I have an idea- dont kill police officers

Don't kill cops, then the jailers will not have the opportunity to kill you. For the record, I prefer a system where the court system handles the criminals, not those who espouse vigilante justice since our system relies on innocence till proven guilty. At the same time, I do not have any sympathy for accused cop-killers who are found dead in their jail cell.

I am sorry for the accused's grieving family, clearly the person who killed the accused should be tried/convicted/punished for the crime. But seriously, this never would have happened, if that thug didnt kill a person who was doing his job to protect the community from thugs like him.

I grieve the loss of that police officer-whose partner died several years ago while on duty, who started a fund to support his deceased partner's family, whose children will never have daddy come home again, whose wife will now struggle to keep her family together without his income and meager insurance. Dont kill police officers and you probably wont end up dead in a holding cell.

Mini-lecture- it completely undermines the trust we have in the police/sheriff's department if accused people end up dead. Prince Georges county, MD will likely not recover from these murders any time soon. If you are an officer in that County, how will you ever get witnesses to cooperate with you? how will juries trust what you are saying when it could just be expedience? how can you go out and do your job when this guys' cohorts put a target on your back? Understatement- nothing good will come from this.

Veto the expansion of death penalty

A good prosecutor has a lot of work to do. The General Assembly recently passed a bill that now moves to the Governor's desk to expand who is eligible for the death penalty. If this bill is signed, people present at (before/after too) a death penalty eligible crime, but did not actually pull the trigger can be sentenced to the death penalty.

A prosecutor should have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant eligible for the death penalty actually pulled the trigger. If this ends up with less death penalty eligible defendants because of a lack of evidence, the defendants still can be found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. I urge the Governor to veto the bill, and the General Assembly not to override the veto.

Drug Courts Work

My good friend Jeff is the Director of the Drug Court in Cville. He has invited me numerous times to come to the graduations of the program. I have not taken him up on it, mostly because I have a conflict at 8:30 in the morning on those days. He tells me, and others have told me as well HOW great these graduations are because of the long road the graduates have traveled.

I also saw Judge Hogshire and Jeff at two presentations about the drug courts this year- the Bar Association and the Dem Breakfast.

Participants in the program have random and frequent drug tests the whole time in the program (12-24 month average- longer than the prison term they would have served). The participant must have a job and take care of their responsibilities (child support) and attend multiple meetings/classes a week to ascertain progress and learn new skills.

Drug Courts are not a free pass to go back to a life of crime. Given the limited funding of the program and the regular threats of cuts to the program, the courts continue to impress and graduate productive citizens. Can that be said for most regional jails? What are we trying to prove by warehousing everyone in prison? I am unsure why the House of Delegates took the money out of the budget for this valuable program- it reeks of political expediency ("we are so tough on crime we will let nonviolent drug criminals go to jail at a greater expense than these drug courts").

I pray cooler heads prevail and drug court programming is restored to the budget through the conferee process. Del. Rob Bell has never attended a graduation and likes to have his head in the sand about the issue while slashing the budget, if you are in his district, let him know drug courts work and should not be a political football.

Police Searching for Vehicle in Suspicious Death

In my bloglines feeder- which I love- I get RSS updates from the City of Charlottesville. This morning's was disconcerting. A suspicious death on St. Clair Street in the Martha Jefferson neighborhood- a 26 year old woman had been shot. Police are looking for her car. Below see the test of the press release and dont forget to subscribe to the City's RSS feed for updates on city happenings.

CONTACT PERSON: Detective James Mooney/ Sgt. Marc Brake

CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER: [434] 970-3374


"CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - On 11-09-07 at approximately 14:46 hrs the Charlottesville Police Department responded to 807 St. Clair Avenue for a report of a suspicious death. Upon arrival police found the victim Jayne Warren McGowan, a 26 year old University of Virginia graduate dead in her living room. The victim was apparently shot and died as a result of the gunshot wound. Police are currently looking for the victim’s vehicle which apparently was taken from the residence. The vehicle is a Nissan Sentra, with Virginia license AED-2522 and is gold in color. If you see this vehicle, do not approach the occupants who should be considered armed and dangerous and call 911 immediately. Anyone with information about this case should call Detective Mooney or crime stoppers at 977-4000. Any media related questions contact Sgt. Brake at 970-3970."

Leadership at a Crossroads

There are two parts to LC, the first ten weeks are a four or five hour class once a week. The other is a group based, self-directed project to be completed by May when we graduate! This week was our last official Leadership Cville class.

I enjoyed every week (although I was sick one week and only could savor the wonderful BRIX lunch- sponsored by BartonMalow- before I went home). I am one of those annoying people who get a lot out of things, so while some are bored, I am on the edge of my seat (sidenote to my high school teachers- this happened sometime in college- I apologize for napping, doodling or otherwise not focusing in your class).

So what project idea do I have after learning so much about the Charlottesville-Albemarle region? ... I may not present an idea, I havent quite decided. Sometimes it is nice to be a member of a group, not the originator of the idea. I have a lot of energy to move a project, but I find it difficult to move people to the idea of my project and keep them motivated throughout. I am still learning about leadership.

I have one idea- I actually had this inspiration at a QCC meeting on Restorative Justice. I am throwing it out because I want someone to make this happen and I have very little time to devote to doing it right.

