Choir practice

The "forum" was sparsely attended. Several people walked out during the proceedings.

On September 24, what had been expected to be a “non-partisan” forum for candidates for Goochland Sheriff turned into a love fest for the adoring fans of Sheriff candidate Levin White and an opportunity for Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney D. Michael Caudill to vent his dislike for the current sheriff, singing to a choir of supporters.

Following months of frustrated interactions with an alleged “non-partisan committee” that seems to have been hijacked by NOVA democrats, the Goochland Republican Committee withdrew from participation in the “forum” making it a democrat/tea party show. Politics sure does make for strange bedfellows. The organizers said several times that it was a “nonpartisan” forum. Saying doesn’t make it so.

 Sheriff candidate Steven Creasey, who issued a statement in May that he would not take part in partisan forums, withdrew from the event. As is the wont of their fellow party members, the Goochland Dems and their new TP buddies, wasted no time in trashing Creasey for declining to be ambushed.  

And an ambush it was designed to be.  Moderator Gene Rossi was an old friend of White and at least one of the organizers. Goochland has many churches but strangely, the invocation was given by a pastor from the Grove Avenue Baptist Church. There was an overall attitude of arrogant condescension toward the people of Goochland, especially Creasey supporters. Leaflets distributed outside the high school explaining why Creasey was not participating were snatched out of attendee’s hands and declared garbage. Even though at least one set of the “rules” prohibited wearing shirts or stickers favoring a candidate, White supporters wore both. There was no Kool aid in the lobby, and no one knitted during the proceedings.

Few people care how many points Rossi scored in basketball in his youth or that he likes baseball. At the end of the evening silly questions about Caudill’s socks and how White would build a banana split only added to the absurdity of the evening. Organizers said that the event was being recorded and would be placed on their website, whatever that is, in its entirety, they did not promise that it would be unedited.  The format consisted of opening and closing statements and questions submitted by citizens. There was no explanation of how the questions were selected or if the candidates had seen them beforehand.

White continued his strategy of mongering fear that eastern Goochland will soon be overrun by human traffickers, prostitutes, and drug dealers at the hotel under construction and the recently opened Drive Shack.  He said that within a week of the hotel’s opening it will be flooded with criminal activity, including prostitution, human trafficking, and drug dealing and that the sheriff’s office needs to get ahead of it. He predicted more of the same in western Goochland when the truck stop and industrial park are built.  It was unclear if he referred to the Midpoint Industrial Park in Hadensville, which has been there for years, or rumored development in Louisa just over the county line. He contended that Goochland must be proactive about growth and stop doing the same old thing.

A greater “police presence” is needed in Centerville to combat the evils of growth there, White contended. He touted his experience in community policing in Richmond housing projects to enable this. He sort of commended the supervisors for containing economic development to a relatively small part of the county to generate tax revenue.

White failed to explain how community policing would work in a rural area where many people live on acreage. Will there be beat cops in Kinloch?

A Goochland resident for 17 years, White said that while coaching GYAA sports he heard “concerns” about local law enforcement, but never explained why he wants to be sheriff. Having knocked on more than two thousand doors in Goochland White said that people he talked to raised concerns about the lack of resource officers in our three elementary schools and the Goochland Sheriff’s Office not being part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICACTF).

Superintendent of Goochland Schools Dr. Jeremy Raley explained that the schools “work in collaboration with Sheriff Agnew to determine where the deputies that he is able to provide would be most beneficial.  For two years now, road deputies have stopped by our elementary schools at random intervals to provide a presence.  I have been at our elementary schools in the morning when they have been greeting students and parents and have received a lot of positive feedback regarding their presence.”

White contradicted himself several times about how would treat deputies. “You can’t just fire people,” he said in response to a question about how he would deal with nepotism. “Employees must be treated with kid gloves.” He later said that deputies should do what they’re told to do and if they’re not willing to sit for mandatory training “we don’t need you.” Which is it?

White said that he will require all deputies to reapply for their jobs so he can evaluate their resumes to see what he’s got, to avoid “inheriting problems”. So “you can’t just fire people”, but you can manipulate them to leave?

White said that he would hire retired officers from other jurisdictions, who can work for an additional six years to increase their pensions, to quickly boost the number of deputies. He did not explain how burned out cops will become part of a community law enforcement team that protects and serves the citizens.  White did not mention how he will pay for this. Start-up cost to equip a new deputy is approximately $110 K exclusive of benefits. Goochland, presumably, would be expected to contribute to these pensions with a higher cost for older employees adding to the county’s unfunded pension liability.

