The local newspaper of record, The Free Lance-Star, continues its campaign to attack and impugn the late Virginia State Police Trooper Adam Bowen. When the paper isn’t allowing people to post completely disgusting comments about his death in the line of duty, they’re writing hack stories like this.

Would anyone find it surprising that a police officer, who drove more 117,000 miles in rural county was involved in three accidents? Or as that hack Cathy Dyson and her editors put it, “crash[es]”. Yeah, they referred to an accident where a State Trooper hit a deer as  a “crash”. So much for using neutral language, right?

The other accidents? A minor fender-bender why making a U-turn and the third was getting into an accident while responding to a request for assistance from the King George County Sheriff’s Office about a report of a man with a gun. As some might be aware, the trooper was responding to an urgent request for backup from a State Police narcotics agent when he was killed in the line of duty.

And while Ms. Dyson is writing this story, did she bother to get any data about from the State Police about what is the average number of accidents for troopers? Did she contact the Sheriff’s Office to ask them what is typical for their deputies in the county? No, of course not, she went—for some reason I have yet to figure out—to an organization that complains about police agencies’ pursuit policy, which does not apply to any of the accidents that Trooper Bowen was involved in. In fact, it doesn’t even appear that she went to the State Police for any kind of comment. But, honesty, what should we expect from that paper at this point?

Here’s to hoping that the next time that Cathy Dyson calls a the police, they take their timing getting to her, because, you know, urgent calls for assistance aren’t that important.

At least that’s her position on the matter.

Because he’s so damn believable, right?

For those that haven’t been following this story, a student along with her father and grandmother were arrested at Caroline County High School last week following an incident where they allegedly assaulted two sheriff’s deputies, as well as school administration personnel.

According to a reporting by WRIC (Channel 8) in Richmond, the father had previously been arrested twice on school grounds after refusing to leave. According to online court records he already has a pending assault and battery charge as well.

But that doesn’t stop esteemed local reporter Portsia Smith from repeating his claims that the sheriff’s deputies attacked his mother (the student’s grandmother) without provocation, and that’s when he stepped in to help his mother:

The father said everything was fine and they were leaving until his daughter realized she left her purse in the building.

He said his mother and daughter went back to get it while he stayed behind talking to one of the officers.

Then he said he saw his 69-year-old mother thrown to the ground by a sheriff’s deputy. His mother said she didn’t know what was going on.

Did our esteemed local reporter seek comment from the Sheriff’s Office or the deputies involved? Nope.

Did she ask for a copy of the surveillance tape, which captured the incident, from either the school system or the Sheriff’s Office? Of course not.

Did she bother contacting any of the people who witnessed the incident, such as the administration personnel? Nah, that’s too much work.

Hopefully, the deputies sue the father, as well as this incompetent ‘reporter’, for libel when this is all said and done.

From a recent story (get your own link):

Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, (whose district includes part of Caroline County) and Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Woodbridge, (whose district includes Fauquier County) also are unchallenged.

Yes, while Chris Peace’s district — the 97th— does include a portion of Caroline County, it also includes a portion of Spotsylvania County as indicated by the map below:

Spotsylvania County is obviously part of The Free Lance–Star‘s coverage area so they might want to correctly point out which districts are composed of what counties.

Of course, these are the same geniuses that think all of the 99th House district is part of the 28th Senate district; it isn’t.

Part of an info box that was part of a story on the hiring of Ben Boyd as Caroline County’s new high school football coach back on May 22nd:

The newspaper reported police found 300 tablets of Oxandrolone Spa, three boxes labeled Primobolan Depot, one vial labeled Testosterone Cypionate, three vials labeled Nandrolone Deconoate, 210 hypodermic needles, $860 in cash and a handwritten note.

Police investigated after a postal clerk noticed Boyd was sending packages with incorrect return addresses, the newspaper reported.

Boyd, who wasn’t working in public education at the time, was indicted on federal felony charges of illegal possession of steroids. The felony charges were dismissed based on a “strategical decision,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Arenda Allen told The Roanoke Times in 1991.

