Though the person who spoke that sentence to me yesterday, has never lied to me, I can’t believe the outrageous information is true. A quick investigation to get a second opinion of sorts leads me to accept his four words are correct. They’re not prosecuting them. I’m stunned. Floored.
On September 2, 2009, I was charged with obstruction of justice in the city of Charlottesville. They used an operation conducted by Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement near Belmont Park that I witnessed two months earlier on July 9, 2009, as grounds for the charge.
On October 15, 2009, I pleaded guilty to the charge but, man, did I loathe doing so. It’s really not the pleading guilty part that burns me up inasmuch as having to plead guilty to that particular charge.
My presence at the location the Task Force was carrying on business in no way prevented them from performing their duties -- they set ‘em up; they took ‘em down.
When it looked like Charlottesville’s commonwealth attorney, Dave Chapman, and I would be facing off in court over the matter, I was ready as all get-out to fight the freakin’ allegation. Unfortunately the battle was not to be.
In a media interview after the case was over, Mr. Chapman declared I had been “there [at Belmont] driving around,” that “the appearance of the same vehicle could spook the target,” and my proximity to what they were doing was “threatening to blow the officers’ cover.” He’s admitting nothing actually did “spook the target” and that no one’s “cover” was blown. JADE successfully got two arrests out of that procedure. Driving around isn’t illegal. I’m sorry, but where exactly was the obstruction?
Listen folks, having the potential to commit the crime is not the same as actually committing the crime.
But, yeah, that’s how they roll.
Joe Hatter has sniveled to more than one person that since I could sneak up on him with a camera, I could ambush him with a gun. While it’s technically true, it’s unlikely. It’s the equivalent of me insisting that since Hatter can light a match, he could burn down my house. Again, technically true. But irrational.
I repeat: having the potential to commit the crime is not the same as actually committing the crime.
Anyway, back on track, while I got prosecuted, guess who did not.
Jeffrey M. Terry.
Who’s he, you ask? He’s one of the men JADE hooked up in the Belmont Park operation. The same Belmont Park operation I supposedly got in the way of. The same Belmont Park operation that landed me the charge of obstruction of justice. For which I was prosecuted. Mmhmm.
Despite Mr. Terry, an already a convicted felon, being caught with 45 grams of crack and a 9mil, the city of Charlottesville opted to Nolle Prosequi all four -- that’s 1-2-3-4 -- of the felony charges that the latest TFO, Tavis Coffin, slapped on him. Seeeeeeeeee:
Gosh that Mr. Terry is one lucky fellow, eh?
I also heard the other man snagged that night, the out-on-bail Marchella J. Alexander, is going to have his single charge of cocaine distribution dropped too.
I confess I don’t think like most people. But I can’t imagine that if given the choice between me being prosecuted or those two men being prosecuted, most people would point their fingers in my direction. Yet I’m the one with the conviction. The pair of dealers? Well, they’re freely roaming the streets. With coke. And firearms. Courtesy of the Task Force’s tax-payer-funded phenomenal “catch and release” program, I guess.
(Addendum)
