BY DON BERARD

In October, three alleged cocaine dealers snared by the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force picked up another felony charge for allegedly hawking their wares within one-fifth of a mile of a school. Virginia state law makes it illegal to sell drugs within 1,000 feet of a school— even if the dealer isn’t targeting children as clientele and even if the dealer has no idea the school is there.

Jose Cano, 26, from Woodridge and Jorge Rosales-Garcia, 26, from Fredericksburg were arrested October 20 behind Kohr Brothers Frozen Custard in the Woodbrook Shopping Center, according to Rosales-Garcia’s attorney, Jessica Smith. They were charged with possessing with the intent to distribute 4.5 ounces of cocaine within 1,000 feet of Woodbrook Elementary, a school that is not visible from the parking lot where they were busted.

The two men were in court November 19 for preliminary hearings, and the 1,000-foot charge was dropped for each, although for different reasons.

For Rosales-Garcia, the charge was nol prossed as the result of (more)

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“It was not a 100 percent victory,” says Danielson’s attorney, Connor Crook.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

“The truth is out there,” said the lawyer fighting for a right to re-file the high-profile hotel collusion lawsuit by internet millionaire Halsey Minor against developer Lee Danielson.

“Well, whatever the truth is,” responded Judge Edward Hogshire, “right now it’s just a broad brush of allegations.”

“We need more time to flesh all this out,” explained Minor’s lawyer, Ryan C. Berry. “Give us leave to amend.”

And so the judge did. But in the case of the former colleagues now dueling over development of a posh hotel for the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, this would be Minor’s only victory on Friday, November 20.

Judge Hogshire dismissed most of Minor’s claims including his allegation that (more)

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Mike and Natalia Bost say they can’t afford to pay a $100 water/sewer bill at Autumn Hill apartments.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

When Natalia and Michael Bost moved into Autumn Hill apartments with their new baby in July, they thought the $827 a month rent for a two-bedroom apartment was a pretty good deal— until the day they received a $200 water and sewer bill. Now, they’re among several tenants at the Commonwealth Drive-area complex who think water is being used as a profit center.

“We were told that water, sewer, and trash payments would be made directly to the leasing office and that they would run $30-40 a month,” says Natalia Bost. “In our last apartment, we paid (more)

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Minor and Danielson during happier times at the groundbreaking of the Landmark.
FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

Lawyers for formerly entwined hotel-makers Halsey Minor and Lee Danielson will be in court Friday in a case that puts the troubled Landmark Hotel project back in the spotlight. In a follow-up to a recent story about hotel owner Minor, here is a look at most if not all of the litigation in which Minor has recently been involved.

The Landmark Hotel

Minor v. Danielson & SFG
Filed: February 11, 2009, Charlottesville Circuit Court
Alleging: That Danielson’s company, Hotel Charlottesville LLC, intentionally hid $5.2 million in expenses for such “ordinary and customary” costs as elevators, (more)

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Mike Dillard of UVA’s Facilities Management unclogs a leaf-choked storm drain at 8:50am on University Avenue.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The rush-hour lake on University Avenue didn’t slow everyone down.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

With over five inches having already fallen and more still on the way, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for urban areas and small streams in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

The rainfall slowed rush-hour traffic on University Avenue as a workers with UVA’s Facilities Management pitched in with a rake to unclog a storm drain whose blockage created a temporary lake near the Snyder Tennis Courts on the busy thoroughfare.

According to hourly measurements at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport listed at the Weather Underground, as of 11am Charlottesville received 5.02 inches of rainfall since midnight.

While the Weather Service indicates that no flash flooding is expected, the flood warning remains in effect until 1:15pm with particular concern expressed for Free Union and Crozet. The Weather Service points out that most flood-related deaths occur in automobiles, so drivers are cautioned not to drive through flooding streams over water-covered bridges.

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Jimmy in 2008.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL W. PENDERGRASS

I think my wife and I don’t get out enough. We won two free tickets to the November 17 Jimmy Buffett concert in Charlottesville from a local newspaper’s contest. It was wonderful.  We walked in from the law school smugly watching what appeared to be all of Virginia streaming into the John Paul Jones Arena.