Boyd, a competitive bodybuilder and hair stylist at the time, was sentenced to 18 months probation and a $250 fine. He said the steroids were for personal use.

Boyd was originally charged with intending to distribute anabolic steroids, but there wasn’t sufficient evidence presented in court that he sold them.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of misbranding and illegally dispensing anabolic steroids.

–Taft Coghill^[1]

Here’s the story from The Roanoke Times (via LexisNexis) from back in 1996 (I’ve bolded the content that was taken word for word):

Salem police arrested Boyd at his hair salon in August 1990 after obtaining search warrants on a package and the salon. Police found 300 tablets of Oxandrolone Spa, three boxes labeled Primobolan Depot, one vial labeled Testosterone Cypionate, three vials labeled Nandrolone Deconoate, two vials labeled Testosterone Cypionate, 210 hypodermic needles, $860 cash and a handwritten note.

The police had become involved after a postal clerk noticed that Boyd was sending express-mail packages with incorrect return addresses. The clerk contacted the U.S. postal inspector.

Boyd was indicted on federal felony charges of illegal possession of steroids. But the felony charges were dismissed based on a “strategical decision,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Arenda Allen told The Roanoke Times in 1991.

[...]

When convicted, Boyd was sentenced to 18 months probation and fined $250. He also had to undergo drug tests. Glen Conrad, the U.S. Magistrate who presided over the case, told Boyd at the time that had there been any evidence to support allegations that he had sold steroids to others, including juveniles, then he would have been jailed for a substantial period of time.^[2]

Damn, that’s some similarity. If I were to try that while in college, my butt would be given a ‘F’ and probably be kicked out of school. Oh well, among “journalists” it’s how you get paid.

1. Taft Coghill. “Caroline coach’s past not disclosed.” The Free Lance–Star. 22 Mar. 2009: <http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/052009/05222009/467594>. [↩]
2. Ray Cox. “CRIMINAL RECORDS DOESN’T COST BOYD.” The Roanoke Times. 11 Oct. 2006: LexisNexis. [↩]

The Free Lance–Star:

EPISCOPALIANS, “God’s frozen people,” are little given to flam- boyant displays of religiosity. But Albert Pollard, Anglican communicant, surely raised his hands skyward and whooped, “Thank you, Sweet Lord!” when news came last weekend that Republicans had named Catherine Crabill to challenge him in the 99th House District. Not every day does an incumbent get an opponent who calls the U.S. government “domestic terrorists.”

Ms. Crabill, a fan of the militia movement whose members scan the horizon for black helicopters, joins that peculiar pantheon of local GOP politicos given to excessive fervor and insights withheld from the rest of us. One thinks of the county supervisor, given to pious utterance, who left her husband to take up part-time residence in a government office (“He[God]‘s not real happy with me right now,” she ruefully acknowledged, a big iron with bullets at her side), not to mention the supervisor candidate who declared public schools unconstitutional.

The weekend GOP convention in Montross might have named no one to take on Mr. Pollard, and should have. He will win hands-down; the nomination of Ms. Crabill, the sole GOP candidate, serves chiefly to bolster the entire party’s kook image. Moderate Republicans, who know the difference between a principle and a fetish, behold the party’s standard in the hands of a Catherine Crabill and lose much complexion (see photo below).

Democrats, of course, are often no summer on the Riviera themselves. But in the 99th, the uncomfortably familiar question once again arises for sensible Republicans: Where do we get these people?

Nice to see that this intrepid hate-blog gives them something to write about…

From an editorial in yesterday’s edition:

HAD IT FOLLOWED a trajectory of indifference just a few years ago, Caroline County now would be a place where residents of one rural community waded through raw sewage; children’s teeth rotted in their head, causing them so much pain they could not follow their teachers’ instruction; and many county people found it hard to borrow a book or log onto a computer.

Yeehaw! We bango-playing slack-jawed yokels here in Caroline County can’t do nothin’ without the benevolent government doin’ it for us! We don’t know nothin’ ’bout them series of tubes and that computer box thing! Dentist, what be a dentist? Why, I just use a pair of pliers to fix me teethes!