My idea involves offenders coming out of jail (non-violent and other qualifiers that I am not thinking of right now); recidivism rates are exceptionally high among this population because offenders find it difficult to get a job. It is hard to find a job for a number of reasons (training, depression and offender status). My hope is to have a non-profit in this community (ie OAR) to work with Chamber businesses and offenders to facilitate transition from jail to the workforce. Cville has an inordinate amount of non-profits so I dont want anyone starting another new one, and the jail here is progressive so the folks do try to help promote a smooth transition already. However, with training specific to the jobs available, mental health treatment and reasonable expectations on the part of the offender perhaps the recidivism rate would improve.

What about it? Is this possible? Is it true I dont have time or am I making excuses?

Jail

Yesterday had to be the most interesting day of the month so far, that is saying a lot given the awesome and interesting experiences I have had lately.

My Leadership Cville class topic yesterday was criminal justice. Here is Marijean's experience from last year, I will try not to be redundant. My experience mirrors hers. This class is held at the Regional Jail, and the participants receive tours of the jail and the juvenile detention center. We also heard from Chief Longo (shout out), the second in command at the Jail and Charlie Edwards who is the superintendent of the Juvenile Detention Center. Later in the day we also heard about OAR programs-drug court, restorative justice and others. Being the dork I am I was on the edge of my seat all day, I found all of it fascinating.

My mantra of "thank goodness I live in this area" extends to the progressive programming for the people spending time in jail attempting to find ways to bring people back into the community as functioning citizens less likely to end up back in jail. Many, many areas of the state do not attempt rehabilitation or education for offenders.

While it may not be obvious, I believe our community is ultimately served by the programming, it gives offenders the opportunity to succeed after committing a crime and if successful these people may make a real difference in our community (for the better).

Dont misunderstand me, it would be incredibly naive for me to think all of the offenders can be rehabilitated- honestly. The chief gave us a small but illustrative story of a child who was in big trouble all of the time- and he said no matter what time of day or night it was, whenever someone knocked on the door, the child's guardian was drunk- and not the 'just been drinking' but actually passed out drunk- morning or night. With no models of good behavior, it takes an immense amount of self-discipline to get out of the criminal system- and to seek the intensive treatment needed (for all sorts of things)- then try to find a job or heck even go to school- the barriers to normalcy or success grow everyday and probably seem like a pipedream.

Then there are the victims of these crimes. The class didnt focus too much on victims, as is typical in the criminal justice system. David Saunier the director of the Restorative Justice program attempts to empower victims and provide a way to heal for both victims and offenders. If you have an opportunity to hear him speak- go hear him- he is an amazing speaker and so committed to the program.

The regional Jail is having an open house soon- I think it is this Sunday or next, I cant find information on it- but you should have a tour and check out what is happening at the jail.

Armed Robberies in Charlottesville

Generally I do not watch the news here in Charlottesville. I was addicted to the news in northern virginia and here I dont feel the constant threat of terrorist attacks like I did there so I watch the news less.

So I am driving home this AM from my walk with mom (thanks!) and I hear the short news break on the radio.
One story involved a suspicious package at Fashion Square mall that left parts of the mall closed for several hours.
The other story involved a string of armed robberies (2) over the course of a day (three suspects at large).

These armed robberies come on the heels of additional robberies lately an armed robber attempted to rob a woman walking on the 2100 block of JPA on New Year's Day (she sprayed them with pepper spray) and before Christmas there were at least two attempted robberies in parking lots (Barracks Road and KMart Shopping Center).
Anyone with information call Crimestoppers at (434) 977-4000

I hope the police catch these guys soon. The thing about northern virginia news is generally I never had any clue about where these crimes were happening, in Charlottesville I always know where it is.

Mistrial Answers

Finally, I know the reasons for the mistrial- apparently a juror overheard some folks discussing the media coverage of the case then proceeded to tell two other jurors. What a gigantic waste of time. Thanks to nbc29 for the update.

Mistrial

NBC 29 reports a mistrial in the three week federal racketeering trial in Charlottesville. Scouring the internet for the actual reason for the mistrial- since no C'ville news outlet currently states the reason.
The closing arguments were rough ('emotional' even acc to the news reports) so the mistrial could be a result of them. I look forward to the answer.

Arson.

Arson interrupted a conference I attended last week in Virginia Beach. The Hilton hotel did a good job trying to placate us hungry, cold guests even though it had nothing to do with the fires.
Three fires were set on three different floors. I stayed on the 14th floor, where one fire was, another on the 6th and the 2nd. Pretty scary really since the police had to go room by room to look for the suspect(s) who they feared were still in the hotel. Officials still have not arrested anyone.
The sprinkler system did not go off in my room despite the fire being caddy corner to my room (it was started in the maid's area where extra towels etc are kept). I was impressed with the sprinklers.
I was on the second floor (I didnt see anything except employees with fire extinguishers) when the fire started. NOW- I go everywhere with my cell and wallet. Thankfully I did have my room key so when I was allowed to my room 4 hours later, I could retrieve my 'necessities'
Otherwise I had a fabulous time at the beach. I got to run on the sidewalk (this Saturday I run a mile!) and hang out with fun colleagues, oh and I learned a lot!

Prosecutors Rock

Patrick Fitzgerald is awesome. I am listening to his briefing. The evidence is so compelling. Patrick Fitzgerald is a stand up guy who took his job very seriously AND I am grateful for it. My only complaint- if this announcement was one year ago today.