Environmental - Pollutant Discharge Permit - Sewage Treatment Facility 
Published: September 1, 2008
A trial court erred in ordering the State Water Control Board to issue a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit to a utility company that manages the sewage treatment facility for an Accomack County residential neighborhood, and the Court of Appeals reverses the trial court order and affirms the board’s decision to deny the utility’s [...]
Administrative - Sexual Abuse Finding - Jurisdiction
Published: September 1, 2008
The Court of Appeals upholds an administrative finding by the Virginia Department of Social Services that appellant sexually abused his nine-year-old granddaughter during a family beach trip to North Carolina, rejecting appellant’s contention that the Virginia agency had no subject matter jurisdiction to make a determination for acts that occurred in another state.
Appellant contends that [...]
Domestic Relations - Delinquency - Custody Return - Jurisdiction
Published: September 1, 2008
A circuit court did not err in dismissing a mother’s motion to return custody of her son after the child’s prior delinquency charges were dismissed, the Court of Appeals holds.
The JDR court lacked jurisdiction to dismiss charge 04, destruction of property. The May 22, 2006 order adjudicated the child delinquent on charge 04 and, pursuant [...]
Domestic Relations - Termination Of Parental Rights - Cocaine Addiction
Published: September 1, 2008
The Court of Appeals affirms termination of the parental rights of a mother who was a homeless cocaine addict prior to the child’s birth and who, after the birth of the child, was incarcerated for failure to register as a convicted sex offender.
Welch v. Newport News Dep’t of Human Servs. (Per Curiam) No. 0538-08-1, Aug. [...]
Domestic Relations - Termination Of Parental Rights - Drug Abuse
Published: September 1, 2008
The Court of Appeals affirms termination of the parental rights of a mother who tested positive for marijuana and cocaine and whose special-needs child, born in 2003, was determined to be abused and neglected and whose mother had no home and had charges pending against her.
A caseworker assigned to the child from October 2007 until [...]
Criminal - Venue Change - Murder & Robbery - Batson Claim
Published: September 1, 2008
A circuit court trying defendant for first-degree murder and robbery did not err in denying defendant’s motion for a change of venue based on prejudicial pretrial publicity, the Court of Appeals holds.
Defendant based his motion for a change of venue on an April 1, 2006 Roanoke Times newspaper story in which a newly appointed [...]
Search & Seizure - Consensual Encounter - Man In Parked Car - Drugs In Bag
Published: September 1, 2008
Police had reasonable articulable suspicion to seize defendant and order him out of his car after he three times failed to comply with a police request not to reach down to the floorboard of his car, parked in a motel parking lot where police recently made other drug busts, and the drugs found in a [...]
Criminal - Indictment Sufficiency - ‘Interstate Threats’
Published: September 1, 2008
A Big Stone Gap U.S. District Court says an indictment is “barely” sufficient to charge defendant with transmitting in interstate commerce a communication threatening to injure the person of another in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), with its listing of specific dates but no identities of victims.
The modern rule is that all the words [...]
Civil Rights - Correctional Employee - Disability Discharge - Equal Protection
Published: September 1, 2008
A Roanoke U.S. District Court dismisses plaintiff former employee’s claim that defendant correctional officials violated her due process rights when they gave her the option to resign or be terminated, but the former rehabilitation counselor has stated an equal protection claim.
Plaintiff states she suffers from traumatic brain injury, severe fibromyalgia and severe depression, and these [...]
Criminal - Securities Fraud - Civil Enforcement - Fee Petition
Published: September 1, 2008
In this civil enforcement action for securities fraud violations, a magistrate judge for the Charlottesville U.S. District Court recommends approval of an application for accountant’s fees and expenses.
There is an issue that needs to be addressed so there can be a meaningful review of all future fee applications submitted to this court by the receiver, [...]
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