And when did this “tolerance of indifference” end? A later section of the article notes “the turn of this century”. Are they implying that the county government didn’t care about these things until recently? What does that say about Board members that have been on the Board since 1988 or 1992?

As per standard operating procedure (SOP), get your own link:

The vast expanse of forest at A.P. Hill helps buffer noise from firing ranges. So the post has been working with conservation agencies to obtain conservation easements on land outside the gates to maintain that separation and restrict incompatible development.

I’m sure the folks at Port Tobago (just east of Port Royal) would love to know that the forest dampers the noise from the new explosive disposal training facility that’s right across the road from them.

I’m sure the folks in Bowling Green would also love to know that they don’t hear any of the noise from A. P. Hill because of the forest, either.

Out of curiosity, is the town of Bowling Green an “incompatible development”? Are they going to annex the town and bulldoze it? (Fingers crossed!)

Fort A. P. Hill has a lot of nerve to be whining about development around its borders when they bring nothing into the county.

The civilian staff that they hire is nonexistent compared to other places (e.g., Dahlgren). They bring in no commercial development compared to Dahlgren either. They pay a couple thousand dollars every year ($3,140 in FY07) in return for their tax-exempt status. If that land was privately held, the county would probably getting a hundred times that amount.

From that rag (get your own link):

The visitors center was nine years in the planning and building, as the county sought private sponsorships and slowly amassed the money to pay for the 7,000-square-foot building, which also houses the county’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

No tax money went into the project; it was funded entirely by grants, gifts and donations.

Oh, really? Then why did the county borrow $600,000 or so just to finish building the visitors center?

The debt service on that loan will be paid out of the transient occupancy fund (that money comes from the transient occupancy tax) and the general fund (real estate and personal property taxes).

Not only that, but the county decided a whole next position was needed just to run the visitors center: the “tourism manager”, Kathy Beard.

The county is also in the process of hiring three or more “travel counselors” to staff the visitors center!

From The Fish Wrap:

The following people were indicted recently by a Caroline County grand jury:

[...]

Melissa Nicole Bentley, 23, Woodford, assault and battery against a family member

According to online court records, an indictment was sought against Melissa Nicole Bentley on October 1, but a true bill was not returned. I.e., she wasn’t indicted.

Michael Thomas Brockmyer, 41, Ruther Glen, sodomy

A Michael Thomas Brockmyer was indicted on January 2, 2008, for a count of rape and a count of forcible sodomy (not sodomy, which isn’t even against the law in Virginia anymore [or in the United States as a whole] after Lawrence v. Texas).

He pled nolo contendere to two counts of aggravated sexual battery on October 3.

[...]

Patrick Ryan Flaherty, 21, Stafford, grand larceny

Again, according to online court records, an indictment was sought against Patrick Ryan Flaherty on October 1, but a true bill was not returned. I.e., he wasn’t indicted.

They have some nerve publishing false information against someone with such a great Irish name.

In what could only be a paid advertisement masquerading as a news story, The Free Lance–Fish Wrap talks about how the State Fair will be bringing in gazillions of dollars into the county:

Screams from thrill-seekers echo over the State Fair of Virginia’s midway as one ride–the Extreme–wavers from side to side, above the crowds.

Music blasts from various games and vendor booths, while the scent seeps out of a tent housing freshly prepared turkey. Visitors to the rabbits, geese and other caged animals point excitedly and take pictures.

These are the rides, animals, sounds and food the fair will offer next year in Caroline County–but will the screams and crowds follow?

State Fair and county officials hope so.

[blah, blah, blah]

If the lazy “reporters” at The Fish Wrap had bothered to read the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday, they would have seen this great gem in a story about the fair (H/t: Tom James):

Henrico won’t suffer financial losses from the fair’s departure, said John Vithoulkas, the county’s finance director. Tax revenues from the fair, which draws about a quarter million visitors each year, are minimal. “It’s just a blip,” he said.

The State Fair of Virginia is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Most of its activities are exempt from income taxes because of its mission to promote agriculture and education.

Yeah, the State Fair is a nonprofit, but its president, Curry Roberts, makes more than $200,000 for working 60 hours a week.

At least that’s what he tells the IRS.