Lyn Balfour considers an appeal after a judge denies her request to expunge her record.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Raelyn Balfour, the mother whose infant son died when she left him in the car while she went to work at the Judge Advocate General’s School, was back in the same court today where she was acquitted by a jury of involuntary manslaughter in January to ask that her record be expunged.

Balfour’s criminal history with the Virginia State Police shows that she was charged with second-degree murder and criminal neglect in the March 30, 2007, death of nine-month-old Bryce, her attorney, Dana Slater, told the court, although she was ultimately prosecuted for— and acquitted of— involuntary manslaughter.

With jurors voting to acquit after just 90 minutes and at least two of them alleging afterward that tax dollars were wasted putting Balfour on trial, her attorney alleged (more)

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The wife of Augusta County Sheriff Randy Fisher smelled smoke before the smoke detector sounded during a September 22 fire at the couple’s residence, according to Mike Fisher, Chief of the Dooms Volunteer Fire Company in Augusta.

At around 12:30am, Mrs. Fisher was awakened by the smell of smoke. She “went down the hallway to the kitchen thinking neighbors were burning something,” says Chief Fisher (no relation to the Sheriff). “When she came back up the hall to the bedroom, the smoke detector sounded. Her husband was working downstairs, and she yelled for him to come back upstairs.”

The Fishers escaped from the house with their two dogs, but by the time firefighters responded, the flames had spread from the attic– where an electrical fire likely started, according to Chief Fisher– into the main living area.

In most Augusta County fire investigations, fire officials determine the type of detector present, says Chief Fisher. The detector at Sheriff Fisher’s home was completely destroyed, says Chief Fisher, so identifying whether it was photoelectric or ionization was impossible. Chief Fisher says he didn’t see any other smoke detectors present in the house.

Sheriff Fisher has not returned the Hook’s repeated calls.

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Can’t get right indeed! Wrecker driver Chris Hening, who rear-ended a Hook reporter’s car today.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Here at the Hook we’re not big believers in karma, but when a Cavalier Wrecker truck, formerly Lethal Wrecker, rear-ends the car of a Hook reporter, we have to wonder. Over the years, the newsroom has reported on the towing company numerous times, including when they overcharged and when their drivers have been repeatedly indicted for reckless driving. (For a collection of Lethal Wrecker stories, click here.) Not surprisingly, the company changed its name to Cavalier Wrecker last year, though the owner of the wrecker in today’s accident was listed as Lethal Wrecker in the police accident report.

Fortunately, Hook reporter Lindsay Barnes and the two other drivers involved were uninjured at the time of the accident, though a two-month-old baby in one of the cars required some observation by paramedics on the scene.

According to Barnes, he was driving along Emmet Street South, right in front of the UVA tennis courts, when he slowed down for traffic. Suddenly, Cavalier Wrecker driver Chris Hening rear-ended him with enough force to (more)

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Logan Blanco was struck in a crosswalk by a turning vehicle in the pre-dawn hours of September 12.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

A pedestrian was struck by a car on the south side of the Belmont Bridge just before noon today, and on September 12, a pedestrian was struck at Ninth and Jefferson on the north side of the bridge.

This morning’s accident occurred at the corner of Graves and Avon streets near Spudnuts donut shop. According to city spokesperson Ric Barrick, the pedestrian, whose identity has not been released, “stepped off the curb into the street— not into a crosswalk— and the driver was not able to react in time.”

According to Barrick, the first officer on the scene interviewed the driver, the pedestrian, and witnesses, before deciding a ticket for the driver was not warranted. And unlike an incident in November 2007 in which a wheelchair-bound pedestrian was ticketed after being struck in a crosswalk, this time police decided not to pursue charges against the injured pedestrian, who was transported to UVA hospital. Barrick says there were no serious injuries.

In an incident on Friday, September 12, a woman out walking her dog was struck just after 6am as she crossed Ninth Street heading west on Jefferson Street. Driver James E. Shifflett was turning left onto Ninth Street from Jefferson St. and struck 59-year-old Logan Blanco. Both are residents of the Little High Street Neighborhood.

“It seemed to lift me up a little; I felt very rag doll-ish,” (more)

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Although early reports suggested that there could have been two fatalities in this morning’s blaze at 3200 Long Acre Road in Fluvanna County, Fluvanna fire officials now say the residents were not home at the time of the fire.

“They were on their way to North Carolina,” says Fluvanna Volunteer Fire Chief Mike Brent, who was still on the scene today at 10am as smoke continued to rise from the structure’s charred remains, and investigators from Virginia State Police and Fluvanna County Sheriff’s Department picked through the detritus. Authorities initially announced plans to use cadaver sniffing dogs to search for victims, but a public plea for information about the whereabouts of the residents on this morning’s local television news resulted in a phone call from a friend who gave firefighters the good news.

Now, investigators are “trying to eliminate any possibility that it was intentionally set,” Brent says. The cause remains a mystery, but what is known is that by the time a neighbor called 911 at 1:45am today, says Brent, the two-story wood-sided house (more)

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Reyn Snelling alleges the door to Miller’s was unlocked.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Her late-night arrest inside Charlottesville’s venerable jazz bar and restaurant provoked the Hook to name Reyn Louise Snelling the “most dedicated Miller’s patron.” The 46-year-old UC Berkeley grad, however, says the events the night of May 25 are no laughing matter, and there’s a perfectly good explanation for why police found her inside the downtown restaurant and bar about three hours after closing time.

