This is from a story in today’s edition of The Free Lance–Star:
Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer talked about how decisions have consequences and discussed cases he has prosecuted in the county.
The sheriff and prosecutor say they don’t think the county has any real gangs, but they have seen “gang-like” activity in Caroline.
This is absolutely amazing. A couple weeks ago, Spencer wanted to put someone in a real prison for a real amount of time because Spencer alleged that a 16-year-old was a real gang member:
Ricky Alan Heinbaugh Jr. will stay locked up in a juvenile facility until he is at least 18 years old.
[…]
Judge Horace A. Revercomb III sentenced him yesterday to an active sentence of 2 years. But because he is 16, he is allowed to serve the time in a juvenile facility. After two years, Revercomb said, his behavior will be reviewed.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer argued that Heinbaugh’s criminal history and destructive behavior make him a danger to Caroline County. He had a gang expert critique Heinbaugh’s MySpace page, which the expert said had signs of possible gang affiliation to the Bloods street gang, such as tattoos and mannerisms.
And when Spencer was accused of intimidating witnesses who were subpoenaed to testify against Lashawn Monroe, Spencer said that they were really lying and all members of a real gang:
Spencer argued that the seven witnesses called at the hearing had a motive for wanting to speak out against him: They were all in some way friends or relatives of Monroe and had been reluctant to testify from the start.
He added that many of them are members of the same gang.
“This is an effort by a criminal street gang to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings here,” he said.
Christ, I heard less BS when Latney was the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
And while I disagree with Supervisor Floyd Thomas quite often, he had some great pearls of wisdom at the community meeting:
Supervisor Floyd Thomas pulled $50 out of his pocket to add to the prizes being given away that night. He challenged all of the students to appreciate life.
He talked about how precious life is to him after overcoming cancer two years ago. “To see kids fight over something that doesn’t matter, it just hurts me,” he said.
While shopping for a home in Caroline a little over a year ago, one house my wife and I found for sale (via internet) and added to our list of homes to visit was in Thornburg. As we drove up to the house to see it, we were struck by the graffiti spray-painted on the side of this foreclosed and abandoned home. It was very similar to some of the “tags” I encountered while working with anti-gang law enforcement efforts a few years back.
We decided not to bother going in…
John,
Oh, but you should have bought that house!Tony Lippa and Spencer don’t think we have a gang problem.Gosh, I would believe every piece of crap they say!! rofl.