The ginormous parking lots around the Arena were plastered with a special brand of tailgaters: guys in hula skirts and coconut bras, girls with shark pasties. Many sporting parrot, crab, and shark hats and some in shark and pirate costumes, all downing flagons of Caribbean-pastel margaritas mixed to the tunes of Jimmy and whining 12-volt blenders.

Some cars were decorated. A popular fixation were big shark fins duct-taped to the roof.

We approached JPJ and found (more)

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Jefferson Area Tea Party chairman Bill Hay has his differences with Congressman Tom Perriello, but he does not condone burning Perriello in effigy.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

About a week after Guy Fawkes’ Day, the British holiday celebrated with bonfires and effigy burning of the guy who tried to blow up Parliament, a Danville group announced its plans to burn Congressman Tom Perriello and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in effigy at a November 21 bonfire. Yet Charlottesville-area reaction indicates that some Virginians don’t quite have the same stiff upper lip as their Brit cousins about torching likenesses— especially of their elected leaders.

“This is not something we condone,” says Bill Hay, head of the local group. “I had a conniption when I heard about it.”

Hay says that the Jefferson Area Tea Party, as much as it (more)

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Various witnesses reported awkward encounters with a blonde woman near the Arena.
GRAPHIC BY ALLISON SOMMERS

Amid a new police report that the woman who disappeared during the October 17 Metallica concert was seen hitchhiking shortly before she vanished, various witnesses in and around John Paul Jones Arena say a young, blond woman was causing concern before they ever heard that 20-year-old Morgan Harrington was missing.

Among the several witnesses who reported seeing Morgan injured both inside and outside the Arena, one Metallica fan inside says she seemed “upset” with blood on her chin but declined his offer to help.

Outside the Arena, another concertgoer says, he was on the southeast side of the building waiting for late-arriving friends to meet him around 9pm when he heard a “commotion” at an entrance.

“It was some shouting,” says the 44-year-old man (more)

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Morgan Harrington is a 20-year-old junior majoring in education at Virginia Tech.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The young woman who disappeared after leaving a Metallica concert on October 17, was last seen seeking a ride on the Copeley Road bridge, according to Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller, who also released an image of a necklace Morgan Harrington was wearing the night she disappeared.

“We now can confirm that she was hitchhiking,” says Geller, noting that Harrington, who had been stuck outside the John Paul Jones Arena after she was denied reentry and had told friends by cellphone that she’d find her own way home, was allegedly seen by multiple witnesses on both sides of the bridge.

In a massive three-day search last weekend, approximately 1,600 volunteers scoured woods, roads, and fields in a radius around the bridge searching for clues. Despite locating (more)

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Across from Bayly Drive on Rugby Road, an alert motorist steers away from the chase.
PHOTO BY CHARLOTTESVILLE P.D.

There has been an arrest in the infamous case of a chase that resulted in a stolen car going around 85mph on Rugby Road and causing over $100,000 in damage by scalping an occupied house. About two months after the August 7 incident, which captured widespread attention after the car’s driver somehow disappeared from a seemingly fatal wreck, a 17-year-old city student was arrested in mid-October, according to Charlottesville spokesperson Ric Barrick, who— in response to a reporter’s request— released a tape of the chase, a 112-second video in which even the police car hits 85mph on the residential road.

The video has touched off a whole new controversy because the chase appears to have violated a policy and, contrary to an initial media report, didn’t appear to have been called off. And the pursuing officer, according to the police chief, wasn’t even aware that he was chasing a stolen car.

“It was just senseless,” says former Charlottesville Deputy Sheriff Steven W. Shifflett. “No car (more)

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Charlottesville resident Carlos Wilfredo Garcia Sanchez, 38, already is trouble for allegedly possessing a half-kilo of cocaine, but getting busted within 1,000 feet of UVA property tacks on another felony charge.
MUGSHOT FROM JADE

Of the eight alleged drug dealers arrested by the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force recently, three of the suspects picked up additional felony charges for allegedly plying their trade within a legal buffer zone around a school– in one case, the University of Virginia.

