Tony Gonzalez

From radar to witchin' rods

2011-12-27T12:35:00.000-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

John Lodl often heard Rutherford County’s old-timers talk of the divining rods, swearing by their eerie movements as proof positive of bodies buried below.

No headstone, no matter, they said. In the hands of the right person, the wavering of the rods could say more about a cemetery than the aged records that Lodl, bearded and bespectacled but youthful at 37, oversees in the local archives.

One day last winter, Lodl went from skeptical to startled.

In a secluded cemetery in Eagleville, he watched a woman balance a pair of plain old coat hangers on her fingers and walk the field.

“Sure enough, when you cross over a grave, those things cross,” Lodl said. “I can’t explain it. But it works.”

He’s not the only county staffer believing.

Dowsing — also known as witching or doodlebugging — has gained an unlikely following in the technology wing of the county’s historic courthouse. There, a crew better known for digital mapping and laser-guided land surveys finds itself blending those high-tech tools with folkways to find and document the county’s lost cemeteries.

Read the full story at Tennessean.com.

The Story of Black Friday (in tweets)

2011-12-01T12:43:00.002-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

They stood, they waited — and before the clock struck midnight — they tweeted.

Sure, the Twitter one-liners included the obvious exclamations about the long lines and cold fingers endured waiting for door-busting Black Friday sales.

But it was often the offbeat and unconventional that put the furious typing thumbs of Nashville’s social media world into motion on the year’s bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifiggest shopping day: topless male models at clothing stores, piles of coupons strewn about the sidewalks and spiffy maps handed to shoppers inside Target.

Few details were too small to share.

Waiting in line outside Walmart, Nashville Twitter user @kali4nyaaa looked down at the jar of sugary Nutella balanced between her knees and made the inevitable decision. She snapped a photo and put out her dispatch: “What I’m eating in line … hahaha!”

Read the full story and view a Storify presentation at Tennessean.com.

Disney fans find fairytale deals at Middle Tennessee outlet stores

2011-11-19T12:42:00.001-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

MURFREESBORO — In the next two weeks, Sharayah Wells will tally another trip from La Vergne to Disney World, where the 25-year-old dresses as Snow White before gliding into the theme park with her son.

Once inside, Wells plans to meet other fans of animated fairy tales and trade collectible lapel pins shaped like Mickey Mouse, Tinker Bell and the Mad Hatter. On casual days, she’ll wear one of at least 100 Disney T-shirts she owns, walking through the park in her one-of-a-kind Disney character shoes, hand-painted by her sister.

Wells is among the true believers in Disney, and one of hundreds all over the world who feed their collections — and their obsessions — with visits to Middle Tennessee. The Character Depot off Interstate 24 in Murfreesboro is one of two remaining Disney merchandise stores in the area and a half-dozen discount outlets nationwide. It touts deep discounts and rotating offerings that keep ‘em coming back throughout its two-month holiday stint, which ends Jan. 1.

Wells visited this week, looking over T-shirts, but didn’t buy. She said she won’t resist for long.

“I feel they find me,” Wells said. “That’s kind of nerdy, but I’m OK with it.”

This story is archived at he Tennessean.com.

Neglected in first years of life, girl opens heart to new family

2011-11-07T12:39:00.000-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

WILSON COUNTY — Sitting cross-legged in the back laundry room of her family’s farmhouse, 13-year-old Dani Lierow let her father tie her shoes. As Bernie looped the laces, she tilted her head and stared intently into his face.

Then she reached a hand up and touched his speckled gray beard.

The gesture, exploratory and affectionate, might be commonplace in many homes. But it was never expected in theirs.

“That was one of the things they never thought she’d do,” Bernie said. “Get close to somebody.”

When he and his wife, Diane, first met Dani in foster care in Florida in 2006, she still wore diapers even though she was 8 years old. She hit and bit herself and never made eye contact.

It had been a year since police rescued her from a tiny, roach-infested room in Florida. She had survived her first seven years confined there by her birth mother, cut off from other human contact.

Damaged and badly delayed in her development, Dani drew national attention after a Pulitzer Prize-winning story in the St. Petersburg Times thrust her unique challenges and adoption onto the national stage. Everyone from Oprah to Anderson Cooper came calling. Those who heard her story were inspired to cry, to adopt and to take a more vigilant approach toward neglected children.

Soon after Bernie, Diane and their biological son, William, adopted her into their family, the drama moved to Middle Tennessee, where the Lierows had lived before they moved to Florida. They restored a 1920s farmhouse at the eastern edge of Wilson County. They found a summer camp, a horse stable and other programs to help meet Dani’s needs.

Read the full story at Tennessean.com.

To help refugees, Smyrna teachers get creative

2011-09-04T12:45:00.003-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

SMYRNA — In the refugee camps where she grew up in Thailand, Shee Ku walked through the jungle to sit in dirt-floor classrooms where teachers punished mistakes with physical force.

At Smyrna High School, where she enrolled in 2007, teachers were kinder, but Shee Ku felt intimidated in new ways.

She simply didn’t understand anything in class. She’d never seen a calculator or a computer, and common American concepts tripped her up on exams.

Shee Ku’s people, a group known as the Karen, escaped oppression by the military in Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — by moving to camps and eventually to the United States.

Dozens of Karen families began arriving in Rutherford County in 2007, challenging the local schools in ways faced by few other Middle Tennessee districts outside Nashville. Confronted with teenagers who could not read or write in any language, who could not add or subtract, who in some cases had never been to a school at all, educators had to invent new ways to help students learn.

For the first Karen arrivals in ninth grade, teachers had just four years to make it happen.

Slow ride

2011-08-22T00:41:00.002-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

EAGLEVILLE — Golf carts may be leisurely, low-speed rides, but cart enthusiasts in this farming town an hour south of Nashville want to fast-track a new ordinance to allow them to drive on city streets.

They’re so eager, in fact, that the two-man police department recently issued a warning in bright red text on its website: “Carts are not yet legal to drive on roadways or sides of roadways. This is for your safety.”

But for those who already decked out their golf carts with “street-legal” necessities, including brake lights, seat belts and mirrors, the freedom of the road has been hard to resist.

“They’re just as convenient as the dickens,” said Councilman Andy Soapes, who rides his cart to the fishing pond, to the farm co-op three doors down and to the mailbox at the end of the driveway.

Semis, cars vie for pavement

2011-08-09T00:41:00.002-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean

CHRISTIANA — In his 16 years behind the wheel of a big rig, trucker Clint Massey has seen traffic more than double on Interstate 24, the highway he drives across the region twice weekly.

Regional truck traffic will double again in the coming two decades, projections say, adding to the kind of truck-heavy congestion that intimidates commuters and leaves drivers like Massey in a bind when seeking a place to rest.

Truck stops fill by nightfall, he said, often forcing truckers back onto the highway to again test their stamina in search of another place to stop.

“Out here, we make a mistake, people lose their lives,” Massey, 54, said as he refueled at the Shell truck stop at exit 89 on I-24 south of Murfreesboro. “That’s why we need places like this, where we can rest.”

Cost of tire disposal raises hackles

2011-08-08T10:41:00.001-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennessean

A handful of Tennessee counties are fed up with the state’s scrap tire disposal program and have opted not to take state reimbursements for collecting tires to be hauled off and recycled.

Tire recycling will continue, as required by law, but instead of taking state money, Cheatham County and two others are looking for new ways to cover costs.

Officials in an additional 44 counties, including Davidson, Robertson, Williamson and Wilson, are trying to gauge whether their expenses will be covered under a new reimbursement rate. Also uncertain, officials said, is whether the changes will spur more illegal tire dumping.

But one thing is certain: Someone will pay.

A beagle named 'Buddy'

2011-06-18T01:22:00.002-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

News reporters are trained to gather every possible detail when working on a story. The rule of thumb is to “always get the name of the dog.”

For this story, we got them all.

Looking through the database of every registered dog in Waynesboro, we found four beagles named Buddy, four Chihuahuas (and one pitbull) named Peanut and five dogs named with a number 2. The city is home to a pair of Dobermans named Brooklyn and Bronx, and the one and only registered “mutt” is named Bojangles. Alphabetically, names range from Abbey to Zydeco.

There are five dogs named Scruffy, four named Scrappy, one Screech and one Scurry.

There’s just one “Spot” in town, a Staffordshire Terrier living on Fairway Drive.

“When you have a mostly white dog, with a brindle patch on one ear and another on the opposite eye, there’s no reason not to call him Spot,” said Glenn Doggett, who found the dog at the Charlottesville SPCA.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

ALSO: Behind the doggles

AND: My last month at The News Virginian.

No forgiving Parkway shooter

2011-06-10T01:24:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Ralph Leon Jackson could have expected at least a life term in prison when entering federal court to be sentenced for shooting two people last year at a scenic overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

What he could not know was the intensity his victims’ families and friends would show Thursday as they labeled him cowardly, cold-blooded, sick and selfish.

Blasts from Jackson’s 20-gauge shotgun and an ensuing fight disfigured Christina Floyd, then 19, of Palmyra, and killed Charlottesville disc jockey Timothy Davis, 27.

“I’ll never be able to forgive you for that,” Daniel Olewine, a friend, said directly to Jackson, who had turned in his chair to face whatever might be said.

Staring back at the killer during almost an hour of testimony was a framed photo of Davis propped up on the witness podium.

From there, his mother, Leticia Davis, talked about her only child as a man motivated to advance his radio career and begin a family. He enjoyed doing simple things, like being with his two cats and hanging out with friends. He worked closely with volunteers at WNRN, including Floyd, and considered the station’s signal tower on Carters Mountain to be a favorite place.

“When you shot him, he was doing one of those simple things: He was just enjoying a sunset on a beautiful spring day with a pretty girl on a mountain overlook,” Davis said during a tearful, 10-minute statement. “At least a beautiful view was the last thing Tim saw before you shot out his big, brown, beautiful eyes. I shudder to think of the horrific pain he must have felt.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Out of creek tragedy, a 'silver lining'

2011-06-07T21:19:00.003-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Chuck Worden had never been to Waynesboro before the day on which he would save a life.

