Category: STG&U News

The Virginia Supreme Court will send letters this week to some of South Hampton Roads’ worst drivers, offering them refunds for drunken- and reckless-driving fees.

Some were convicted of eluding police during the commission of a crime, while others were caught behind the wheel after lower courts had already revoked their licenses and ordered them not to drive.

At least 4,204 drivers convicted in the five cities as of the end of 2007 will be told the special fees they were once asked to pay are forgiven, according to the state Supreme Court. Those who have already paid hundreds of dollars of those extra fees will be getting refund checks.

The bad drivers are still obligated to pay their original fines for DUI, reckless driving and other offenses. They still have to pay court costs and suffer the burden of higher vehicle insurance because of their offenses.

But they’ll no longer pay the “abusive driver fees” because last month Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was persuaded by a public uproar to sign the repeal of a law that he and the General Assembly had hoped would help finance millions in interstate maintenance projects.

The fees were a small part of a huge 2007 transportation bill and were intended to punish the worst drivers with a new category of fine – a “civil remedial fee” – that would apply to crimes or misdemeanors committed while driving.

Simple traffic infractions such as ignoring a highway sign or failing to yield were not subject to the harsh new fees.

The law ensnared an estimated 58,000 Virginians who were ordered to pay the fees after the law went into effect on July 1, 2007, said Katya Herndon, director of legislative and public relations for the Supreme Court.

About 23,000 of them had begun making payments, she said.

Some of the fees were eye-openers.

Reckless driving brought three fees of $350 each that had to be paid to the Department of Motor Vehicles within 14 months of conviction. A manslaughter conviction arising from driving while intoxicated brought three annual fees of $1,000 each.

But the fees were withdrawn under an onslaught of public anger, driven in part by an online petition signed by an estimated 180,000 Virginians who wanted the law repealed. Many were confused over what offenses were included, while others objected to a provision that limited the fees to Virginia drivers only.

The repeal will force Virginia to repay $7.32 million to bad drivers, said Virginia Controller David Von Moll, of the Department of Accounts. The Virginia Department of Treasury will print the checks, he said. State officials had not yet computed how much of that money will be refunded to drivers in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach.

“We’re trying our best to make sure that we get a check to the person who paid the fee,” Von Moll said.

The high court did not reveal the names of those convicted, but the data it did provide offered insights into driver behavior in South Hampton Roads.

More tickets were issued in Norfolk for driving on suspended or revoked licenses than in any other South Hampton Roads city, while Virginia Beach led in abusive driver fees for driving while intoxicated, records show.

Mike Goodove, coordinator of southside Virginia Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is discouraged that the fees were eliminated.

Goodove, who lost his 19-year-old brother Jeffrey to a drunken driver, felt remedial fees would have saved lives if given a chance.

“But we’ll never know now,” he said. “I thought they got a lot of people’s attention. When you get people in the pocket, it can affect their decision-making process.”

Goodove said the arguments from opponents that the fines were unfair or overly expensive “pale in comparison to the damages done by drunk drivers on the road.”

The repeal of the abusive driver fees, one of two major portions of the transportation bill of 2007 that were struck down this winter, represented a major setback for lawmakers who have struggled to develop a long-term solution for funding improvements to Virginia’s ailing transportation network.

The fees would have generated about $65 million a year for highway maintenance.

In a separate action, the state high court on Feb. 29 struck down the centerpiece of the transportation bill, saying regional transportation authorities do not have the power to impose taxes on localities. That responsibility rests solely in the hands of elected leaders, the justices said.

The ruling meant that Hampton Roads suddenly had no means to finance six long-sought transportation projects that have thus far proved impossible to build.

Virginia Beach lawyer Sonny Stallings, a former Democratic state senator, derided the civil fees as a “ridiculous attempt that was all smoke and mirrors” designed to hide the need for a statewide tax increase.

Stallings said defense lawyers in Hampton Roads benefited from the law.

“It was going to bolster our business, because the people could not pay,” he said. “If they were convicted and didn’t pay, then they’d lose their license and get a ticket for that. Then they’d be back to us again. It was a lawyer’s moneymaker.”

WHEN IT COMES to the bad (young) girls of Hollywood messing up and seeking redemption, usually for thousands of dollars at a secluded rehab clinic, there’s never a dearth of stories, from singer Brandy’s vehicular manslaughter charges earlier this year to Paris Hilton’s jail stay.

So nary an eyebrow raised when actress/singer Lindsay Lohan got charged with her second DUI in just two months (May 27 and July 24), prompting the former Disney princess to enter yet another drinking rehab facility, this time in Utah.

Even though young adulthood can be the most rebellious period in a person’s life, when it comes to this rule-breaking stage for Hollywood’s elite teens and young adults, their actions can have a far greater impact on their adoring fans and how they deal with the news. Some say Lohan’s status of being a sweet, innocent role model has been flushed down the toilet along with her sobriety.

“Lindsay Lohan thinks that since she is famous, she can do whatever she wants and get away with it,” said Rachel Allensworth, 17, a rising senior at Hickory High School in Chesapeake.

“She is portraying this idea that it’s OK to do drugs and drink and drive, be punished for a few days and then just go out and do it again,” said Shelby Green, 15, a rising sophomore at Nansemond River High in Suffolk.

When you’re in the public eye, said Mike Goodove, coordinator of the Southside Mothers Against Drunk Driving, it’s important to be a model for fans. “She’s sending a bad message to those that look up to her.

“Anyone that drinks and drives and says after one chance (she) ‘learned her lesson,’ but doesn’t, sets an awful example,” Goodove said.

Lohan’s in her third stint in rehab, and people are paying attention to what happens next.

“She’s setting an example of what not to do, what can happen if you drink and drive – it could have been a lot worse,” said Ridgley Ingersoll of Virginia Beach, mother of two boys, 11 and 17.

“If someone told me that they looked up to her, I’d ask them about their personal goals and standards. She’s irresponsible,” said Dustin Goodwin, 16, a Hickory rising sophomore.

Kayla Robinson, 17, a rising senior at Granby High in Norfolk , added: “I’d look at someone funny if they considered her a role model. It doesn’t make any sense to invest ideas in her because she’s in rehab.”

CHESAPEAKE – The mother of a 31-year-old Virginia Beach man killed in a July 16 single-car crash in Chesapeake is suing the driver of the vehicle for being reckless and intoxicated.

Candace Wright filed the lawsuit recently in Chesapeake Circuit Court against Michael D. Conover, a 34-year-old Virginia Beach man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to involuntary manslaughter. Conover was sentenced to a year behind bars for the crash on Interstate 64 that killed Jonathan Dale McGlue.

McGlue was one of two passengers in a 1999 Isuzu Rodeo that Conover was driving when he lost control on westbound I-64 at the Greenbrier Parkway interchange. The vehicle flipped several times.

The lawsuit seeks $5 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages. Wright, through her attorney Michael Goodove, filed the suit on behalf of the estate of her son.

The lawsuit accuses Conover of operating the vehicle in a reckless, negligent manner at excessive speeds. It also said Conover was under the influence of intoxicants.

McGlue was ejected from the sport utility vehicle . He died at Chesapeake General Hospital, police said. A front-seat passenger, who was the owner of the SUV, also was injured.

Conover had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.24 – three times the legal limit for driving – prosecutors said during his criminal prosecution.