An October 20 press release from JADE indicates that 26-year-olds Jose N. Cano of Woodridge and Jorge Saul Rosales-Garcia of Fredericksburg were attempting to sell 4.5 ounces of cocaine around 11am October 20 in the 1800 block of Seminole Trail. The two men picked up an additional felony charge because the alleged transaction occurred within 1,000 feet of a school, a violation of 18.2-255.2 in the Virginia Code.

JADE’s Lieutenant Don Campbell would not release the exact location at which the out-of-towners were arrested, but he says the proximate school is Woodbrook Elementary and that JADE knew the distance was less than 1,000-feet because Albemarle police told them.

“We wouldn’t have charged it if it wasn’t right,” says Campbell.

According to Google maps, the Crutchfield electronics store lies (more)

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Professor Brad Wilcox at the October 21st discussion, “Not So Sacred Vows: Religion and Marriage in America.”
PHOTO BY ERIKA MAGUIRE

Think marriage is dying? A think tank dedicated to the state of our unions has recently set up shop at the University of Virginia, moving from its previous headquarters at Rutgers University. Since its establishment in 1997 by David Popenoe, the National Marriage Project has investigated the social, economic and cultural forces shaping the quality and stability of married life.

“In our day and age, especially given the divorce rate, marriage is an adventure of sorts,” says UVA professor Brad Wilcox, who began directing the research-driven group over the summer.

In recent years, the Project’s research-driven mission has gained popularity among scholars, even one whose name is widely linked to divorce. UVA colleague Robert Emery, whose 2004 book (more)

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“It’s a serene, beautiful place,” says Hatton Ferry pole man Ashley Pillar.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

For nearly 140 years the Hatton Ferry has been taking passengers across the James River near Scottsville, but unless local government or private funds can be raised by the end of the year, it’s curtains for America’s last remaining pole-driven ferry.

Although the historic ferry was rebuilt twice, once after it was destroyed by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, and again after a record flood in 1985, it’s finally being done in by the Virginia Department of Transportation’s multi-billion dollar budget shortfall, which has already claimed over 600 jobs and 19 highway rest stops.

“Despite the national attention in September, VDOT doesn’t want to save it,” says Steven Meeks, president of the Charlottesville Albemarle Historical Society, who had (more)

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The Jefferson Theater, the historic downtown theater sold by Hook editor and former owner Hawes Spencer to local music magnate Coran Capshaw in 2006, has announced a re-opening date of November 27, closely following the abrupt closing of IS Venue at the end of September, the strong simultaneous opening of the Southern, and the imperiled-Outback rumblings of the week, as well the somewhat more distant closings of other beloved music venues like Starr Hill, Gravity Lounge, and the Satellite Ballroom.

Since the theater changed hands in April ‘06, it has undergone drastic and much-needed renovations— bars, bathrooms, balconies— and work is expected to continue after the opening on the basement and second balcony.

Nonetheless, Capshaw’s events company Starr Hill Presents has (more)

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Alan Ball charms and amuses at True Blood and American Beauty screenings– and in the lobby of Culbreth.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

The projectors have stopped running, the popcorn has been swept up and bleary-eyed moviegoers have emerged back into the daylight. The 22nd Virginia Film Festival is a wrap.

This year’s fest was the debut of director Jody Kielbasa, who inherited the “Funny Business” theme when he was hired five months ago, and reports record attendance and near-record ticket sales at this year’s fest.

More than once, we heard moviegoers say, “I thought this was supposed to be funny.” Screening films that have zilch to do with the theme is nothing new for this festival, and Kielbasa expanded the yuk-fest theme to take in the funny business of politics and business. Some of the movies made us both laugh and cry.

Instead of the usual star-studded opening night of a Virginia-made film, UVA’s marching band was the star in the star-less documentary Marching Band.