And he didn’t know the 10-year-old boy he tucked under his arm and rescued from a flooding creek that claimed the boy’s mother and friend.

But he’s no longer a stranger.

Since the heavy rains of April 16, Worden has waded through the public spotlight and a legal tangle — also made public — that carried him back to New York. Recently back in Virginia, he has shared meals with the boy, Adrian Rowe, and Adrian’s father, David. Together they’ve walked the banks of the now-calmer Rockfish Run, where Adrian’s mother and an 8-year-old friend drowned.

On Saturday, Worden, his girlfriend, Judy Gentry, and her two children traveled back to Waynesboro for a barbecue at David Rowe’s. Adrian splashed in a pool alongside Gentry’s kids and tossed a football. Worden and David Rowe shared burger-grilling duties.

“To see Adrian is to know we truly are blessed,” Worden said. “[God] put us there for a reason.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Creek rescue felt 'like a lifetime'

2011-04-19T00:21:00.001-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

With the waters of Rockfish Run tugging at his legs and a shirtless 9-year-old boy under one arm, Chuck Worden reached for the child’s mother as she dangled from the railing of a bridge Saturday.

He caught the woman by her hair.

But the strands slipped through and the flooding brown water stole Tina Marie Allen. In her arms was Lacy Elizabeth Taylor, 8.

The woman and the girl drowned in the flooding creek Saturday after they slipped while crossing the Kirby Avenue bridge at about 5:30 p.m. Police said the trio went around a barricade placed there after a vehicle became stuck earlier.

Read this story at NewsVirginian.com.

Looking Up: Changes protect dark skies

2011-04-11T14:01:00.002-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

In stargazing circles, spotting the Milky Way is a common way to measure the darkness of the night sky.

Look up on a moonless summer night in Waynesboro, and it’s still possible to see the galaxy. In an effort to keep it that way, the city recently joined neighboring localities in rewriting zoning codes to limit light pollution.

Ordinance changes and technology improvements are catching on, to the benefit of the stars above, said area astronomers who just wrapped up International Dark Sky Week. They used those days to ask businesses and cities to limit lighting, because despite growing awareness of light pollution, commercial development continues to erode the night.

In addition to preserving astronomical views, dark sky proponents said shielded and downward directed lighting is safer for drivers, kinder to neighbors, and gentler on electric bills.

“The amount of light pollution has gotten worse,” said Waynesboro High School astronomy teacher Charlie Cox.

“Facing north is terrible,” he said. “One thing that is good is that most of the new light fixtures are covered.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

News Virginian wins top honor

2011-04-10T02:45:00.000-04:00

News Virginian Staff Reports

The News Virginian has captured the Virginia Press Association’s Journalistic Integrity and Community Service award for the second consecutive year.

The association recognized the newspaper at its annual meeting Saturday in Norfolk.

The paper earned the community service award for “The Borders Within,” a year-long series by city editor Tony Gonzalez and reporter Chase Purdy about Waynesboro’s growing Hispanic community.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Dam demolition plan divides community

2011-02-17T19:44:00.005-05:00

The Rife-Loth Dam, built in 1907, holds back the South River between Lyndurst Road and Rife Road.

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

The owners of a century-old dam on the South River say the deteriorating structure is a dangerous liability that must be removed, but their latest proposal to demolish it has met with impassioned opposition.

During the past five years, the board of directors of the Ram Works Homeowners Association has debated whether to repair or remove the Rife-Loth Dam, built in its current form in 1907. The dam holds back the South River where it flows along Rife Road, just upstream from the Waynesboro YMCA.

Board President Chester Campbell said the panel recently decided — but has not formally voted — to remove the dam. He said the dam is a drowning and injury danger that escalates insurance costs and that rehabilitation, at a cost of $150,000 to $250,000, is at least three times as expensive as removal.

Repairs would not qualify for government grant money or be supported by environmental agencies, Campbell said.

“I exhausted any possibility that I thought we have of finding funding to restore the dam,” said Campbell, 83. “There’s nobody — no one — that hates to see that dam go worse than I do.”

Campbell’s estimate of his emotional attachment to the dam, like almost every piece of the proposal to remove it, has been contested this month, and for years. Some who live among the 72 units at Ram Works oppose removing the dam because they say it adds historic value and character, makes the property attractive for renting and selling, and for the tranquility provided by the ever-present sound of falling water.

Read part one.
Read part two.

Man found after 9-hour search

2011-01-12T01:06:00.000-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

With his gnarled walking stick still in hand, Johnny Turner returned to his Waynesboro home and the embraces of his wife Thursday after a nine-hour absence drew dozens of searchers to the city.

With one hiking boot untied, Turner, 72, beamed from beneath a gray flat cap while jacketed detectives and deputies shared congratulations in the front yard.

Augusta County Deputy D.L. Moran found Turner walking in a field near Lowe’s off Lew DeWitt Boulevard at 4:16 p.m.

Turner’s family learned almost instantly, and as concerned neighbors stopped their cars outside Turner’s home on Vedette Avenue, grandson Joe Turner, 26, relayed the news from the porch.

“We found him, just a minute ago, literally,” he called to a woman in an SUV.

Before she left, another passer-by called out too.

“We just found him,” the grandson called.

“You found him!,” the second woman yelled. “Where was he … oh you don’t know? He’s home, that’s all that matters!”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Pioneers of downtown life

2011-01-02T21:17:00.001-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

... And then there’s the street sweeper.

“He made his first pass at 4:45 this morning,” Ledbetter said, laughing.

Some sounds deliver a jolt, like sirens rising from fire trucks deployed from Broad Street, said Sharon Wade, who has lived four years above Carpet Village on North Wayne.

“The first night, I shot straight up in bed,” she said.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Train club packs tracks

2010-10-25T12:41:00.003-04:00

Children play baseball amid Jack Ward's model train city housed inside the Augusta County Railway Museum, which will move locations soon.

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

The carousel, the brewery and the skyscraper all have to go.

Moving day is approaching for the structures made in miniature to match model trains that buzz by in sizes small, smaller and smallest inside the Augusta County Railroad Museum in Waynesboro.

After three years in a retail space next to Kroger on Arch Avenue, the model train club must move by spring, when the grocery store will add a gas station and drive-thru pharmacy and demolish the mostly vacant adjoining spaces.

Read the full story and see more photos at NewsVirginian.com.

Witness IDs 7-Eleven shooter

2010-10-24T19:45:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez & Chase Purdy
The News Virginian

STAUNTON — A Waynesboro woman testified Thursday that a brief stop at 7-Eleven in Fishersville on May 7 devolved into a panic and a foot-on-the-accelerator getaway when a man shot her car four times.

“He just kept firing and we ducked and were screaming,” Devina Faulkner testified. “My daughter [age 2] was in the back and she was screaming.”

The car’s four occupants escaped unharmed.

The accused shooter fared worse, authorities said.

About three weeks after the shooting, suspect Arthur Thomas Allen, 28, broke bones around his neck after a jump from a third-story window in Phoenix that led to hospitalization, incarceration and 11 charges including attempted murder.

A judge certified those charges to a grand jury Thursday based on Faulkner’s identification of Allen, an inmate’s testimony and ballistics evidence collected by a detective.

...

It was Allen listening to a friend testify against him Thursday, but a series of violent episodes in Allen’s life tie back to his willingness to testify against others, according to court records and statements Allen made during a jail call to The News Virginian.

... Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Sewage leaks spur borrowing plan

2010-10-15T16:08:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Fined by state environmental regulators and ordered to make pipe and manhole upgrades, Waynesboro plans to borrow almost $4 million, mostly to make fixes to a wastewater network frequently overwhelmed by heavy rains.

That move was discussed Tuesday during a public hearing before the City Council. Almost $2.3 million of a $3.7 bond would be used for improvements to the city’s sewer collection system. The city would borrow money under the federal Build America bond program, created last year by the Obama administration as a way to help governments get better interest rates.

The city’s new wastewater treatment plant, opened in August, provided a “significant” improvement in handling sewage, a state regulator said, but problems persist with the pipes that deliver sewage and water to the plant.

“This has been an issue that has plagued the city of Waynesboro for decades,” Assistant City Manager Jim Shaw told the council.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Across the Miles

2010-09-12T15:57:00.001-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez & Chase Purdy
The News Virginian

At the end of the tunnel, Rigoberto Romero hesitated at the glass doors.

On the other side, his wife, Kim, shot her hand into the air.

“Rigo! Rigo!” she shouted. “Rigo!”

They embraced just after midnight Friday at Dulles International Airport just outside the Capitol after 18 months apart. As Rigo’s shoulder bag hit the floor, their first words were in Spanish.

Part I: Across the Miles
Part II: Triunfo!
Part III: On the Other Side
Video: The Reunion

News Virginian wins APME honors

2010-08-26T17:48:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- The News Virginian captured first place in international writing and was a finalist in the public service award in the annual Associated Press Managing Editors journalism excellence contest.

"Borders Within," an ongoing series of stories on Waynesboro's growing Hispanic population, placed first in the International Perspective category for newspapers under 40,000 circulation, the APME announced today. Reporters Chase Purdy and Tony Gonzalez launched the series in late 2009.

"This series is an example of two journalists digging deep into the community to give readers a fuller, better understanding of a key and growing segment of our population," said Lee Wolverton, editor and general manager of The News Virginian. "It's the product of old-fashioned source-building and hard work on the part of Tony and Chase, and it shows us the human side of the Hispanic community, an aspect frequently ignored in the immigration debate."

Judges in the public service category awarded an honorable mention to the newspaper for coverage and editorials on the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton, which narrowly avoided closure two years in a row in tough budgeting times. Gonzalez' investigation revealed that a committee report explaining the drawbacks to closure had been altered at the state government level to diminish those concerns.

The News Virginian was the smallest of the newspapers honored in the competition. Earlier this year, The News Virginian became the smallest daily in the 62-year history of the Virginia Press Association's public service award to win it.

Read more about the APME awards at NewsVirginian.com.

