Category: STS&G News

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.

Three lawsuits stemming from a deadly highway collision in 2001 were filed Thursday against Peabody’s, a popular Oceanfront nightclub where the driver responsible for the wreck had been drinking.

Enrique Lopez, a 21-year-old sailor serving aboard the carrier George Washington, was driving his Ford Mustang the wrong way on Interstate 264 on May 11, 2001, when he slammed into another vehicle that was traveling in the opposite direction.

Three women in the other car – including 19-year-old Debra Van Sickle, an expectant mother – were killed. Lopez also died.

The lawsuits seek a total of $36.05 million in damages and attempt to hold Peabody’s responsible for contributing to the accident.

Andrew M. Sacks, the Norfolk lawyer who filed the lawsuits in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, said during a news conference Thursday that Peabody’s employees threw Lopez out of the club because he was extremely drunk and had become disorderly.

The lawsuits maintain that once employees “took control” of Lopez, Sacks said, they should have turned him over to authorities.

“The crux of this is that once they observed him, they took immediate steps,” Sacks said. “But they failed to complete that duty.”

Sacks said the club took the attitude that “as long as he is not a problem to us, we don’t care what he does.”

Virginia is one of the few states without “Dram Shop” legislation, which holds bars and restaurants responsible for serving alcohol to customers who then commit crimes or cause accidents. The absence of such legislation shields many businesses in Virginia’s tourism and restaurant industries from lawsuits.

Michael L. Goodove, a Norfolk lawyer who is president of the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said at Thursday’s news conference that the lobby representing the state’s restaurants and bars has successfully fought to keep “dram shop” legislation from getting out of committees in Richmond.

He said 44 states have such laws and that Sacks’ suits address the vacuum by creating for bars an area of “special responsibility that is a long time in coming.”

The lawsuits do not allege that Peabody’s was negligent in serving Lopez, Sacks said. Instead, they argue that Peabody’s failed to protect the public from “carnage” caused by someone the club took control of and then released “into the stream of humanity.”

Lopez had a blood-alcohol level of 0.27 at the time of the accident, well above Virginia’s legal limit of 0.08, according to police. He also is named in the lawsuits as a defendant.

Richard H. Doummar, the Virginia Beach lawyer who represents the nightclub, said Thursday that although the situation was tragic, “Peabody’s did everything they could as required by the law to do the right thing.”

Peabody’s is at 21st Street and Pacific Avenue. Doummar said the nightclub already has been cleared by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

“It is just a tough situation dealing with someone who is intoxicated,” Doummar said.

Two of the lawsuits were filed on behalf of 24-year-old Earl A. Sanders IV.

Sanders’ mother, Shirley J. Vinson, 44, was killed in the accident, as was his fiancee, 30-year-old Beverley S. Carter.

A suit in Vinson’s name asks for $15.35 million. The one for Carter asks for $5.35 million.

The third suit, which also asks for $15.35 million, was filed on behalf of Henry Sanders, who was injured in the crash. Sanders now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and still suffers from his injuries, Sacks said.

Van Sickle’s survivors are represented by Virginia Beach attorney William R. “Buster” O’Brien, who said he filed a suit against Lopez last year. He did not name Peabody’s as a defendant.

Van Sickle was on the way to the hospital at the time of the accident to possibly deliver her baby

An urgent question lingered after Roy Lee Everett was charged in a Norfolk car crash last month that killed a 16-year-old boy.

Why was he even behind the wheel?

Everett, it turned out, had been charged with driving drunk six times before and convicted three times. He now has three DUI cases pending.

The system usually stops repeat offenders before it’s too late, authorities say. But some, like Everett, have avoided severe punishment because of legal loopholes, problems with evidence and lenient judges.

Most have not hurt anyone. Yet they are out there, and they pose a threat: Alcohol was a factor in 41 percent of vehicle deaths last year in Virginia.

In South Hampton Roads, 428 people were convicted of their third or subsequent DUI offense between 1999 and 2002, according to an analysis of Virginia Supreme Court data.

In recent years, court records show, others have amassed even more drunken-driving convictions than Everett:

A Portsmouth man has racked up nine DUI arrests and seven convictions in two decades. His latest charge came in May, while he was free on bond and awaiting sentencing on his seventh conviction.

A Virginia Beach man was sentenced to a year in jail for his fifth DUI in 20 years. A month later, a different judge in the same city gave him 10 days for his sixth offense.

Another man at the Beach was convicted of his sixth DUI in nine years. He was sentenced to two state rehabilitation programs for a year and received a suspended prison term.

Privacy laws make it difficult to determine how many drivers have similar records.