Another festival first: Some of the headliner shows (more)

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Volunteers in the search for Morgan Harrington file into the Virginia Department of Forestry building around 9am Sunday.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

They came from Richmond, from Falls Church, from Buena Vista, and beyond. They came alone, in pairs, and trios of friends. There was even a busload from the Roanoke medical center that employs the father of Morgan Dana Harrington, the young woman who disappeared October 17 during the Metallica concert in Charlottesville.

“We’ve had people from North Carolina, West Virginia, and even some from Pennsylvania,” said Janice Liggett, the volunteer coordinator for the Laura Recovery Center, the Texas-based non-profit which has been coordinating a civilian search effort which has tallied, Liggett, said, about 1,600 volunteers in three days.

“I’m hoping to find (more)

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The new faces of the GOP on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors are area old-timers Duane Snow and Rodney Thomas.
PHOTOS BY WILL WALKER

Four years ago, Creigh Deeds lost a statewide race to Bob McDonnell by one of the smallest margins– 360 votes– in recent history. In glaring contrast, his 18-point defeat to McDonnell November 3 marks one of the largest margins in a governor’s race since George Allen crushed Mary Sue Terry in 1993, 58 percent to 41 percent.

So resounding is the rout, both Democrats and Republicans are scratching their heads, despite pre-election polls predicting a McDonnell victory.

“Personally, I thought it would be closer than that,” says Fred Hudson, chairman of the 5th District Democratic committee and the number 3 Dem statewide. He attributes the staggering loss (more)

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Ponzi-schemer John M. Donnelly will serve seven and a half years for running a Ponzi scheme.
FILE FAMILY PHOTO

John M. Donnelly walked out of federal court Friday morning a free man— but not for much longer.

The  man who pleaded guilty last spring to running a decade-long multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme from his Charlottesville office was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison November 6. Judge Norman K. Moon expressed disgust for the crime that bilked 30 of John M. Donnelly’s friends and motorcycle racing teammates of more than $5 million.

“This defendant knew these victims were making life decisions,” said Moon, who referred to Donnelly as “evil” at one point and scoffed when defense attorney John Davidson suggested Donnelly was sorry for the pain he’d caused.

“If they hadn’t caught you, you’d (more)

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A major search effort to find Morgan Harrington launches Friday morning, November 6, and continues through the weekend.
PHOTO FROM STATE POLICE

The Jefferson Room at the Cavalier Inn at the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road was filled to capacity tonight— and then some—  as hundreds of Charlottesville residents and out-of-towners registered for a weekend search for Morgan Harrington, missing since an October 17 Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena.

The search is being organized by the Laura Recovery Center, a nonprofit search agency founded by the parents of Laura Kate Smithers, a 12-year-old Texas girl who was kidnapped while jogging and murdered in 1997. In addition to Morgan’s parents, Dan and Gil Harrington, various law enforcement agencies are helping coordinate the search.

This weekend’s searches will  begin Friday morning, November 6, at 9am. Interested volunteers, who do not need to have attended the pre-search presentation, should meet at the Forestry Center at 900 Natural Resources Drive behind the Fontaine Research Park. Would-be searchers must be 18 or over and have valid identification.

Laura Recovery Center founder Bob Smither, father of Laura, spoke at the hotel, just blocks from where Morgan was last seen on Copeley Bridge, to the hundreds of assembled volunteers– so many the presentation had to be given twice.

While most of those gathered will spend some portion of the next three days tromping through brush looking for any sign of Morgan, some made the trip just to show support.

“We were away and just found out what happened,” said Ray Mayberry, whose wife, Carole, worked with Dan Harrington at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke. The retired pair said they are unable to participate in the rigors of a ground search, but drove from Roanoke to show support.

“We want to do what we can to help,” Mayberry explained.

Starting Friday morning, groups of 10 will be assigned as-yet-to-be-determined search areas, Smither explained; any possible evidence discovered should not be touched. Volunteers are invited to show up throughout the day, as their schedules allow. The last groups will likely be sent out no later than 3pm.

“Our only priority,” said Smither, “is finding Morgan.’