Borders Within
:: Across the Miles
:: Astir in the barrios
:: Niche barbershop growing

Commonwealth Center
:: Team riled over altered report
:: Center saved again
:: Abuse cited at Liberty Point

Assault hearing ends sordid tale

2010-08-26T17:46:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

STAUNTON — Implicated in a murder he didn’t commit, Matthew Giovine tracked down the man who pointed police his way and struck him with the handle of a shovel in May 2009, authorities said.

For the attack, Giovine will serve no jail time. A judge Wednesday followed a joint recommendation by attorneys, imposing a suspended five-year sentence and placing Giovine, 33, on probation.

“Mr. Giovine’s entire freedom for the rest of his life was put in jeopardy,” defense attorney Frankie Coyner said of the man’s motive.

Giovine’s brief hearing Wednesday brought to a close a sordid collection of cases in which the burglary ring led to murder, lies to police, broken love affairs, an escape to Florida and a beaten chihuahua puppy.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Police wait on lab work in case of bad meds

2010-08-24T09:03:00.001-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Waynesboro police are investigating a case of contaminated medication that made a 1-year-old boy sick, according to authorities and court records.

Recently unsealed search warrants describe a police investigation into medicine that made a Staunton child “very ill” in June. During treatment at Augusta Health in Fishersville, doctors discovered an unexpected drug in the boy’s system, the warrant states.

Police Sgt. Kelly Walker said detectives are waiting on lab results to determine if the medication was contaminated at its factory of production, at the CVS pharmacy on West Main Street or after the family obtained it.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Zoning changes would smooth cityscape

2010-07-23T16:55:00.001-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Waynesboro officials and developers are seeing green in the city’s future.

More trees and shrubs, fewer expansive asphalt parking lots and reduced lighting are among aesthetic changes suggested in a proposed zoning rewrite available in full in today’s newspaper.

The updates address ordinances left untouched for 50 years.

The new ordinance book is simpler. It reduces uncertainty, and therefore risk, for developers, officials said.

It also beefs up requirements for landscaping and buffers between unlike properties, frees up parking requirements and adds some flexibility, officials and developers said.

The News Virginian asked the Planning Department to take a look at the newspaper’s current building at 1300 W. Main St. to answer the question: If the structure were built under the new ordinance, what would need to change?

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Couple on road to recovery

2010-07-09T23:25:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

STUARTS DRAFT — Her writing skills fully recovered, but her legs another two months from carrying her again, Betsy Nelson sat in her blue wheelchair this week writing thank you cards.

Of the hundreds she could be writing, she struggled to begin the dozens that would go to complete strangers who took to her story because of messages dispatched by her mother on Facebook during 34 days in the hospital.

She may not know many of those supporters, but all the diagnoses, surgeries and hospital gadgets she encountered are familiar to the people who followed her progress, prayed, donated money and sent cards.

Betsy, 21, and husband Josh Nelson, 26, were injured in an April 22 head-on collision on Wayne Avenue in Stuarts Draft that rescuers consider one of the most devastating ever. Crews tore at the couple’s Jeep Cherokee for an hour to free Betsy.

Barbara Womack chronicled her daughter’s days at the University of Virginia Medical Center on the Facebook page “Please Pray for Betsy and Josh Nelson.”

She began with the facts: the couple was hit head-on. Her daughter lost seven teeth and incurred multiple fractures in her jaw, legs and feet. Her son-in-law fared better in the passenger seat, but was still in the hospital.

“Please pray,” became the refrain.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Abuse cited at Liberty Point

2010-07-09T23:24:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

State investigators cited serious abuse of child patients and leadership instability when they downgraded the license of a Staunton psychiatric care facility that is seeking to expand, according to records obtained by The News Virginian.

The state Health Department referenced the 2009 license downgrade in a report last week in which staff recommended against Liberty Point’s expansion on Montgomery Avenue. The private facility cares for mentally retarded males ages 13 to 22 and wants to add a four-bed inpatient care center to treat children with severe mental health diagnoses.

Liberty Point staff failed to prevent fights among teenage patients that led to broken bones and bloody noses, left unattended boys to engage in sexual acts and used improper holds during restraints, among other violations, according to four years’ worth of investigation reports obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

Allegations of abuse at Liberty Point rose from one claim in 2006 to 53 in 2008 and 61 in 2009, according to records from the Office of Human Rights, which investigates claims along with the Office of Licensing within the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

In 2008, 12 of 53 allegations were determined founded. In 2009, 44 of 61 were founded.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

'That street life'

2010-05-28T00:15:00.003-04:00

By Chase Purdy & Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

The Waynesboro man charged with attempted murder and arrested in Arizona this week repeatedly committed crimes, begged authorities for mercy and then landed behind bars again, according to court records.

A city prosecutor dropped probation violation charges against Arthur T. Allen last year that could have brought down more than a dozen years of previously suspended jail time. Instead, Allen, 28, walked free in February, took a bullet to the foot and now is accused of firing gunshots at a car with women and children inside at the 7-Eleven in Fishersville.

Court records show a pattern for Allen: arrest, conviction, plea for reduced jail time, brief freedom and more trouble.

Yet authorities investigating drug cases in 2008 turned to Allen as an informant, according to court records and letters he wrote to a judge.

Allen described himself in his hand-written letters as the informant who helped police during a yearlong investigation that led to 28 drug arrests in October 2008. He said he was promised reduced jail time and dropped probation violation charges in exchange for his help. Authorities refused to identify Allen as the informant in that case.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Cougars win with early homers, defense

2010-05-26T19:34:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

STAUNTON — Stuarts Draft rode early back-to-back home runs and played almost flawless defense to beat R.E. Lee 5-4 Tuesday night and earn a spot in the Region III tournament and Southern Valley District finals.

The Cougars’ four-run second inning forced the Leeman to play catchup. They did twice, with quick runs in answer to Cougar scores.

But Draft senior Chris Henkel went the distance, and marked two of his six strikeouts in the final inning to strand the potential tying run just 90 feet from home.

The Cougars mobbed Henkel after he ended the game with a strikeout of Lee junior and pitcher Joseph Wood, who had singled and scored earlier.

Wood nearly matched Henkel on the mound. He allowed eight hits to Henkel’s nine. Wood walked two, struck out six and stranded four baserunners.

Henkel stranded seven, including three in the final two innings.

Draft coach Josh Podgorski said he almost removed Henkel in the sixth, when Lee leadoff man Terrell Mickens came up with two men on.

“The kids waived me off,” Podgorski said. “I went with their instincts. We got the pop up.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Breaking news photos

2010-05-18T22:00:00.001-04:00

A teen fired three shots skyward after a fight at a party at Briarwood Apartments in Fishersville. Many came to their doors and windows as police arrived on scene to question residents.

Danny Alphonso Brown, 20, a rising R&B singer, died after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck that overturned on a winding dirt road in Swoope.

Waynesboro detectives search the South River and surrounding woods after discovery of a man's dead body.

I'm keeping my photojournalism work here.

Lawsuit: Board ignored laws

2010-05-14T12:40:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

A Fort Defiance man charges in a lawsuit that Augusta County and its Board of Equalization did not follow the law while changing property values during appeals hearings in the wake of the 2009 reassessment.

Thomas Cline says in his six-page suit that the board violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act by failing to conduct open meetings and record minutes and votes when raising the value of his 63-acre hilltop property.

A Virginia Coalition for Open Government representative said Monday that the board’s actions might have turned the open meeting presumption “on its head.”

Informed of the lawsuit, board Secretary Martin Lightsey said it was “definitely possible” that the law wasn’t followed. He said he did not “keep the sort of notes that one would take if you were trying to record minutes of a board meeting.” Meetings, he said, felt more closed than open.

County Real Estate Manager Mary Garris said appeals decision forms sent to homeowners served as minutes. County Attorney Patrick Morgan backed her.

Morgan said he will answer the suit, filed Friday, in a way that “will show there is a difference of opinion as to how those things can be done.”

“It’s been done the way they have been taking minutes … for a very long time,” Morgan said.

Cline’s filing also includes the letter the board sent to him Nov. 9 announcing his hearing for Nov. 18, a violation of state code, which requires hearings to be announced at least 15 days in advance, he said.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Rollover kills young singer

2010-05-03T21:14:00.002-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

SWOOPE – A Staunton man died early Sunday after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck that overturned on a winding dirt road, authorities said.

Danny Alphonso Brown, 20, suffered severe head trauma after Daniel Allen Wise, 20, of Swoope, smashed the pickup into an embankment at about 12:45 a.m., said Virginia State Police Trooper Robert Fedorchuk.

Wise overcorrected after driving his modified 1997 Toyota truck off the right side of Livick Road, Fedorchuk said. Brown was riding in the truck bed, the trooper said.

Rescuers rushed Brown in an ambulance for about one mile to reach a medical helicopter, waiting in a grassy field at the intersection of Eidsen Creek and Glebe School roads. He was pronounced dead before he could be moved to the helicopter, authorities said.

Fedorchuk charged Wise with reckless driving. The trooper estimated the truck’s speed at 35 mph, which he called “unsafe” by about 10 mph. He said alcohol did not factor into the crash, although Brown and a female passenger in the truck cab had been drinking.

Fedorchuk did not anticipate further charges.

Brown, a rising rapper, was remembered by a peer Sunday for his raw singing abilities.

“A damn good talent,” said Charles Perez, CEO of New York City-based Heavy Green Entertainment.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Immigrant mother killed in forklift accident

2010-04-18T15:30:00.000-04:00

By Chase Purdy & Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

An immigrant and mother of six was killed Tuesday when her son crashed a forklift into a wall, causing it to collapse on her at a Waynesboro waffle cone plant, police and a relative said.

Rosa Hernandez, 37, was working alongside her 22-year-old son when the machine struck the wall at Matt’s Supreme Cones at 1300 Hopeman Parkway in Waynesboro, according to police and a relative who spoke through an interpreter.

The forklift “caught the upper wall and then it just tore it down,” said Waynesboro police Sgt. Kelly Walker.

Her son, still devastated from the accident, mourned with his family Tuesday evening, said the woman’s brother, Adan Hernandez.

Elida Mendoza-Morales, 41, said she was saddened by the unbelievable news of her longtime friend’s death. She was sad for the woman’s children.