“It’s not a matter of whether they’re drinking and driving,” said state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, a Virginia Beach Republican and lawyer. “It’s a matter of whether we catch them when they’re drinking and driving.”

Old laws and judicial discretion allowed Van Ivan Malone to compile his DUI record.

Between 1988 and 1998, Malone’s final sentence on five DUI convictions never exceeded six months in jail, according to court records. One reason: The offenses happened before the General Assembly made a third or subsequent DUI conviction a felony with stiffer sentences.

Last summer, after four years without a charge, Malone was arrested when Portsmouth police stopped him late one night for driving with the headlights off. Because of his record, he was not supposed to be driving at all.

He pleaded guilty to felony DUI in November. His sentencing was scheduled for February, and he continued to be free on $500 bond.

The court date was delayed four times, including once when the judge was out for health reasons.

Meanwhile, Malone was caught on the road last month and again charged with DUI. This time, a Portsmouth officer heard him squeal his tires and saw him swerve.

Malone, 45, now is being held without bond. Last week, Portsmouth Circuit Judge Johnny E. Morrison again delayed sentencing on the seventh conviction. The judge said he wanted to determine whether Malone would have transportation to work from jail.

Mary Harris, the prosecutor handling the case, told the judge that Malone should be put behind bars.

“Everything has been tried with Mr. Malone,” Harris said. “He still doesn’t get it, and nothing is working on him.”

Malone is scheduled to be sentenced today. Morrison said he could not comment on the case because it was pending, and Malone declined to be interviewed.

His wife, Isobel Malone, said her husband had a difficult childhood in West Virginia. His mother left when he was 4, she said, and his father regularly brought him to bars when he was young.

He has struggled with alcohol ever since, but he has been mostly clean for the past several years, she said.

Malone is a construction company supervisor, and he supports his wife and their 5-year-old daughter. He drinks occasionally, when he goes bowling on the weekends or is under stress, Isobel Malone said.

Although she wants her husband to return home, she said he deserves to be punished and needs help.

“He’s very remorseful: `Why did I do this? Why have I done this to us?’ ” she said. “The only thing I’m thankful for is nobody is hurt.”

Under state law, punishments for DUI are supposed to increase with each conviction.

To win a new conviction against a repeat offender, prosecutors must prove that the person was found guilty of DUI before and that the earlier cases were handled properly.

If there are problems with evidence or if the paperwork from previous convictions is incomplete or unavailable, repeat offenders can receive sentences that do not reflect their history.

Jeff Alan Morelen, 41, had four convictions when he was arrested in August 1999 on another DUI charge in Virginia Beach, according to court records.

Six months later, he was arrested yet again. A magistrate scrawled “Danger to Society” on his paperwork and recommended no bond.

For his fifth DUI conviction, Morelen was sentenced in April 2000 to 12 months in jail.

His next case came up a month later, and it was unusual, according to Ronald G. Reel, the Virginia Beach prosecutor who handled it.

Reel had to show that the offense was committed after July 1, 1999, the date fourth-offense DUI became a felony in Virginia.

Reel said he neglected to establish the year of the offense during the trial. He feared that overlooking such a detail would lead the judge to dismiss the case. So he negotiated a plea agreement.

For the original felony charge, Morelen faced up to five years in prison. Instead, the sixth charge was reduced to DUI second offense, a misdemeanor.

Virginia Beach Circuit Judge A. Bonwill Shockley sentenced Morelen to 12 months in jail, with all of the time suspended except 10 days. Morelen also received probation and a $200 fine, and his license was suspended for three years.

Shockley could not be reached for comment.

In an interview, Morelen said he turned to alcohol when he had problems. He said he would drive home after a night of drinking and shooting pool.

“I’d think about it, but I was right there by the house,” he said. “I was not incoherent.”

He never consented to blood-alcohol tests when stopped by police, he said.

Sometimes, like after Christmas parties, he got a hotel room rather than drive home drunk, he said. He also said he had one accident, when he hit a telephone pole on a rainy night.

Though Morelen escaped the maximum punishment, he did lose his job, at least temporarily. For 20 years, he had worked as an electrical engineer. He said he lost his government security clearance because of the DUI convictions.

“I regret what I did, drinking and driving,” he said. “It ruined my life pretty much.”

Virginia has minimum sentences for each DUI conviction. But judges have broad discretion in setting penalties.

Ricky Lee Breiholz, 44, had five DUI convictions when he was arrested in December 1999 on another DUI charge and a related count, according to court records.

