Category: Caroline County

For those that are curious: Recalling elected officials in Virginia.

I did a little research (called a Google search in these parts), and I answered my own question from a previous post. First, we don’t have recall elections in this state, but recall trials (seriously). Consult Va. Code § 24.2-233:

Upon petition, a circuit court may remove from office any elected officer or officer who has been appointed to fill an elective office, residing within the jurisdiction of the court:

1. For neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties when that neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office, or

2. Upon conviction of a misdemeanor pursuant to Article 1 (§ 18.2-247 et seq.) or Article 1.1 (§ 18.2-265.1 et seq.) of Chapter 7 of Title 18.2 and after all rights of appeal have terminated involving the:

a. Manufacture, sale, gift, distribution, or possession with intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute a controlled substance or marijuana, or

b. Sale, possession with intent to sell, or placing an advertisement for the purpose of selling drug paraphernalia, or

c. Possession of any controlled substance or marijuana, and such conviction under a, b, or c has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of such office, or

3. Upon conviction, and after all rights of appeal have terminated, of a misdemeanor involving a “hate crime” as that term is defined in § 52-8.5 when the conviction has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of such office.

The petition must be signed by a number of registered voters who reside within the jurisdiction of the officer equal to ten percent of the total number of votes cast at the last election for the office that the officer holds.

Any person removed from office under the provisions of subdivision 2 or 3 may not be subsequently subject to the provisions of this section for the same criminal offense.

Va. Code § 24.2-235 deals with procedure; § 24.2-236 allows for suspension of the official pending the hearing and any appeals; § 24.2-237 deals with who will represent the Commonwealth during the hearing; and lastly, § 24.2-238 deals with the costs associated with the petition.

Clyde Davenport to be stuck in perpetual criminal justice limbo for the rest of his life?

The Free Lance–Star:

A former Caroline County deputy was re-indicted this week on allegations that he feloniously abused a child.

Clyde Charles Davenport, 49, of Ashland, was indicted in Caroline County Circuit Court Wednesday on charges of child abuse, child abuse resulting in serious injury and malicious bodily injury.

According to Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer, the charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred between January 2005 and December 2006.

Davenport had been indicted in Caroline County last summer on five counts of forcible sodomy of a child under 13. The indictment followed a state police investigation.

But those charges were recently dropped by Spencer in order to present the new charges.

“We felt that it was appropriate to nolle prosse the old charges first,” Spencer said.

So, Spencer has harassed a man for over a year (since July 2008) on charges that he sexually abused his daughter a youth and since that’s apparently bullshit and couldn’t be proved, Spencer has had to resort to this?

And which of the charges presented are more serious? I would consider the five counts of forcible sodomy to be more serious. If I’m not mistaken, they carry a sentence of up to life in prison for each count. And it took over a year for him to figure out the sexual abuse charges were bullshit and/or couldn’t be proven? If he couldn’t prove those charges, how the hell does he plan on proving these?

And how many years will it take for this case to be nolle prossed? One year, two, maybe three?

And does anyone know if you recall constitutional officers in Virginia?

Something I missed: All charges against Clyde Davenport dropped.

Clyde Davenport was charged with five counts of forcible sodomy back in July 2008. All charges were dropped on September 30th.

Sound familiar?

I asked regarding a different case and I’ll ask again: “Which office does he go to to get his reputation back?”

The Orwellian newspeak approach to whether we have gangs in Caroline County or not.

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.

Man convicted for 1992 Caroline County murder to get new sentencing hearing.

From Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s blog:

In another criminal case, the court said reducing a sentence to the statutory maximum isn’t enough to cure an order sentencing a defendant to a term that exceeded the maximum penalty.

The defendant [Jerome K. Rawls] was convicted of second-degree murder in 1996 for a 1992 offense, just before the maximum penalty for the crime was increased from 20 years to 40. The jury recommended 25 years, and the trial judge imposed it because neither the prosecution nor the defense caught the error.

Years later, the defendant contended that the sentencing order was void. The trial judge attempted to fix the problem by reducing the sentence to the statutory maximum.

Not good enough, the Supreme Court ruled today and said the defendant is entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

But wait a second, I thought we didn’t have any gangs in Caroline County!

Supposedly, we only have these different “groups” that commit crimes (or “wannabes” if you talk to the High Sheriff). But that goes out of  the window when you want to throw some dumb kid in prison for a couple years (The Free Lance–Star):

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 some expert testimony there too:

Heinbaugh’s mother, Melissa, testified that her son was diagnosed as bipolar, and his destructive behavior began as a result of her nasty divorce from his father. She also testified that she and her daughter have the same tattoo that Heinbaugh has as a symbol of their family’s strength. She said it means “Stay up.”

Caroline County schools make adequate yearly progress (AYP); Caroline Middle School still conditionally accredited.

According to Department of Education data compiled by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Lewis & Clark Elementary School doesn’t have an accreditation status according to RT-D‘s data. I’m guessing that’s because the school hasn’t been opened long enough for the state to make an accreditation decision. I think the state has to have three years worth of data before they’ll make a decision.

More gang graffiti in Port Royal: “Duece” strikes again.

I got this picture via the series of tubes from my brother (shameless plug: check out his own two hate-blogs, On The Right and Orange, VA Independence Day Tea Party). It was taken yesterday, you can see in the background Shiloh Baptist Church and its cemetery:

IMG00105

Not cross-posted at any other blog for once.