Hernandez always wanted the best for her family, Mendoza-Morales said. The women lived near each other and Mendoza-Morales had helped Hernandez with translations.

Friends agreed that Hernandez worked hard for her family.

“Una buena mujer,” Mendoza-Morales said. A good woman.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Cortes de Nico

2010-03-29T22:52:00.001-04:00

Click it to watch and listen

Hey VPA!

2010-03-21T00:15:00.004-04:00

The Virginia Press Association today announced winners of its 2009 news contest.

The News Virginian -- our state's smallest seven-day-a-week newspaper -- became the smallest newsroom to ever win the association's Award for Journalistic Integrity and Community Service.

Background: The public service award was created in 1947 to recognize editorial leadership as well as community service. Entries are judged on evidence of a significant effort beyond a publication’s routine scope; the initiative of the publication; the use of editorials in connection with the project or projects; and the results.

Judges honored The News Virginian for our reporting and editorial leadership regarding revitalization of Waynesboro's downtown and our managing editor's formation of a revitalization panel.

Among individual awards, judges looked favorably upon my work in the public safety, feature writing, business, news and breaking news categories.

Chase Purdy also shocked his judge, earning 3rd place for his feature story Lost pigeon perishes on pilgrimage!

Chase and I rode to Roanoke for the VPA banquet today, where we met up with other TNV reporters and editors and hob-knobbed with some fat cats.

Here's a list of my VPA honors from this year:

Rank	Category	Entry
1	Breaking news photo	photo
2	Public safety writing	Antics, Word of mouth, Code of conduct
2	General news	Arrest looms
2	Feature series	Epic return, Stay or go, et al
3	Breaking news writing	Chopper down (with staff)
3	Business writing	Cultivated niche, Mohawk to close, etc.
3	General news writing	Grim news shakes workers (with staff)

:: Full summary of TNV awards.
:: More on the integrity award.
:: View all winners (searchable database, too, for '08 and '09) at VPA.net.

Bare market

2010-03-21T00:14:00.000-04:00

By Tony Gonzalez and Megan E. Davis
The News Virginian

For every Waynesboro job advertised this year, there are more than eight unemployed workers, according to Virginia Employment Commission statistics. In Augusta County, it’s 17 displaced workers for every one opening.

Two years ago, the ratio was one worker to one opening.

“The competition is fierce,” said Michelle Burnett, supervisor of the Fishersville office of the employment commission.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Alarm

2010-03-17T00:00:00.002-04:00

System lacking at Springdale
By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian
Published in conjunction with Sunshine Week 2010

When alarms bring Waynesboro firefighters rushing to the six-story Springdale Apartments building they cannot know if they’ll encounter a fire or a medical emergency, or which room triggered the response.

Whether flames or burnt toast set off a smoke alarm or an injured tenant pulls an alert cord, the building’s alarm system sends just one generic call for help, said emergency officials now seeking to modify the system that demands responses almost twice a week.

At the request of Waynesboro officials, the Redevelopment and Housing Authority is looking at cost estimates to update the system inside the senior-housing apartment building so that the correct agency — first aid or fire — will know when to respond, and to decrease the time required to pinpoint the origins of alarms.

“The alarm panel is going to have to be completely redone,” said housing authority Executive Director Edward Delapp, who added that he wants the update completed this year.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

False alarms costly
By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Waynesboro police burn about 300 hours a year responding to hundreds of false alarms caused by misused and malfunctioning security systems, most repeatedly at city school buildings, according to a review of response records.

An ordinance proposed by police Chief Doug Davis would encourage alarm users to control their systems or face fines if they cause three or more false alarms in a year.

More than 70 businesses and four homes passed that threshold last year, records show. Five of Waynesboro’s school buildings caused 70 responses, including a city high 29 at Waynesboro High. Police responded to 798 false alarms in 2008 and 633 in 2009.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Astir in the barrios

2010-02-28T10:48:00.002-05:00

By Rosanne Weber

By Tony Gonzalez & Chase Purdy
The News Virginian

Relax and tighten. Relájese y apriete.

Juan Francisco Alvarenga, 34, of Waynesboro, nervously clenched his fist as he told his troubles to Rosie Cruz-Bermudez at the Waynesboro Health Department.

Jobless, without a driver’s license and behind on his mortgage payments, Alvarenga turned to his friends for help. In turn, they sent him to Cruz-Bermudez.

She is one of a handful of area interpreters who assist Spanish-speaking people when job losses hit hard — or a brutal winter drives up heating bills.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Snow thwarts fire fight

2010-02-10T09:38:00.003-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Slick snow made a curvy rural driveway impassable to fire trucks in Greenville on Tuesday afternoon, leaving firefighters without water as flames ripped through a family home.

Jamie and Carla Humphries and their three children escaped unharmed, but a fire destroyed their home, built in 2006, at 124 Lofton Ridge Lane with a sweeping view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The family called 911 to report a chimney fire at about 1:30 p.m.

Within minutes, Lt. Mike Gibson of the Middlebrook Fire Department arrived at the scene in his personal pickup truck, in which he struggled but succeeded in making it to the home.

“We tried to fight with a water hose,” Gibson said.

See the full story, photos and video at NewsVirginian.com.

Photo by Sandra Berry

Riding with Ward C's snowfighters

2010-02-07T18:12:00.002-05:00

By Chase Purdy

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

As Billy Rowe hit the streets Saturday morning in a plow-fitted Waynesboro public works dump truck, Main Street was still a mess from an overnight dumping of snow.

“They were bouncin’ all around the place like pinballs,” he said of cars and trucks that ventured out despite warnings from officials.

From his tall perch, Rowe closely watched the orange antennae rising from his plow blade to keep it in line with the flashing taillight of the other plow he followed.

View the full story, pictures and video, at NewsVirginian.com.

Marked significance

2010-01-31T23:58:00.000-05:00

By Tony Gonzalez
The News Virginian

Gone are the barber shop, the shoe shop, the general store and the train depot of Waynesboro’s oldest black neighborhood built around Port Republic Road after the Civil War.

Nighttime dances ceased long ago, restaurants faded away.

And the block’s all-black school where graduates often returned to teach is now a recreation building and city workshop.

Many who have lived their whole lives on Port Republic say that today there are as many crime and blight problems as historic structures there. But preservationists’ continued interest in the area’s historic vibrancy and architecture spurred the National Historic Register in December to approve a new marker to be placed in the neighborhood.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Team riled over altered report

2010-01-24T00:03:00.000-05:00

A team of experts tabbed by lawmakers to study two state-run children’s mental hospitals charges that officials in the former governor’s administration subverted the group’s recommendation to keep the facilities open.

Composed of psychiatrists, pediatricians, mental health organizations and others, the group concluded that private providers are not ready to fill the gap that would be left by closing the facilities — the 48-bed Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton and the 16-bed children’s unit at the Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion.

Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last month proposed closing those facilities, a move that would save the state almost $17 million over the next two fiscal years. A last-ditch rally saved the facilities from closure last year. But the state’s biennial budget deficit since has climbed to $4.2 billion, spurring a renewed call for cuts.

In the wake of last year’s debate, lawmakers appointed a 30-member committee to study the children’s mental facilities and to make recommendations on whether to close them. The group produced an 18-page report forwarded to the state Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services in late November.

A revised, final report went to Kaine’s office Dec. 18, the day he announced his budget proposal.

The final document downplays the importance of the Commonwealth Center and the Southwestern Institute and suggests private facilities are more prepared to take on severe cases than they truly are, team members said.

“That report was completely changed,” said Vicki Hardy-Murrell, director of the Virginia Federation of Families, part of the advocacy group Mental Health America. “The General Assembly … cannot make an informed decision if the information that they received is skewed.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Students describe Haiti horrors

2010-01-20T00:10:00.000-05:00

WEYERS CAVE — Buildings crumbled in waves before their eyes.

As darkness fell, pickup truck headlights illuminated the carnage.

Those images clung Tuesday to the minds of four Blue Ridge Commmunity College students and teachers. Survivors of the horror in Haiti, they are haunted most by the sounds of grieving families and unexplained chanting in the distance.

“All night long, they chanted,” said Rebecca Evans, an advisor to the school’s award-winning Students in Free Enterprise team.

Members of the group spoke at a news conference at Blue Ridge a week after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed the capital of the tiny Caribbean country. The SIFE team returned Saturday to the United States.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Judge to stay on cases

2010-01-15T21:07:00.000-05:00

An Augusta County judge has declined to recuse himself from cases handled by a Churchville lawyer he sanctioned in a recent chapter of the reassessment saga.

Judge Victor V. Ludwig wrote that if he excused himself from presiding over Francis Chester’s cases, “I would be shirking my duties as a judge of the 25th Judicial Circuit.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Teen shot by police had past

2010-01-03T09:49:00.000-05:00

Mental and emotional problems, felony charges and a reputation for bucking rules at home marked the brief life of a Stanardsville teen killed in a shootout with police after stealing a cruiser, the boy’s stepmother said Saturday.

Driving a Greene County Sheriff’s Office patrol car, Colby W. Eppard, 18, led police on an hourlong, three-county chase before crashing the vehicle Friday afternoon halfway between Charlottesville and Scottsville, police said. Just south of the intersection of Route 20 and Red Hill Road, Eppard opened fire on police, who returned shots, killing him, police said.

“We tried our best not to let him do whatever he wanted to do,” the boy’s stepmother Terry Eppard said. “There were issues there with him that I feel just kind of took him over … He wasn’t rational when he got upset.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Standard setter

2009-12-27T01:43:00.000-05:00

Through the sting of watching younger white officers get promotions over him, Eugene C. Perry retained the polished professionalism that marked what became a storied career as Waynesboro’s first black policeman.

“He is the most disciplined man I ever met,” said his son Anthony Perry, 54, a retired Army major. “By far.”

Perry, 80, died Dec. 19. He will be remembered with two services this week.

