 million lawsuit against the city and the nonprofit that ran its walking trail across her property without permission.

When the Hook last reported on Presley in October 2005, her federal lawsuit had been dismissed in U.S. Western District Court in Charlottesville. Presley and her attorney, Debbie Wyatt, appealed, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld her right to sue Charlottesville and the Rivanna Trails Foundation for violating her rights by effectively seizing part of her property for the trail. The suit will be heard in federal court here January 15, 2008.

Click for a slideshow!

Presley has successfully stymied the city’s efforts to force her to remove the wire. In 2004, Judge Robert H. Downer ruled that City Code as written– forbidding razor wire that “encloses” or “partially encloses” property– doesn’t apply– even though the sharp coils stretch on two sides of her property from the embankment to the Rivanna River bluff. (more)

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The Times of London decried the case as evidence of “the strong puritanical impulse of American society.” Now, on the eve of America’s puritanically inspired holiday, Elisa Kelly and George Robinson are free.

As punishment for serving alcohol at an underage party in 2002, the two went to jail June 11 to begin serving a 27-month sentence, the longest incarceration on record for providing booze to minors. Five months after entering the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, the two were released at 8am November 19.

The Kelly/Robinson case became an international cause c�l��bre when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal that the police search of their backyard was unconstitutional, and it became clear they were headed to jail.

The saga began August 16, 2002, when the Kelly and Robinson, then married, hosted a 16th birthday party for Kelly’s son Ryan, who insisted that he planned to drink. Soccer mom Kelly reasoned that it was safer to have the teens stay at her house if they were going to drink, so she purchased $360 in beer and wine coolers and intended to confiscate car keys. (more)

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At a hearing today in Staunton Circuit Court, the pending obscenity trial of Manassas-based adult video retailer Rick Krial got some legal star power, despite the prosecutor’s attempt to block famed First Amendment lawyer Paul Cambria– most famous for representing Hustler publisher Larry Flynt since he was first brought up on obscenity charges in the ’70s.

Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Robertson argued that since Cambria represents nearly all of the producers of the videos undercover officers purchased at Krial’s store, After Hours Video, Cambria could not provide his client unbiased advice.

“How in the world can the defendant respond to my plea offer, which would require him to testify against his distributors, if the attorney advising him is representing the distributors?” Robertson asked in court.

Cambria responded by stating that (more)

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Five months into their 27-month terms for holding a beer party for underaged teens, the two local parents whose sentences made international news have been released, according to the Charlottesville newsplex. Calls by the Hook to parties associated with the case did not immediately produce confirmation or response. More tomorrow.

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