“The door was open,” says Snelling, “and I went inside.”

For Snelling, what followed turned into nightmare and she was charged with what she says is someone else’s crime. And because she’d just had a tiff with her boyfriend, there was nobody to post her $250 bail, so she remained in jail for eight days, including her birthday.

The police report for May 25, which her attorney copied at the Charlottesville Commonwealth Attorney’s office, indicates that Officer G.E. Wade responded to an alarm activation at Miller’s at 4:42am. After a manager arrived to unlock the front door, the officer found evidence of a crime.

Police spotted a broken window in a door on the third floor, another broken window in a second-floor bathroom, and drops of what appeared to be blood around the cash register drawer. Police seized the drawer and a carton of cigarettes for forensic testing.

Snelling says she’s looking forward to the results of such tests because they’ll exonerate her. Police say results have not come back from the state lab. (more)

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Nervous residents around Meade Park can breathe easier three days after the Daily Progress reported that a loose pit bull had attacked a woman walking on Fairway Avenue on Sunday. She was bitten, it seems, just not randomly.

“It was a false report,” says Charlottesville Animal Control Officer Bobby Durrer. “It was her own dog.”

According to Durrer, the woman, who reportedly suffered minor injuries and had said she would be receiving rabies shots, called him yesterday after she saw the story in the Progress to tell the truth. Durrer says there’s no record that her dog, a pit bull, has ever bitten anyone else. Durrer also believes it’s up-to-date on its vaccines. However, the woman, Durrer says, does have a history of allowing it to roam.

Durrer says he spent time looking for the dog up and down Fairway and Caroline avenues following the incident. Now, he says, the dog’s owner could be charged with filing a false report.

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A Greene County man suing his homeowners association under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act says his property was vandalized on the eve of his June 23 court date. Police contend the damage was accidental, caused by volunteer firefighters who got stuck on Douglas Dye’s Dogwood Valley property.

Dye (left) was returning home around 8pm June 14 when he met two Greene County trucks going around a blind curve “excessively fast,” he says. “I had a bad feeling. It puzzled me.” When he got to his gate, “I saw mud coming out onto the county road.”

He found the land around his pond rutted and gouged. An emergency spill pipe coming from the dam had been run over and damaged, causing seepage and, he says, threatening the dam. (more)

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PHOTO BY LAURA HOFFMAN

Portions of Water and Market streets were closed this morning after a delivery truck backing up outside the C&O restaurant hit a pole and snagged an electrical wire, according to Charlottesville Battalion Police Chief David Hartman.

While Water Street was temporarily closed from 4th Street SE to 10th and Market, C&O employee Michael Volpendesta said the restaurant never lost power.

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More than two weeks after a stolen Geo fleeing Louisa County deputies crashed and burned May 26 just inside Albemarle County, police announce today that the deceased driver was Quentin Aaron Lewis, 17, from Mechanicsville, Maryland. The 1993 teal Geo Metro was a farm vehicle in Caroline County that did not have plates, and through the vehicle identification number, police discovered it had been reported stolen the morning of the crash. Lewis’ body was so severely burned that identifying him required the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office to work with multiple jurisdictions. His mother, Brandi Barton, says he has been missing since May 25 and he was a junior at Chopticon High School.

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One person was taken away by the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad after this approximately 8:25am wreck today west of town on Ivy Road in front of the Volvo dealership. Three eastbound vehicles were involved, with a black Honda Pilot getting sandwiched between a bronze Honda Odyssey in front and a dark blue Ford F-250 pickup behind.

Moments after the accident, as toward-town commuter traffic slowed, a second collision, this one involving just two cars, occurred a few hundred yards west of the first. Albemarle Police officer Hutchinson (seen in photo) said he was too busy to immediately answer questions.

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6:50am: The Miller School has now closed for the day.

6:30am update: All lanes on I-64 have reportedly reopened.

6:22am update: Albemarle schools and the Miller School are reportedly on a two-hour delay because of the Afton situation.

5:38am update– It’s a shooting! Four vehicles were hit by gunfire, according to an online story in the News Virginian in Waynesboro. Two people were injured, but their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, according to the newspaper.***

I-64 slammed shut to W’boro (original 5:31am headline)

Traffic is backed up for miles this morning as both directions of Interstate 64 have been closed all the way from Charlottesville to Waynesboro.

Highway spokesperson Lou Hatter concedes in a release that authorities don’t know how long the road— shut from Exit 96 in Augusta County to Exit 118 in Albemarle County due to “police activity”— will remain closed.

Hatter says motorists are advised to avoid the area and expect “significant delays” on Route 250 and other nearby highways. Real-time updates can be obtained at www.511Virginia.org.

Hatter’s release didn’t say whether the closure was related to the forest fires currently burning in Augusta County and throwing copious volumes of smoke into the Western reaches of Albemarle.

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