Six months later, Virginia Beach Circuit Judge Kenneth N. Whitehurst Jr. assigned him to probation and to attend two state-run residential programs, which focus on rehabilitating nonviolent offenders through employment, community service, education, substance-abuse treatment and military-style discipline.

Breiholz also was fined $250, and his license was suspended for six months. He was ordered not to drink and to enter substance-abuse treatment, according to court records.

The judge sentenced him to a total of nine years in prison for the DUI charge and the other count. All of the time was suspended.

Whitehurst has since retired from the bench and could not be reached for comment.

Harvey L. Bryant III, the Virginia Beach commonwealth’s attorney, said the decision in Breiholz’s case was unusual.

“I’m certain it would not happen today,” he said. “I don’t know why it happened then.”

Patrick J. Connolly, the prosecutor in Breiholz’s case, said he did not recall the details of the sentencing hearing but said his office probably would have asked for jail time under such circumstances.

Breiholz has since been charged with violating his probation, and Connolly said he would ask for the full nine-year prison term if he found that Breiholz had been caught drinking and driving. “That would be a no-brainer,” he said.

In an interview from the Chesapeake City Jail, Breiholz said nine years would be too stiff a punishment. He never wrecked a car or hurt anyone while driving drunk, he said, and people who commit more serious offenses are sentenced to less time.

Breiholz said there was an eight-year period during which he would drink up to two cases of beer a week. He said he avoided driving if he was stumbling or thought he would make the car swerve.

“You can tell if you can’t drive, if you’ve had too much,” Breiholz said. “I would leave my car there if I was too drunk.”

Breiholz said the state rehab programs inspired him to turn his life around.

But last year, he violated the judge’s order by getting drunk, according to court records. On a visit to a parole and probation officer, Breiholz’s blood-alcohol concentration was .25 percent – slightly more than three times the legal limit.

A probation and parole officer wrote that Breiholz “is still consuming alcohol, most likely still driving,” and “this officer is greatly concerned and strongly feels that he needs to be taken off of the streets immediately.”

Since 1999, state law has required at least a year in jail for a fourth DUI offense within a decade. A year later, the punishment for a third offense was changed to at least 10 days in jail.

Both charges are felonies with a maximum punishment of five years in prison.

Some lawmakers, activists and prosecutors say DUI laws should be tightened further. They suggest requiring the presence of prosecutors in all DUI court cases, withholding bond from anyone charged with a third or subsequent offense and increasing mandatory minimum jail sentences.

“Judges have to stop making so many arbitrary decisions,” said David Kelly, public policy liaison for Virginia’s Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization.

Others say judges should be able to base decisions about bond and sentences on individual cases.

“We should have the faith in them to do the right thing,” said Lawrence Cardon, a local defense attorney.

Since Roy Lee Everett’s crash last month, local judges have felt increased pressure to be stricter with suspected drunken drivers.

“I think the judges are doing a good job in changing the landscape,” said state Del. Kenneth R. Melvin, a Portsmouth Democrat and defense attorney.

But Michael Goodove, president of MADD’s local chapter, said repeat offenders tend to continue their dangerous habits unless they are locked up.

“Someone that has three, four, five DUIs,” he said, “usually ends up maiming or killing somebody.”

A man facing his seventh drunken-driving charge after the crash Tuesday that killed a high school student was charged with driving drunk three weeks ago, but regained his freedom within hours by posting a $1,000 bond.

Roy Lee Everett, 30, was charged Tuesday with running a red light, driving under the influence and 10 other violations in the crash that killed 16-year-old Landon Chambers and injured his brother, Barney.

Everett is being held without bail in the Norfolk City Jail.

Everett has been behind bars before. He has three previous DUI convictions in Virginia Beach. And he was arrested for drunken driving most recently on April 14.

That’s when, court records say, Norfolk Officer W.E. Whiteside stopped him for driving recklessly at the wheel of a Jaguar.

Whiteside smelled alcohol.

“I asked if he had been drinking and he stated yes, 4 Mike’s Lemonades in an hour,” Whiteside wrote in papers filed in Norfolk General District Court.

A Department of Motor Vehicles records check showed Everett’s three prior convictions for DUI, Whiteside noted, as well as three previous convictions for driving on a suspended license.

In addition to the third-offense DUI, Whiteside charged Everett with driving after his driving privileges had been suspended.

Magistrate J.D. Bullock Jr. set Everett’s bond at $1,000 at 3:16 a.m. on April 14, according to court records. Everett posted bail through a bonding company at 4:57 a.m. and was freed.

Michael Goodove, an attorney and president of the Southside Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said anyone charged with a third-offense DUI, a felony, should not be allowed to post a bond and be freed from custody.