Gangs? I thought we only had “wannabes” here in Caroline County, along with some other thoughts on gang denial.

Does anyone remember the Caroline County constitutional officers debate back in 2007 at the Bowling Green Town Hall? Perhaps when the question of gangs and gang crime came up to the candidates for Sheriff? Tony Lippa stated that we only had “wannabes” in the county.

Here are some pictures that were taken of graffiti found in Port Royal in mid-July (photo credit: My brother, Garrett Watson; shameless plug: check out his own two hate-blogs, On The Right and Orange, VA Independence Day Tea Party):

Here’s some information about the graffiti from my brother as well:

This is the second time there has been gang graffiti in Port Royal, about 2 years ago there was Bloods graffiti in the trailer park in the western end of the town. Now this is on the town square. […] The graffiti is at the intersection of King and Middle street in Port Royal.

Judging as far as the graffiti goes, it is from the Traveling Vice Lords, or TVLN, TVL, a gang unified under the People Nation. The gang started in Chicago. They are united with Bloods and the United Blood Nation on the east cost. The heart symbol in the graffiti is a Vice Lord symbol, the upside down 3 pointed pitchfork is a disrespecting symbol to the Folk Nation, the rival to the People Nation, Vice Lords, and Bloods in the area. The name “duece” is most likely a street name of the writer of the graffiti or could be another Vice Lord clique that the TVL are affiliated with. If the “duece” is the gang members street name, the 2 under the two hearts means he is a 2 star Lieutenant within the gang.

He sent that information to several people in the Sheriff’s Office and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and never got a response. So much for that ‘community policing’ the Sheriff’s Office is supposed to pride themselves on. Thankfully, at least the property owner, or someone else, had painted over the graffiti by the next day.

And it get even funnier when you read Portsia Smith’s “Caroline Crossroads” blog, where she notes the events for last night’s National Night Out:

Ladysmith Neighborhood Watch, the Attorney General’s Office and the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office will host “National Night Out” August 4 at the Ladysmith Village Residents Club starting at 5:30 PM.

At 6:30 PM the Attorney General’s Office will discuss gang prevention, and screen an award-winning educational video, The Wrong Family-Virginia Fights Back Against Gangs.

Wait a second, I thought we only had “wannabes”! So, do we have gangs or a gang problem or not in this county? And where do I go to get a straight answer to that question?

Then we have someone else involved in the criminal justice system in Caroline County — who shall remain nameless — that says we don’t have gangs, we have “different groups” which commit crimes.

That’s right, different groups. That commit crimes. Let’s review the definition of a “criminal street gang” in Va. Code § 18.2-46.1:

“Criminal street gang” means any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, (i) which has as one of its primary objectives or activities the commission of one or more criminal activities; (ii) which has an identifiable name or identifying sign or symbol; and (iii) whose members individually or collectively have engaged in the commission of, attempt to commit, conspiracy to commit, or solicitation of two or more predicate criminal acts, at least one of which is an act of violence, provided such acts were not part of a common act or transaction.

What constitutes a “predicate criminal act” and an “act of violence” are also defined in the same section.

Looks like these “different groups” that go around committing crimes are pretty close to the definition of a “criminal street gang”, if they don’t meet the requirements already.

Other sections of the Code of Virginia provide for increased punishment for crimes that are committed to the benefit of the gang, such as recruitment, as well as for gang activity in school zones, and provides for civil asset forfeiture for the proceeds of gang crimes.

But this problem isn’t restricted to just Caroline County. A couple of years ago, a Virginia State Trooper who worked in Fredericksburg stated to a room with 30 people in it, “Fredericksburg does not have a gang problem, it has a gang presence.” To which anyone with a brain or a sarcastic bone in their body would think: Isn’t the presence a problem? (The Trooper also stated that there was no gang graffiti in the city, and any vandalism that you saw was the work of “taggers”. Um, yeah, sure.)

To demonstrate how absurd that comment is, think about this: Would anyone state the following?

“We don’t have a mafia problem, we have a mafia presence.”

“We don’t have a serial-killer problem, we have a serial-killer presence.”

“We don’t have a terrorist problem, we have a terrorist presence.”

Heck no. And if anyone stated that privately — much less publicly — they would be kicked out of their organization faster than you can say “gang problem”. But that doesn’t happen in this case, of course, because the Trooper is just repeating the company line.

One thing I want to make clear, however,  is that I’m not advocating for a ‘moral panic’ liked what happened in Las Vegas and Nevada from the late ’80s to the early ’90s. (If you want to learn more about that, read The Political and Organizational Response to Gangs: An Examination of a “Moral Panic” in Nevada [PDF] by Richard C. McCorkle and Terance D. Miethe.)

The problem here is that people in the government — state or local — refuse to acknowledge and accept the reality of the situation. And while gangs may commit the same types of crimes that individuals do, there are support systems, tools (some of which I outlined above), and strategies that can used specifically against them. If the police and prosecutors in the area refuse to acknowledge the existence of gangs in their jurisdictions, those support systems, tools, and strategies are useless.

There’s also another possibility: The police and prosecutors know full-well that there are gangs and/or a gang problem in their jurisdictions and they just choose to lie to the public while simultaneously refusing to use those support systems, tools, and strategies.

Someone tell me which option is worse: Willful ignorance or lying to citizens?

Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.