Waynesboro schools were still segregated and many restaurants would not serve black patrons when a biracial committee chose Perry to join the Waynesboro Police Department in August 1963, just weeks before Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Big machines plow path to stranded

2009-12-22T08:08:00.000-05:00

AFTON — Two rescue crews riding in massive snow removal tractors and military-issue vehicles diligently slogged their way up a treacherous road Monday to rescue a stranded motorist and his dog Soda Pop near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

The Other Side of Pearl

2009-12-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Toyoko Inoue was not yet 10 when she saw her first American: a World War II pilot wearing goggles as he sliced his airplane past the window of her home in Sasebo, Japan.

During those dark days, living out evenings in blackout conditions to hide from American bombers, the image of the pilot shocked the young girl peeking out of the top floor window of her home.

“His face was red, he had big eyes and a bald head ... he looked too pink,” recalledToyoko Inoue Belcher, of Waynesboro. “That stuck in my head.”

About 10 years later, despite years of her parents telling her to fear and avoid the American military men who occupied her city during World War II and the Korean War, Toyoko married an American Navy man from Alabama.

Not just any sailor, the late Jim Belcher served on the USS Indianapolis, which had delivered atomic bomb materials that devastated his wife’s country.

Despite those marks against Jim Belcher — and his memories of surviving the famed sinking of his ship by a Japanese submarine in shark-infested waters in the Philippine Sea — their 46-years of marriage taught tolerance to their children and extended families.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Report details abuse

2009-11-22T17:45:00.000-05:00

Standing before officials this month, the target of Augusta County’s largest dog cruelty case called the state veterinarian’s investigation into his kennel an overreaction and a joke.

Three months after authorities seized 99 dogs from his Stuarts Draft kennel, Kyle Brydge asked to keep the permit that allows him to maintain his operation there. The Zoning Appeals Board postponed a decision for 30 days to seek more information.

Perhaps Brydge should have let sleeping dogs lie.

Before the board now is state Veterinarian Rachel Touroo’ 200-page report detailing flea infestations, blindness, dehydration, dental disease and malnourishment in the sometimes-pregnant, small-breed female dogs kept at Oak Leaf Kennel on China Clay Road.

Board members will consider that report, others from Augusta County animal control officers and prosecutors and a wave of letters from locals, animal-lovers and the Humane Society of the United States that beg the county to deny Brydge’s permit request.

“In one case, a dog’s leg was so badly matted with hair and feces that ... circulation appeared to be constricted,” wrote Justin Scally, manager of the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society’s Wilde Puppy Mills Task Force. He traveled to Stuarts Draft on Aug. 21, when the animals were seized. “The smell of the pus and infection ... was extremely overpowering ...

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Down town

2009-11-16T08:38:00.000-05:00

To get the funds, they had to face the facts. More than a third of the building space in downtown Waynesboro is vacant. One in four buildings is in substandard condition. New shops frequently fail.

Such findings play prominently in an unprecedented downtown inventory recently completed by city officials pursuing a master plan for downtown revitalization and up to $1 million in federal money for construction.

The thoroughness of the inventory and its testament to downtown challenges convinced the state Department of Housing and Community Development this month to commit $35,000 in federal money to the city through the Community Development Block Grant program.

Getting the grant money is just the beginning.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Man arrested for fatal fight

2009-11-01T10:40:00.000-05:00

When the fight broke out in the Dollar General parking lot, Chad Fields caught a fist to his face and a can of chili to his head, witnesses said.

Armed with a pipe, he fought back against former friend Russell “Rusty” Huntley, who moments later slammed Fields’ head into the store wall.

Two days later, those blows caused brain hemorrhaging that killed Fields, 26, Augusta County authorities said. Deputies Thursday morning arrested Huntley, 24, of Verona, for voluntary manslaughter.

News of the arrest brought relief to Fields’ wife, Katherine, who said she hasn’t gone out much since her husband died, for fear of running into Huntley.

“They both fought. They both were in the wrong,” she said by phone.

Read the full story and folo at NewsVirginian.com.

Mohawk to close

2009-10-25T20:22:00.000-04:00

WAYNESBORO — In from the frigid morning air, employees at Mohawk Industries caught a second cold shock early Monday when officials informed them that they will be without jobs by the end of the year.

The carpet-backing plant will close Dec. 18, employees said, leaving 120 without jobs.

“To come in on a Monday morning, they hit you with it at 7 a.m.,” said 17-year plant worker Cathy Dofflemyer, of Waynesboro. “It’s just hard.”

The company released a statement saying the plant on 901 S. Delphine Ave. will close. Officials could not be reached for comment.

Dogged by the continued slump in the housing market and dwindling demand for carpet, Mohawk eliminated 40 Waynesboro jobs in August, on the heels of 73 layoffs in January. Companywide layoffs surpassed 1,000 in 2008. The company news release explained the closure as “driven by the necessity of aligning production capacity with market demands.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Cultivated Niche

2009-10-14T22:46:00.000-04:00

HERMITAGE — Looking beyond the black fences of his horse paddocks, Craig Nargi can see a poultry farm, two dairies and rolling Augusta County hills in every direction.

Within his 15 acres, he envisions a seamless continuation of that agricultural landscape, but with additional amenities to attract tourists.

Nargi’s Hermitage Hill Farm and Stables is one of the first Augusta County farms designed for agritourism and advertised accordingly. While the stables function for traditional horse boarding and training, much of Nargi’s business plan anticipates educational trips by school groups, riding lessons and visits from hobby horse riders.

County officials consider Hermitage Hill far ahead of the local agritourism curve, but while Nargi enjoys the unique position, he’d rather not be alone in his endeavor for long.

So Hermitage Hill on Thursday will play host to the area’s first agritourism networking event.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Treasurer again gets failing grades

2009-10-09T23:36:00.000-04:00

For the fourth time in as many years, the Waynesboro city treasurer’s lack of office control, tardy accounting and sloppy recordkeeping have raised red flags in a state audit report.

Sandra “Sandee” Dixon, “continues to not maintain sufficient internal control over state funds or comply with state laws and regulations …” leaving her office “at risk of accounting and other bookkeeping errors,” state Auditor Walter Kucharski writes in a letter to Mayor Tim Williams. “We have issued essentially the same audit findings over the last four audits.”

Under Dixon since 2005, the Treasurer’s Office has botched the handling of about $400,000 in city and state money: about $300,000 in tax and fee collections were not sent to the state in a timely manner, and the city lost $55,000 in revenue and interest income, according to state audits and city officials. ...

“Most of the things I can come back in here and correct right away,” Dixon said of auditors’ suggestions. “I knew I had a lot to learn … This is an ongoing thing … There’s always room for improvement.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.
Folo 1
Folo 2

Woman killed, man in custody

2009-09-09T13:52:00.000-04:00

GROTTOES — As Virginia Lynn Ware lay in her gravel driveway, her boyfriend stood over her, lowered a gun and fired, neighbors said Tuesday.

They heard the couple’s shouting match in Blackrock Trailer Court but didn’t look until the shots.

Then, as mothers pulled children into backrooms and others dialed 911, John Franklin Myers, his screaming teenage daughter and her friends ran off in different directions, witnesses said.

Moments later, a neighbor came to Ware’s side.

“He put his hand on her to see if she had a pulse and said she was dead. Dead,” said neighbor David Morris, 57.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Last of the point-and-shoots

2009-09-07T00:34:00.000-04:00

Judge adds 2 years

2009-09-03T09:08:00.000-04:00

Then the judge read her Waynesboro sentencing order.

“She got 22-and-a-half years?”

“Yes, sir,” Miller and defense attorney John S. Hart, Jr answered in unison.

The judge raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

'They bled her.'

2009-08-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

An elderly woman developed infections and bedsores during five months of abuse as her adopted son and his friends stole more than $6,000 from her, according to charges filed by Augusta County authorities Wednesday.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

State strips doctor's license

2009-08-19T00:24:00.000-04:00

The state board of medicine Tuesday suspended the license of a Staunton physician entangled in accusations of sexual battery, drug use and verbal abuse of patients, including a 5-year-old boy.

Charles K. Weisman, 45, engaged in sexual contact with patients and former employees, smoked marijuana in his office, falsified records, wrote questionable prescriptions and encouraged employees to lie to police when investigations closed in, according to the Virginia Board of Medicine.

The board declared that Weisman’s continued practice of medicine poses a danger to public health.

Weisman denied the long list of charges cited in the board’s 20-page case summary.

“I’ll be fully exonerated,” he said. “It’s all a lie.”

Read the full story and view the a 34-page PDF at NewsVirginian.com.

Attorney: Suspect is remorseless

2009-08-06T23:37:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — A Stuarts Draft man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend kept his eyes down and averted his gaze from witnesses during almost all of five hours of testimony Thursday.

A jury of six men and six women will return to Staunton Circuit Court today to hear the final day of testimony in the murder trial of John Michael Mason, 28.

Staunton police say Mason shot Amanda Kaye Bush, 20, just before 3 p.m. Nov. 30 after an argument outside the home where she worked as a live-in nanny. Five hours later, he wrecked his rented 2008 Dodge Charger in a remote area off the last exit of Interstate 77 near the North Carolina border.

With a pistol hidden in his pants, Mason tussled with a Virginia State Police trooper, racking up additional charges, before authorities arrested him, according to police.

Twice convicted as a sex offender, Mason faces 20 years to life in prison.

During an opening statement, Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Robertson told the story of Bush’s last day and described audiotapes of Mason’s jail calls that are to be played today.

“What you’ll never find is any remorse ... It’s all about him,” Robertson told jurors, alluding to a plan police say Mason hatched to get his charge reduced from first- to second-degree murder.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com

Fire consumes apartments

2009-07-30T00:04:00.000-04:00

At first, it smelled like food cooking and looked like steam rising.

Then came realization of real danger Wednesday afternoon as neighbors came home from work and people inside saw smoke curling into rooms in an apartment building at 120 Parker Heights Road in Waynesboro.

The fire sent flames shooting through the roof of the building, destroying most of eight apartments.