Caudill explained that the function of the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is to prosecute criminal offences and seek justice. His office, he said, is transparent, and open for citizen inquiry at all times. He had high praise for his staff. Caudill said that he has a wide range of experience including state trooper, prosecutor and defense attorney that prepared him well for his job. He began his legal career in the office of the Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney.  “Tim Sanner (currently Goochland Circuit Court Presiding Judge) taught me how to do court and do it right.” Caudill said he will not take ill-prepared cases to court, implying that the Sheriff’s Office is not doing its job. Curiously, Caudill’s two immediate predecessors managed to obtain convictions, including those for murder, on cases prepared by the same Sheriff’s Office with which they had a productive working relationship.

In response to a question about how deputies should be trained to handle situations like the one in Henrico last week where a woman with mental health problems was shot to death by police officers when she exhibited threatening behavior, Caudill said that his office supports training to inform deputies what their options are. White said that deputies should have training to deal with mental illness but did not elaborate.

White kept circling back to themes of more and better training for deputies, including some to guard against “bias” to ensure deputes treat everyone with respect, greater police presence, and membership in the ICACTF. He also said that he wants deputies undercover to stamp out drugs in the community. “They’ll love being undercover,” he said speaking from his four years of personal experience. No explanation of how deputies in a small community where everybody knows everybody can go undercover.

Alluding to unsolved murders in the county, White touted his experience a as homicide detective having investigated several hundred murders. He did not mention how many of those he solved or brought perpetrators to justice. There are few murders in Goochland. It seems likely that most jurisdictions have crimes that are never solved regardless of how hard law enforcement works the cases.

White tap danced around earlier criticism DNA collection at a crime scene stating that he was not there and had no knowledge of the procedure used.

White was very vague about other functions the sheriff’s office. He admitted that he is “no expert” on traffic but promised to “sit with VDOT” to fix the intersection at Rt. 288 and 250 or at least get a flashing stop sign, or station a “public safety” unit (ambulance?) there to deal with the problem. Clearly White is unaware that the Sheriff can only ask the supervisors, who then beg VDOT for road improvements. The 288/250 intersection has been at the top of the supervisors’ VDOT priority list for years.

White made no mention of how he would deal with ever increasing traffic on roads already overburdened and infested with idiot drivers that pose a danger to everyone. Vehicle wrecks tie up patrol deputies and can close roads for hours.

When asked how he would respond to widespread weather emergencies White said he’d do whatever Fire-Rescue Chief Eddie Ferguson suggested. The Sheriff’s Office is responsible for responding to crashes, rerouting traffic, and other non-fire-rescue tasks. Is White unaware that the county’s emergency operations center is physically part of the Sheriff’s Office? White said that he recently took a FEMA course, but had a brain fart and could not recall its acronym.

White wants resource offices in all elementary schools, deputies in Centerville, in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, and manning the ICACTF database. He never mentioned how he would handle patrol, the deputies who respond to traffic accidents and other incidents in all parts of the county, which has a slightly larger land area than Henrico, 24/7.

White hinted that Goochland participation in the ICACTF might have prevented the alleged attempted abduction of a local girl by a man from New Zealand in June 2018 even though an online gaming site was the contact medium between the Kiwi creep and local teenager whose mother shot the perpetrator when he attempted to enter her home.  Caudill seemed to claim credit for involving the feds in that case even though Sheriff Agnew made the first contact with the FBI, which has greater resources to deal with a foreign criminal, the day after the incident.

Strange softball questions lobbed at White included asking if Sheriff Agnew would “shadow” whoever is elected in November. White replied in the negative saying that he has no intention of hiring Agnew or Chief Deputy Bewkes, who are counting the days until the end of the year.

White said he has identified very qualified people to come on board as undersheriff and with business experience in the budget.

When asked why he entered the race, withdrew and reentered, in January White replied that he did not want to comply with party rules.  

White displayed little knowledge about the many duties and responsibilities of the Sheriff’s Office. He will need lots of on the job training should he be elected. His answer to everything was more deputies, more training, and more cooperation with surrounding jurisdictions. Creasey has been endorsed by many neighboring law enforcement officials. White’s endorsements on the other hand include  someone in Orange County, NEW YORK and more urban places.

Goochland is not a crime-ridden housing project and should not be treated as such.