Anyone with questions about this weekend’s searches can call (434) 960-0401.
Last updated Friday, November 6 at 3:27pm. Correction: Cavalier Inn is not a Best Western.—ed
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Minor: “I am taking on these guys because I’m the only one who can.”
FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

He has just lost another lawsuit— this time a $21.6 million judgment for Merrill Lynch— but Halsey Minor vows that legal setbacks won’t deter his quest to complete the Landmark Hotel, an incomplete eyesore that holds the promise of topping the Omni as the most luxurious lodging on the Downtown Mall.

In a recent series of telephone interviews, the man who founded internet giant CNet and whose riches soared to $355 million around the turn of the century alleges that everything the public has been told about him in recent days is wrong.

Minor says he’s not to blame for the Landmark mess, he’s not broke, and he’s not going to let go of the hotel without (more)

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Smart brought a message of hope to Morgan’s parents, Gil and Dan Harrington.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

“We will stop at nothing until she is found,” says the father of missing Morgan Harrington, as he and his wife were joined in Charlottesville Wednesday by the father of once-abducted but miraculously recovered Utah resident Elizabeth Smart.

But before the November 4 press conference announcing that the public would be invited to join the search, new information suggests that the injured 20-year-old Virginia Tech student’s efforts to regain entry to the John Paul Jones Arena after she somehow ended up outside during an October 17 Metallica concert were more intense than previously reported.

“She did make a few attempts to (more)

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About 15 feet above Ridge-McIntire Road, Randall Bowling eyes his Wednesday-morning handiwork.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Just two days after Halloween, three and a half weeks before Thanksgiving (not to mention seven and a half weeks before Christmas), City crews began installing holiday lights downtown on Monday, November 2— in what may be a new record for early decorating.

The lights, installed singly and in pairs on poles, are stylized snow flakes, illuminated by LEDs.

City spokesperson Ric Barrick says the lights are owned by the private Downtown Business Association, which added 16 flakes to its retinue this year and (more)

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Kristin Szakos and Dave Norris won in the city.
FILE PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Democratic machine candidates Dave Norris and Kristin Szakos held off a challenge by independent Bob Fenwick to retain an all-Democratic Charlottesville City Council, according to data from State Elections Board. But in the more politically diverse Albemarle County, the data show that a political newcomer has upset the establishment by ousting Democratic incumbent David Slutzky.

Slutzky, who raised the most money, who aligned himself with the controversial Nature Conservancy plan to create a single mega-reservoir, and who has been serving as the Chairman of the Board, joins fellow Democrat Madison Cummings, the protege of retiring reservoir-backing Supervisor Sally Thomas, in going down to defeat.

The man who beat Slutzky, Republican Rodney Thomas, was the only party candidate who refused to sign a reservoir-backing pledge foisted on the candidates by Conservancy plan backers Liz Palmer and Don Wagner. The man who defeated Cummings is Republican Duane Snow.

Fenwick, who ran on a platform of “saving” McIntire Park from the YMCA and the Meadowcreek Parkway as well as his support of dredging the existing reservoir, nearly tripled the tally of the other independent on the Council ballot. Yet his 3,280 votes fell short of the 5,074 garnered by Szakos and the 6,292 for Norris.

“I can’t remember the last time an independent set the agenda in a Council race like I did,” said Fenwick as the final precincts were reporting. “We raised some important issues, and it’s been a privilege to speak to the community.”

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Six months before she died, Justine danced with her father at her wedding to Eric Abshire.
FILE PHOTO COURTESY SWARTZ FAMILY

While national attention focuses on the Charlottesville disappearance of Metallica concert fan Morgan Harrington, the parents of another young woman are quietly marking the third anniversary of their daughter’s death and hoping this will be the last time they pass the date without an arrest.

“We believe police are making progress,” says Steve Swartz of the investigation into the death of his daughter, Justine Swartz Abshire, who was found dead or dying on a dark country road in Barboursville on November 3, 2006.

While the death was initially called a hit-and-run, evidence mounted over subsequent months that Justine might not have been hit by a car at all. Although her body showed signs of massive trauma— more than 100 blunt force injuries— there was (more)

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