Nobody was injured and three cats and a gerbil were successfully rescued from the two-alarm blaze that Waynesboro firefighters spent 45 minutes working to control.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Muder charges certified against 2

2009-07-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

HARRISONBURG — Tension among members of a burglary ring led two Staunton men to kill their former roommate to prevent him from revealing the thefts to police, witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Witnesses described during more than two hours of testimony a web of criminal enterprises, love affairs and dissolving friendships leading up to the May arrests of Brian P. Bingham and Justin M. Bindel, both 21, in the killing of Michael Ryan Tolsdorf, 20, found dead near the West Virginia border.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Psychedelic mushrooms grow off radar

2009-07-04T01:17:00.000-04:00

When Waynesboro police were tipped Wednesday to hallucinogenic mushrooms growing in a local apartment, they organized a seizure in a matter of hours and arrested a man who could be sent to prison if convicted of dealing the psychedelic drug.

But psychedelic mushrooms rarely make their way onto police radar, despite online communities that openly offer tips on growing mushrooms and first-hand accounts of drug use.

Mushrooms, which include the psilocybin hallucinogen, are most often found along with other drugs, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which rarely targets mushroom growers. Local authorities spoke similarly.

“If we’ve run across these in the past, it’s been possession cases,” Waynesboro police Sgt. Brian Edwards said Thursday.

City police Wednesday seized 107 Mason jars, each containing several psychedelic mushrooms, a record haul, from a New Hope Road apartment. Police arrested Felix Christopher Gutierrez, 31, on charges of possession of a Schedule I controlled substance with intent to distribute and possession of marijuana.

“Very few people actually complain about the police arresting them,” said Alan Rockefeller, 27, of California, who helps moderate online discussions at Shroomery.org, one of a handful of sites dedicated to discussion of illegal psychedelic mushrooms.

“It’s a very vibrant community,” Rockefeller said ...

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com. Read reactions at Shroomery forums.

Hitman bargain hunting

2009-06-26T11:14:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — A Stuarts Draft man asked an undercover police agent to kill his ex-wife and her boyfriend for $700, then talked the price down to $400 before being arrested, according to testimony during a preliminary hearing Thursday.

...

He paid in $20 bills and Sholes told him the murders would happen the next day.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Tomorrow? I’m impressed,’” Sholes testified.

Prosecutor Phil Figura asked about Laguardia’s tone: “So not laughter … but adulation?”

“Absolutely,” Sholes said.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

260 North Commerce

2009-06-23T15:09:00.000-04:00

Rosanne Weber

WAYNESBORO - Inside 260 N. Commerce Ave., sticky and crumbling apartment walls are divided only by dark doors with coarse, glassless peepholes. Outside, a toy-strewn yard hosts drunken, drug-induced fights.

Yet despite almost daily police visits and frequent arrests, many tenants see recent policy changes bringing peace and quiet.

Others are just getting away from the place that’s OK for living, “if you’re strong enough,” a six-year tenant said.

Those on the move are avoiding a new landlord who introduced an aggressive eviction mentality and code of conduct early this year, just after a spurt of violence.

Due in court today are three men: David Sanchez, 20; Isaias Rojas, 22; and Jose Sanchez-Aregin, 20, charged with robbing a fourth man of beer and beating him with a baseball bat Dec. 19.

Read the full story at NewsVirgnian.com.

:: The attack (Piku's rip-roaring account)
:: Piku charged
:: Birthday stabbing
:: Sentencing

Pilot bruised but home

2009-06-20T11:05:00.000-04:00

With bumps and bruises, a Tennessee helicopter pilot has returned home, two weeks after plummeting to the ground in a Greenville cornfield while flying a helicopter equipped to trim trees near electrical lines.

His return to a Memphis suburb came as the National Transportation Safety Board published a preliminary crash report with new details about the engine failure that made for his hard landing just after 11 a.m. June 2.

“I’ll be back in the air in a few more months,” pilot Brian K. Lacks, 41, said by phone Friday, a day after getting home. “I want to thank all the local people ... for their thoughts and their prayers ... the EMS workers for their quick and timely response."

Lacks, working for Aerial Solutions Inc., was flying a helicopter carrying a unique 10-blade dangling saw to trim trees for Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative.

After about 55 minutes, Lacks was preparing to land to refuel in an open cornfield near two homes on Cold Springs Road when he “heard a loud sound from the engine ...

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Getting up

2009-06-16T17:11:00.000-04:00

FISHERSVILLE - The leap carried him two meters through the air before he landed with one foot and one prosthetic leg planted in the pit of sand. His arms pinwheeled.

To fall back would shorten the measurement of Desmond Jackson’s long jump effort.

“Fall forward! Fall forward! Fall forward!” his mother shouted.

Jackson teetered ...

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Hard-luck brothers suspected in church burglaries

2009-06-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

Stephen Bakaitis offers advice to those who struggle, as he says he and his brother do, against poverty and joblessness.

“Don’t revert back to a criminal lifestyle just to make money,” he said. “Stick through it.”

DNA matches have linked Stephen P. Bakaitis, 23, and his brother, Joshua T. Bakaitis, 21, to a string of church break-ins that rattled Waynesboro earlier this year, city police said Wednesday.

After learning of the lab results, police searched Joshua Bakaitis’ Waynesboro apartment and his brother’s tent, turning up items stolen from area churches, according to court documents.

...

Their story, marred by tragedy, has made its way into news pages before. The Bakaitises’ stepbrother was killed in 2007 when he was burned by a foundry wire while trying to steal copper in Radford, according to The Roanoke Times. Their father was also severely burned in the incident.

Their mother was serving a yearlong jail sentence at the time.

Work was hard to find in Radford, the brothers told The Roanoke Times, spurring a move to Waynesboro, where trouble followed.

:: Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com. Follow-up.

Failed robbery prefaced six stickups

2009-06-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — When Brian Brubaker attempted to rob Ladd Convenience store last June, his unarmed, towel-covered hand didn’t intimidate a pistol-wielding employee.

The Crimora man fled, cashless but undeterred, authorities said. Within the month, he would rob, at knifepoint, six store clerks in three counties before his arrest in the bathroom of a Harrisonburg car dealership.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Bear struck at night, amid storm

2009-06-06T14:57:00.000-04:00

CHURCHVILLE — Facing a black bear population still surging despite a record-setting season by Virginia bear hunters last year, state wildlife officials this week voted to extend bear hunting season in the 11-county region including Augusta County.

Bear hunters last year broke their own 2006 record, taking in more than 2,200 bears.

"Despite that, our population is still growing," said David Kocka, district wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

...

But in Churchville, two attacks on pet goats left their owner with bears on the brain.

"Every noise I heard I thought, 'Oh my God, it's back'," said Jan Harman, who found bear tracks surrounding her chicken coop and goat pen Sunday morning, shortly after her goats disappeared.

"We bottle-fed them," Harman said, remembering Noah and Belle, her 110-pound Nigerian dwarf goats.

A black bear, previously spotted by neighbors, first struck under stealth of night Tuesday — amid a storm — nabbing Noah without leaving a trace. Belle disappeared overnight Saturday.

FULL STORY.

Judge upholds 22-year embezzlement sentence

2009-06-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

A hesitant judge cited the “conscience of the community” Tuesday in upholding a jury’s recommended sentence of almost 23 years in prison for a woman convicted of three counts of embezzlement.

Judge Humes J. Franklin said he would not know what to tell jurors if he set aside their recommendation. Then he sentenced a sobbing Wendy Sprouse, 40, to prison. ...

FULL STORY.

Shooter, victim still friends

2009-05-30T00:46:00.001-04:00

A Waynesboro teen Thursday served his first day of a 50-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to shooting his best friend in the chest.

Brian H. Henkel, 19, signed a plea agreement convicting him of firing in an occupied dwelling, thereby concluding a case that police initially said was an accidental, self-inflicted shooting before charges escalated against Henkel.

The victim, Joshua Via, 21, who now lives with Henkel’s family, said he remains “best of friends” with the man who shot him.

“There’s nothing that will change that ever,” he said. “I know that it was an accident and I don’t hold anything against him.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Woman pleads guilty to murder

2009-05-27T10:49:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — Her dark hair pulled back in a white scrunchie, and tissues in her cuffed hands, Nettie Lee Salisbury pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to killing her roommate with a single stab to the heart last year.

As at previous hearings, nearly a dozen supporters came to court for Salisbury, 44, who acknowledged them by smiling and winking before tears overcame her. Salisbury briefly could not stand, but rose again to plead guilty to the second-degree murder of her boyfriend, Kevin L. Bryant, 45.

Generational Divide

2009-05-27T10:44:00.000-04:00

In its 110-year history, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts never attracted a higher percentage of military veterans than from the ranks returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet local and nationwide VFW membership continues to decline as the overall eligible population shrinks and the youngest veterans choose work and family before membership, leaders say.

Those who do join frequently find themselves disconnected from older veterans, if not outright discouraged, leaving longtime members to hold the fort and hope interest will grow over time for the new generation, as it did for them.

Navy veteran Gilbert Grylls, 66, said a few dozen of his 400-plus post members are veterans of recent conflicts.

“They’re sitting around with a bunch of old men, who technically have nothing in common: What do they talk about?” said Grylls, Augusta-Staunton Post 2216 commander. “They don’t come to the post because we have nothing to offer them. I’m working on that.”

Steadily declining membership at posts here and across the country — the ranks at VFW posts nationwide thinned by about 6 percent from 2007 to 2008 to 1.6 million — have some commanders worried about the future of the organization. Nationwide membership peaked in 1991 at 2.2 million.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Taxidermy case a test of law

2009-05-27T10:42:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — Selling the stuffed black bear was fine. But not the “road kill” deer antlers.

That’s how a judge ruled Thursday in the case of Jon Goble, 46, of Churchville, indicted last year after he sold a mounted black bear to an undercover officer from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for $1,000.

Officials searched the man’s Stover Shop Road home, seizing bobcat and coyote pelts, a frozen federally protected barred owl, numerous “road kill” antlers and computer records, before bringing additional indictments for the sale of animal parts.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Suspects drew attention with antics

2009-05-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — Two Staunton men charged with killing a former roommate caught the attention of police in distinct ways before and after the crime.

Police charged one with beating a chihuahua puppy five days before a turkey hunter found Michael Ryan Tolsdorf, 20, dead near the West Virginia state line. The other suspect called 911 two weeks after the body was identified to report that he’d been hit in the head with a shovel by another man.

