Transparency News, 5/24/2022
Tuesday
May 24, 2022
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state & local news stories
Witnesses in the upcoming murder trial of former Virginia Tech football player Isimemen David Etute must tell jurors their real names and cannot testify anonymously, a judge ruled Monday. Etute, 19, of Virginia Beach, is scheduled to begin a two-day trial Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court. On Monday, attorneys argued one of several pretrial motions that remain to be decided. Attorney Katie Turk of Radford, the daughter of Etute’s other defense lawyer, Jimmy Turk, urged Judge Mike Fleenor to allow some witnesses to testify without using their real names. This was necessary so the witnesses could discuss “sensitive and highly personal” topics, Katie Turk said. Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Jensen opposed the defense’s request, calling anonymous testimony “antithetical to the criminal justice system in Virginia” and noting that witnesses in other cases regularly delve into personal topics and give their names while doing so. Fleenor agreed with Jensen and denied the defense motion, saying that the public has a right to know the identity of people offering testimony in criminal trials. Naming witnesses is part of holding open, public trials in criminal cases, and is “fundamental to our system of justice,” Fleenor said.
The Roanoke Times
The effort to remove two School Board members appears to be over following a Circuit Court hearing this morning during which the petitions against Brenda Sheridan (Sterling) and Atoosa Reaser (Algonkian) were dismissed for lack of substance in front of a packed courtroom. The hearing punctuates a year-long effort to remove School Board members for their involvement in a private Facebook group and support of progressive social policies in schools. Retired Judge Thomas Padrick Jr. of the Second Judicial Circuit in Virginia Beach was designated to hear the cases after all Loudoun judges recused themselves. He ruled that because special prosecutor Joseph D. Platania found no evidence of neglect of office, the motion to quash the petitions was granted.
Loudoun Now
editorials & columns
For the past seven years, in one state in this country, drivers have been able to say almost anything they wanted on their license plates. They could purchase plates that said “F*** YOU” if that’s what they felt like doing. They didn’t even need the asterisks. They could spell it right out in big letters. That one state, you might be surprised to learn, is Maine. More than one observer has called it the “wild, wild west of vanity license plates.” At the moment, I am looking at a photograph of a plate in Maine that reads “KISMYAS.” But the wild west is being tamed. A law enacted by the Legislature in 2021 allows the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to reject any application for a plate that is profane, encourages violence, refers to genitalia or is sexually explicit in any way. Bill Diamond, the state senator who sponsored the new law, called the number of complaints about vulgar plates “astronomical.” He said it was “past time to reinstate some commonsense restrictions.” Perhaps ironically, the public official charged with enforcing the law, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, is a former executive director of the Maine chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “You can’t escape the proliferation of the F word,” Bellows said recently. “If you can’t say it on the 6 o’clock news, it shouldn’t be on a license plate. If you really want an offensive slogan on your car, then you can use a bumper sticker.” A bumper sticker, as she pointed out, is private property. A license plate is issued by the government and can therefore be subject to regulation.
Alan Ehrenhalt, Governing