“Our position is the criminal justice system’s paramount responsibility is to protect lives,” he said. “Research has shown that your hardcore, repetitive drunk-driving offenders are the folks most

likely to injure or kill somebody.”

Three weeks after his release, police contend, Everett drove a pickup through a red light at North Military Highway and Azalea Garden Road into the path of the Chambers brothers, who were traveling in a Honda Civic. The impact crumpled their car and flipped the pickup on its side. Witnesses said Everett climbed from the pickup’s rear window and ran. Citizens cornered him behind a carpet store until police arrived to arrest him.

Bullock could not be reached for comment.

Chief Magistrate Beth B. Pennington said she spoke with him briefly about the bond and intends to meet with him in the coming week.

“At this point, I have to trust the magistrate’s judgment,” she said. “He’s been a magistrate for a while.”

By setting bonds, magistrates try to ensure that defendants show up in court, she said, noting they don’t determine guilt or innocence. She said they consider the length of time a defendant has lived in the area, family ties, any prior record and their likelihood to appear in court.

“No matter how high it’s set, a person can still bond out,” Pennington said.

This week’s DUI charge is the latest in a long list of serious driving infractions for Everett, stretching back to at least 1994.

During the past eight years, Everett has been convicted multiple times for a variety of charges, including reckless driving and speeding.

Everett’s three DUI convictions in Virginia Beach started with a charge in 1994. Five years later, in May 1999, Everett was charged with DUI, second offense.

In December 1999, he was charged again with DUI, second offense.

That last charge resulted in Everett getting the maximum jail penalty for second-offense-DUI – 12 months in jail, according Judge Albert D. Alberi, who sentenced Everett in Virginia Beach General District Court.

But Alberi suspended 11 months of the time and allowed Everett to serve the resulting monthlong sentence on weekends in the Virginia Beach City Jail.

It was not clear on Friday why Everett was not charged that December with DUI, third offense.

DUI, third offense, became a felony when state law was changed by the General Assembly in July 1999. It carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and can be lodged against any drunken driver who has two prior DUI convictions within the past 10 years.

Mark T. Del Duca, a Virginia Beach lawyer and former Beach prosecutor, explained Friday that Everett’s December DUI charge in 1999 may have occurred before his May 1999 offense had made its way through the court system.

If that were the case, it may have been impossible for Everett to be charged with DUI, third offense, in December 1999, Del Duca said.

Everett also was charged with second-offense DUI in Norfolk in January 1998, but the count was dismissed, online court records say.

Another DUI charge, in Emporia in August 1997, was dismissed, according to online court records.

Roy Lee Everett, who was charged with driving under the influence in last week’s crash that killed a teen in Norfolk, may have posed as his brother during a drunken-driving arrest in Virginia Beach late last year, possibly avoiding a mandatory one-year jail term.

Police are investigating whether Everett, who has three DUI convictions in Virginia Beach, falsely gave police his brother’s name during an Oct. 16 traffic stop at South Independence Boulevard and Dahlia Drive.

If Everett had been convicted of the October DUI, he likely would not have been driving a pickup truck that collided on May 6 with a Honda Civic, fatally injuring 16-year-old Landon W. Chambers. As a four-time DUI offender, Everett would have faced a year behind bars with no time suspended.

The driver in the October case, who identified himself as Billy Wilson Everett, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13, court records show. Virginia’s legal limit is 0.08.

When the real Billy Everett went to court following the October DUI stop, the arresting officer said he was not the man he had ticketed and the charges were withdrawn.

The driver may in fact have been Roy Lee Everett, who impersonated his brother last year when he was stopped for speeding in Norfolk, according to court records and police.

A Virginia Beach police captain says the officer who arrested “Billy W. Everett” for DUI recognized Roy Everett as the actual driver when his photo appeared in the newspaper last week.

An expert handwriting analyst also says it is “highly probable” that Roy Everett signed Billy’s name to court documents after the arrest, based on an examination of those documents and known signatures of the brothers.

Michael Goodove, an attorney who is president of the Southside Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, called the revelation that Roy Everett may have dodged a fourth DUI offense “amazing.”

“It just blows my mind,” he said. “In an information age with computer records as accessible as they are, it is shocking to us this person was not dealt with more appropriately.”

He said Virginia’s penalty for a fourth DUI offense could have saved an innocent victim.

Roy Lee Everett’s attorney, Bobby L. Howlett Jr., did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Court records show the driver in the October Virginia Beach DUI case was operating a 1997 Dodge van that night. It is not apparent from records why the man was stopped. Officer D.C. Meeks charged the driver, “Billy Everett,” with DUI and he was freed on $1,200 bond.

