The VLW Blog

Deep in today’s Washington Post story about the deadliest crash in Metro history is this nugget, flagged by On The Record, a blog of our sister paper in Maryland: The first lawsuit against Metro as a result of the crash was filed yesterday, and more are expected. The parents of Davonne Flanagan, 15, of the [...]

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Virginia has 95 counties (as well as 39 cities). Here, with a nod of thanks and acknowledgement to the people at the Library of Virginia behind “The Hornbook of Virginia History,” are 10 counties that don’t exist anymore, with a little Virginia history thrown in. 1. Alexandria County. A portion of Fairfax County ceded to [...]

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Special education directors in Hampton and Newport News have little concern over a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing reimbursement for private special ed placements. According to the Daily Press, the high court recently ruled that parents of special education students can be reimbursed for private school tuition and costs, even if their children never [...]

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A Roanoke County jury tonight refused to convict a man charged with manslaughter and hit-and-run in the death of Roanoke lawyer Tom Farrell last year. Neil Horn, lawyer for defendant Jeffery Young, argued the commonwealth failed to prove Young’s car was involved in the incident.  There was little evidence linking Young’s car to the scene [...]

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An 8-to-1 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court today held it was an unconstitutional intrusion for school officials to search a 13-year-old girl’s bra and underpants for a suspected prescription drug.  “[T]he content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion,” wrote retiring Justice David Souter for the majority. By a 7-to-2 vote, [...]

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The man accused in the hit-and-run death of Roanoke lawyer Tom Farrell will skip an insanity defense. Jeffery Young’s defense lawyer, Neil Horn, rested his case today without presenting any scientific evidence of his client’s mental condition, although Young’s mother testified that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Horn contends the prosecution’s circumstantial evidence fails [...]

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The Loudoun County school board will cover the legal bills for a high school administrator who was acquitted of possession of child pornography. Ting-Yi Oei of Reston, an assistant principal at Freedom High School, racked up legal bills of $167,621 over the course almost a year, reports The Washington Post. Oei was arrested last August [...]

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Law professor A. Benjamin Spencer will work on appeals at the U.S. Attorney’s office on a pro bono basis. According to a press release from Washington & Lee, Prof. Spencer will be assigned to the district’s Appellate Unit, assisting the office with its caseload. The conditions of Spencer’s appointment permit him to take on a [...]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split 6-5 today in upholding the constitutionality of Virginia’s partial-birth abortion law. The votes in the case will underscore the arguments of those who stress the importance of the President in shaping the country’s judiciary. All six members of the majority were appointed by Republicans, and all the [...]

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The trial of a man accused in the death of Roanoke lawyer Tom Farrell will go forward on manslaughter and felony hit-and-run charges, but the judge has dismissed murder charges against Jeffery Young. There were no witnesses to the 2008 incident where Farrell was struck by a vehicle and killed while jogging.  Young never gave [...]

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