That led police to a car they subsequently searched over suspicions of links to a string of area break-ins. Two weeks later, Justin M. Bindel, 21, tossed a can out of the window of a white 2000 Chevrolet Lumina in Jacksonville, Fla.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Killer sought

2009-05-09T10:21:00.001-04:00

Trailing a killer aided by more than a half-day’s head start, authorities Thursday tracked down an abandoned car in Waynesboro belonging to an elderly woman found stabbed to death in her home.

But the mystery remained over the slaying of Opal Page, 73, discovered Wednesday evening in a pool of blood inside her modest, single-story white house in the 7200 block of Rockfish Valley Highway.

The retired elementary school teacher’s aide tried to fight off her attacker after someone broke through a back door to get inside, the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office said.

The driver behind the wheel of her dark-green 1998 Chevrolet Malibu got a 15-hour jump on authorities, who searched by helicopter in a 10-mile radius of Page’s home Thursday afternoon and plugged her license plate number and vehicle description into a stolen-car database.

But the car was just one county away. A Waynesboro woman who had seen a report about the killing and the car on the television news called Waynesboro police just after 5 p.m. saying Page’s Malibu was parked in the 1000 block of B Street.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

DMV agent resigns after foul-mouthed tape surfaces

2009-05-06T01:07:00.000-04:00

RUCKERSVILLE — A state transportation agent quit his job Monday amid a state investigation into a recording in which officials say he is heard unleashing a profanity-laced tirade against a truck driver.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles began investigating after the truck driver provided the agency with an audio recording in which he says Brent Uzdanovics, 36, a former Waynesboro policeman, uttered a string of obscenities and threatened to arrest him. Uzdanovics worked as a senior special agent for the DMV out of the agency’s Waynesboro customer service center.

The DMV suspended Uzdanovics without pay pending the agency’s internal investigation into the incident.

“We were given an audio tape of agent Uzdanovics ... and he didn’t act very professionally,” said DMV spokeswoman Melanie Stokes.

It’s the second time in as many years that Uzdanovics has run into trouble over an audio recording. Uzdanovics, who resigned in good standing from the city police force in 2006, was named last year in a $25 million lawsuit over claims he took part in the illegal recording of a rape suspect’s conversation.

This time, Uzdanovics was the one on tape, according to a complaint filed by Dwayne Sims, of Ruckersville.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Bank robbery charge certified

2009-05-06T00:37:00.000-04:00

A SunTrust Bank teller described a robber’s phony dreadlocks in court Monday and the robbery suspect’s cousin testified his relative lamented making off with “only seven beans” — meaning $700 — before a judge certified charges.

Stuart Henry Veney III, 29, of North Charlotte Avenue, faces up to life in prison for charges of entering a bank while armed to commit larceny and making a bomb threat.

Waynesboro police arrested Veney early March 11, just 34 hours after the SunTrust heist, which closed down Broad Street for two hours while Virginia State Police worked to detonate a “disruption shot” inside the bank to disarm what was believed to be a bomb left by Veney. It wasn't.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Should they stay or should they go now?

2009-05-03T01:55:00.001-04:00

A movement is on to keep Mark Cline’s elephants from moving away.

The artist assembled a display of five life-sized fiberglass elephants — titled, “Hannibal Crossing the Blue Ridge” — atop the capped Waynesboro landfill on April Fools’ Day with an OK from city leaders to keep them there for 30 days.

Now May 1 has come and gone, the elephants are still standing, and City Manager Mike Hamp is mulling over a possible extension spurred by e-mails from locals who want the elephants to stay.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Waynesboro Grand Prix

2009-04-28T01:10:00.000-04:00

Teen pleads, avoids jury trial on birthday

2009-04-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — A hesitant judge convicted a Waynesboro teen of aggravated DUI manslaughter Monday, but called a plea agreement’s suggested maximum sentence of two years in prison “rather lenient.”

By entering an Alford plea, Jason M. Steidel, 19, acknowledged that evidence against him was strong enough to convict while not admitting his guilt in a Dec. 12, 2007, crash that killed passenger and friend Timothy Moran, 19, Crimora.

State police estimate Steidel’s 2002 Ford Mustang GT was traveling between 113 and 128 mph on Route 612 near Crimora when it went off the right side of the road on a slight curve.

The car plowed through two fences, scraped several cedar trees, went airborne “like a pole vault,” hit another tree 8 feet above the ground and came to rest 625 feet from the road.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Dog saved from 'suspicious' fire

2009-04-10T13:32:00.000-04:00

Waynesboro firefighters doused a “suspicious” house fire as quickly as it grew Thursday afternoon and stopped flames from reaching much of Greg Blosser’s home at 1427 Fifth St.

Despite the quick response, a criminal investigation into the blaze is just beginning.

Investigators initially considered the fire accidental but discovered unidentified evidence late Thursday afternoon, said Capt. Kenny Hyden. Waynesboro detectives have picked up the case, he said.

Neighbors dialed 911 at 2:19 p.m. to report a porch fire which quickly cast flames high into the air, said neighbors Cody Dawson, 11, and Owen Hall, 10, who said their game of basketball was broken up by the smell of fire.

Neighbors said initial flames seemed to be coming from the front porch and nearby mulch.

Rescuers arrived within four minutes and knocked down the “main body” of the fire within four more, Hyden said.

Only “Mackie,” a pug dog, was inside when the fire began, and he emerged safe and ash-marked in the arms of firefighter Ryan Deola.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Cows come home

2009-04-07T02:59:00.000-04:00

MOUNT SIDNEY — The cows likely went without a fight.

“My cows are really tame,” Edward Sheets said Monday. “They’re hard to drive, but they’re easy to lead.”

The longtime Mount Sidney rancher found five of his red-and-white Hereford cows — including three still-nursing calves — missing Friday morning from their pen on Flint Hill Road.

“Three calves were making a lot of noise,” he said. “I probably noticed that first.”

The quick-thinking rancher checked with neighbors and alerted authorities, but took the missing cow mystery into his own hands: Sheets went to the Staunton Union Stockyards market off Statler Boulevard, where about 1,700 animals were up for sale.

Sheets’ cattle were on the auction block, too.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Epic return

2009-04-01T11:28:00.000-04:00

Avant garde sculptor comes home for April Fools' Day

When Mark Cline and his elephant caravan rolled into Waynesboro on Tuesday, the master of public spectacles upheld more than his April Fools’ Day tradition: he staked a claim — finally — atop the city’s mightiest hill.

Almost 22 years ago, Cline gained statewide attention when he proposed construction of a 60-foot-tall bust of the city’s namesake, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, on the capped landfill. This morning, across the same ridge, a pack of life-sized (but fiberglass) elephants traipse along with a likeness of Cline riding along.

“I’m coming back in a weird way, kind of conquering the hill,” Cline said.

Titled, “Hannibal Crosses the Blue Ridge,” the 30-day display of Cline’s craft is just the latest in more than 25 years of making amusement-park monsters, midtown murals and double-take-inducing sculptures. Last year, he put Batman and Spiderman atop a courthouse in Lexington.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

A century behind bars

2009-03-27T23:15:00.000-04:00

STAUNTON — A judge Thursday sentenced a Stuarts Draft man to 100 years in prison for making and trading child pornography, some of which depicted a toddler.

“I recognize this is for all intents and purposes a life sentence,” said Judge Victor V. Ludwig. “And that is exactly what I intend it to be.”

Scott Forrester, 40, strained against tears while listening to his mother describe his fatherless and discipline-prone childhood. Then he apologized.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Saving graze

2009-03-23T12:44:00.000-04:00

At an Augusta County farm far removed from the Waynesboro pasture where they once roamed, more than three-dozen horses have begun a recovery that their caregivers expect to be slow but sure.

“This is probably one of the worst horse cases I’ve been involved in within my time with the SPCA,” said Debbie Caywood, director of the Augusta County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Most of the 41 animals seized from Tory Allen Garrett’s pasture scored “1” or “2” out of 10 on the Henneke Body Condition Scoring System, which measures weight. A score between “5” and “7” is considered healthy, Caywood said.

Read the full story visit NewsVirginian.com.

SEIZED: 34 horses and ponies

2009-03-18T00:42:00.000-04:00

Authorities Tuesday seized 34 horses and ponies—many of them described as severely underweight—from a Waynesboro pasture.

The raid took place several days after authorities charged Tory Allen Garrett, of Afton, with one count of animal cruelty. He could face more charges pending physical evaluations of the seized animals, said Waynesboro Animal Control officer Dee Price.

“They look good because they’re fuzzy, but if you touch them under the hair, they’re just bones,” said Charlotte Robinson, a retired Department of Agriculture veterinarian.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com

Horse put down, man charged

2009-03-16T23:28:00.000-04:00

Parasites, lice and sores led to the death of an emaciated young horse this week and an animal cruelty charge against an Afton man.

Alerted by an equine veterinarian, Waynesboro authorities pressed one charge against Tory Allen Garrett, 53, but business associates and neighbors said Friday he has systematically malnourished dozens of horses.

Most recently, an 18-month old red filly named “Scarlett” was euthanized after being purchased last month by Jamie Hemp, 28, of Symphony Acres in Staunton.

“She was very very emaciated,” Hemp said. “Probably the worst horse I’ve ever seen … I just wanted to try to save her … he wasn’t going to do it.”

Garrett denied wrongdoing.

“I’ve never had any problems, never had any charges before,” he said. “This was one little animal.”

Neighbors who spoke with The News Virginian and its media partner, NBC29, described emaciated horses on Garrett’s pasture and horses frequently breaking through fences.

Garrett said he works to rehabilitate unhealthy horses.

“I bought skinny horses to try to rehabilitate them,” Garrett said. “I get a lot of ridiculous calls … from people who see a skinny horse … all of them unfounded.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

Baseball bat attackers go for beer

2008-12-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

Eduardo “Piku” Herrera just needed a friend Friday night.

The 36-year-old Waynesboro man lost his 12-pack of beer to three thieves, caught a baseball bat beatdown trying to get it back, dodged more bat swipes while witnesses watched in the street, then had to walk home two hours from the hospital after getting staples behind his left ear.