Billy Everett didn’t appear for the initial Nov. 6 court date, records show, and a judge issued an order for him to appear. He turned himself in. At the time, he told a magistrate that he was never given that ticket, court records say.

When Billy Everett’s case was called in General District Court on Dec. 3, Meeks was there. The charges were withdrawn. A two-word explanation appears in the court record: “Wrong person.”

Attempts to get comment from Billy Everett were unsuccessful.

Now, Virginia Beach police are investigating if Roy Everett posed as his brother.

Last week, after the collision in which Chambers died received extensive media coverage, Meeks saw Everett’s photograph in the newspaper, said Beach police Capt. Ray Eisenberg.

“He realized this was the guy he originally arrested in October,” Eisenberg said.

Roy Everett has not been charged in the case, but the matter is under investigation and will be taken to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Eisenberg said.

If Roy Everett is charged with posing as his brother, it won’t be the first time. Court records show that Roy Everett passed himself off as Billy Everett after he was stopped for speeding on North Military Highway in Norfolk earlier last year.

At 3:55 a.m. on April 21, Norfolk police Officer R.C. Cook wrote two tickets to a man driving a 1994 Mercedes. The man identified himself as Billy W. Everett. Cook charged him with driving 67 mph in a 45 mph zone and driving without a license.

“He had memorized all his brother’s information,” said Norfolk police spokesman Chris Amos. “He had no ID.”

Cook was suspicious, Amos said, and had the man roll his thumb in ink and mark the summonses with his thumbprint.

Roy Everett later contacted the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and admitted what he had done, Amos said.

The charges against Billy Everett were withdrawn. Cook wrote new summonses charging Roy Everett with speeding and driving while license is suspended or revoked, court records show. Cook also charged Roy Everett with assuming a false name – Billy Everett’s.

Roy Everett was convicted of the charges and was fined a total of $125, plus court costs, court records show. He also received a 60-day suspended sentence, according to online court records.

Though lacking a valid license, Roy Everett continued to drive, authorities contend. He was arrested April 14 in Norfolk and was charged with DUI. Magistrate J.D. Bullock Jr. set his bail at $1,000 and he was freed within hours. That case is pending in court.

On May 6, authorities charge, Everett was at the wheel of a pickup truck that ran a red light on Azalea Garden Road and headed into the path of a Honda Civic on North Military Highway in Norfolk. The impact flipped the pickup on its side and crumpled the Honda, injuring the Chambers brothers. Landon Chambers died hours later.

Police and witnesses say Everett crawled out of the pickup’s rear window and ran. Citizens cornered and detained him nearby. He has been charged with DUI and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident, all felonies, as well as running a red light and eight other traffic offenses.

His bond on the April 14 DUI has been revoked, and he is being held without bond on the new charges.

When Virginia Beach Officer Meeks pulled the Dodge van over last Oct. 16, there’s a strong likelihood Roy Everett was driving, according to Lawrence W. Farmer.

Farmer, a Virginia Beach document examiner who once headed Norfolk’s Secret Service office, has been analyzing handwriting in criminal and civil cases for nearly 50 years. He has provided expert analysis in several notable cases, including a Portsmouth mayor suspected of authoring hate mail and a Virginia Beach high school basketball coach who scrawled racist graffiti at the school.

The Virginian-Pilot hired Farmer to analyze the signatures.

Farmer’s conclusion in the Everett case is based on comparisons he made of undisputed signatures of both Everett brothers with two “Billy Everett” signatures that appear on a bail bond form in Virginia Beach. That form was signed by the person arrested on the October DUI charge.

Farmer, who has testified in hundreds of court cases since 1954, said certain distinctive features of the questionable signatures match features of Roy Everett’s known signatures.

In both cases, the author “writes the letters close together, with little or no connecting space between letters,” Farmer said.

Also, the letter “y” in the names Billy and Roy are strikingly similar, he said. “The `cup’ of the `y’ in both cases is deep, with the downstroke and upstroke very close together,” he said. “The last stroke of the y in both cases is headed to the first `E’ in Everett.”

He also noted that the capital “E” in Everett loops across the following “v” in both signatures.

One of the most distinctive similarities, he said, is the way the second “e” and following “r” in Everett are written in a way that appears to form the letter “o,” a feature Farmer said he had never seen before in thousands of handwriting samples.

Farmer said he assigns a value to each distinctive feature. He said that based on his analysis, “I would be willing to testify in court that it is highly probable the same person who signed the name Roy Everett also signed Billy’s name.”