“For a 12-pack of beer?” Herrera said Monday, laughing and showing off his scabbed left ear and bruises along his back. “I would have shared ... that was my last six dollars too.”

David Sanchez, 20, Isaias Rojas, 22, and Jose Sanchez-Aregin, 20, all of Waynesboro, face felony malicious wounding and armed robbery charges in connection to the attack.

Through laughs and incredulous profanity, Herrera recounted the night: Walking back from the Wilco station after 9 p.m., Rojas swiped Herrera’s 12-pack of Natural Light on the street near the apartment building at 260 North Commerce Ave. Herrera was calmed when he was told to go to the second floor to get the beer back.

“I went upstairs and surprise!” Herrera said. “When I bent down, this other motherf——- came with a baseball bat.”

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com

Everything I wrote this week

2008-12-13T13:16:00.000-05:00

They timed their vacations with clairvoyance. The newsroom's two most veteran reporters (one TV, one newspaper) were on vacation this week when the stories (and rain) came pouring down upon us.

Twelve-hour workdays are nothing new to reporters, but this week, as rock 'n rollers would say, was somethin' else.

If you want to read, read these
:: Charge dropped against twice-tried mother
:: Closure
:: She danced with her entire body

Grouped by series
:: Solving a 1967 double-murder: 1 , 2, 3
:: Teen dancer killed on eve of show: 1, 2, 3, and slideshow

Everything I wrote this week

Monday
1. Wreck kills Verona man
2. Bus driver pleads guilty again
3. Arrest looms in'67 murder

Tuesday
4. He rattled his chains
5. Not guilty of impersonating officer

Wednesday
6. Grim news shakes workers (w/ package: 1, 2, 3, and design that caught a mention.)
7. Testimony pushes stabbing homicide to grand jury
8. Families of victims describe years of waiting
9. Charges dropped against mother

Thursday
10. Teen pedestrian rushed to hospital
11. Teen thug given 6 years

Friday
12. She danced with her entire body
13. Closure (page design)

Saturday
14. Therapy on pointe

His last week

2008-12-09T23:44:00.000-05:00

"I guess I believe the experts, when they say journalism is dying. I don't have any evidence they're wrong. But, sitting here in a newsroom, I realize that I don't care. So what if it's dying? So is the sun. So are the Biblical withering grass and flowers. If the industry, and everything on paper, really does eventually pass away, it doesn't change anything.

I'm usually a pretty pessimistic person, but when I think of journalism, I have a hard time being gloomy. You know why? Because this is a fantastic job. ...

I don't know of many jobs that allow you to be interested in the whole weird world. Journalism encourages it."

Daniel Silliman published his last column for the Clayton News Daily. Read it.

Arrest looms in ’67 murder case

2008-12-09T08:36:00.000-05:00

Forty-one years after two young women were gunned down in a Staunton ice cream shop, a prosecutor said Monday police are preparing for an arrest, ending decades of anguish for the victims’ families.

A woman has confessed to killing Constance Hevener, 19, and her sister-in-law, Carolyn Perry, 20, on April 11, 1967, according to a former Staunton police detective who previously worked the case and a distant relative of one of the victims who has investigated the case.

Authorities neither would comment on that claim nor name a suspect, but Staunton police Chief Jim Williams said new information has spurred investigators to reopen the case. An arrest is expected “soon,” Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Robertson said. Both Williams and Robertson declined to elaborate.

Left cold for years, the case gained new life in June when Joyce Bradshaw, 74, of Verona, told an investigator that she remembered the suspect making a threat and revealing a pistol several days before the shooting at Highs Ice Cream on North Augusta Avenue.

“We were sitting there eating a hamburger and she told me to open up the glove compartment of her car, and she said: ‘I have a gun in there’ ... she said she had a bullet in there ... for a girl that lived on Grubert Avenue and her last name was Hevener,” Bradshaw said.

Several days later, Hevener and Perry were shot at around closing time at the ice cream stand, where both victims worked.

Bradshaw went to police and named the woman.

“In a couple of days [police] said they had checked her out and that she had passed a polygraph test and that the bullets didn’t match the gun,” Bradshaw said. “I did not believe that ... I always felt that she was guilty. But I couldn’t go back to the police because they didn’t believe me.”

In June, one man began to believe.

“When I first became involved, I was friends with a person close to the police department who sent me on some pretty good leads,” said Lowell Sheets, of Staunton, a distant relative of the victims who began looking into the case in 2001. “Before Ms. Bradshaw came forward, we were really just right back where we started from, basically, wondering about who could have been present that night.”

Sheets did not want to interfere with Staunton police, but he said recent rumors about potential suspects alarmed him.

“It’s time,” he said, “to come forward.”

Roy Hartless, who retired in 2005 after 33 years as a Staunton police investigator and now works as a private investigator, agreed.

His years working the case in and out of the department leads him to believe Bradshaw, Sheets and another investigator close to the case.

“Prior to my retirement ... I had made a commitment to the mother of one of the victims that I would do whatever I could to ensure closure to the families,” Hartless said. “It’s important that the public realize ... literally, police personnel went coast to coast for this investigation …” Police have flown to California for interviews, Hartless said.

But, he adds, “the documentation wasn’t there from the start.”

Asked to reopen the case in 1998, Hartless discovered “red flags.”

The victims’ families, he said, never had been interviewed by police.

Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.

City to nip deer problem

2008-11-20T19:44:00.000-05:00

They ate everything but her cabbage.

So Evelyn “Beanie” Thomas, 88, of Staunton, took her deer problem “to the top floor” of City Hall.

“They just riddled my garden. They took everything I had,” Thomas said of the herd of about a dozen deer that has repeatedly ransacked the beets, beans, spinach and tomatoes of her Beverley Court growing patch.

“The only thing they didn’t eat was my cabbage, I don’t know why," she said.

...

James Bowles, 78, has another idea.

“Trap ’em and send them to West Virginia,” said the 49-year Staunton resident. “I’ve never seen one in my yard until this year.”

Bowles said he couldn’t remember a similar problem — or the city willing to take action — since police cordoned off a city park to tackle a squirrel problem, with force, in the early ’60s.

“To make a long story short,” Bowles said of deer, “they ate up everything,” including a 6-foot weeping willow he recently planted.

“Seems like they like mums,” Bowles added.

Read about Staunton's deer problem at NewsVirginian.com.

Waiting on a print

2008-11-19T00:21:00.000-05:00

The waiting began when the last lead ran dry.

Despite an identifying fingerprint, in blood, lifted by Waynesboro police from the scene of an August 2000 strangulation murder, the case went cold when routine comparisons of the print to others in a nationwide database eight years failed to produce a match in eight years.

“My feeling is, some day, we’re gonna get a call from the lab with a print,” said Sgt. Michael Wilhelm, an investigator with the Waynesboro Police Department for 13 years. “I just hope it comes before I retire.”

Investigators say unsolved crimes never get put away for good, but they become “inactive” without new leads, at which point police must wait for tipsters or new technology. Or luck.

Read about Augusta County cold cases at NewsVirginian.com. Story layout.

Man of the hour

2008-11-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

Nigel Stewart, 8, slipped out the door of Shiloh Baptist Church Sunday afternoon with candy and his suit coat sleeve ends in his hands.

Beneath the coat: a shirt lettered and glittering with “OBAMA” and the president-elect’s likeness in sequins.

His shirt matched that worn by his 6-year-old brother and 67-year-old grandfather.

“For me, and for most black people, this was a thing not very likely to happen in our time,” grandfather Robert Stewart said of the election of Barack Obama. “We’re living in a changing world. ... The tone is set, not just for the United States, but for the world.”

In Augusta County there was rejoicing ...

Read more election reactions in The News Virginian.

A pain too familiar

2008-10-26T23:10:00.000-04:00

Andy Coffman still wears his daughter’s high school ring on a chain around his neck.

It came by mail two days after her funeral in March following the crash that took her life at 16. Consoling calls come as often as he prays — every day — and an aunt still sends cards each week.

“Without family, I couldn’t make it,” the Verona man said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t cry.”

Three Augusta County families this year have experienced Coffman’s heartache...

Read the full story on teen driving fatalities and about the boy with the "biggest heart" at NewsVirginian.com

Chase maims cruisers

2008-10-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

He watched the chase at Kate Collins, saw Johnson carefully aim at Kasdan’s wheels before shooting, and was leaning against a tree as the fugitive drove past, “swishing the hair out of his eyes.”

“They had to get him,” Gray said.

Read about the chase and internal police investigation in The News Virginian.

UPDATE: More on the investigation.

Lost and found

2008-10-11T23:28:00.000-04:00

Two West Virginia children missing in George Washington National Forest spent Sunday night huddled beneath leaves in a creek bed worrying about “night beasts” but “snuggled up” for warmth.

They were found still walking that creek bed Monday afternoon, almost 22 hours after going missing, moving deeper into the woods and carrying a pocket full of “wooly worms,” a spider sack and a leaf with a “neat” spore on it.

Read the full search and rescue story in The News Virginian.

'No wrong turns'
Oct. 6, 2008

The voices of two children in the George Washington National Forest sounded like birds to Scott Reese.

“In the moments of quiet I would yell at the top of my lungs in one direction and my son in the other,” the 44-year-old pastor of Goshen Baptist and Miller Memorial churches said. “We went like that for three hours. We finally heard what we thought might be a voice. It sounded like a bird.”

Read the full rescuers' story in The News Virginian.

September fires

2008-10-11T23:20:00.000-04:00

'We're alive.'
Sept. 22, 2008

The sheriff, barefooted, told his wife to get out of the house before he grabbed keys to his truck, backed it from the garage, and brought out Abby and the family’s second dog, Wolf, a German shepherd.

Neighbors awoke to what sounded like banging and clanging, then exploding windows and Liz Fisher’s voice.

Read the full story of the fire at Sheriff Fisher's in The News Virginian.

Blaze torches body shop
Sept. 16, 2008

Burrow, who had owned the body shop for seven years, was eating lunch around noon at the Waffle Inn in Verona when he received a call about the fire.

“I came over the hill and I could see the black smoke,” Burrow said. “In fact, I followed a fire truck here from Verona.”

Read the full story of the body shop blaze in The News Virginian.