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August 1, 2018
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CVS murder witness heard gunshots, saw man walk away By Amanda Heincer Times Staff Writer
Joshua Lloyd was sitting on bench outside the Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant in Warrenton at about 10:15 p.m. on July 26, 2017, when he heard what he thought sounded like “fireworks.” When Lloyd stood up and looked in the direction the sound came from, he became the only known eyewitness to the shooting death of Rex Mac Olsen. Lloyd testified in Fauquier County Circuit Court Monday, on the first day of the trial of Bernard Duse, who is charged with murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony for Ol-
sen’s death. Duse pleaded not guilty to both charges, Lloyd testified that he saw a man standing over another man, who was on the ground, near the dumpster behind the CVS Pharmacy at 510 Blackwell Road in Warrenton. “I thought I heard fireworks… then I saw like sparks or something,” Lloyd said. He said he saw the man who had been standing move the other man’s body to the side and then calmly walk away. Lloyd then walked by rear of the CVS, saw a person lying on the ground and bleeding and went into the CVS and asked the employees there to call 911.
Prosecutors allege that Duse, 77, who was the operations manager at the CVS, shot and killed Olsen, 66, the store manager. “The murder was the culmination of a year and a half of bitter litigation,” Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Fisher told jurors in his opening statement Monday. The litigation was related to complaints of discrimination and retaliation that Duse had filed against CVS. According to prosecutors and court records, Olsen had testified unfavorably against Duse in those proceedings.
See MURDER, page 2
New turf farm sparks complaints about construction fill County mulls new rules for using non-agricultural debris
TIMES STAFF PHOTO A memorial for Rex Mac Olsen at the CVS on Blackwell Road in Warrenton.
By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
Some Midland property owners say they are tired of the noise, dust and water runoff they’ve lived with for more than year because of a 50-acre site off Brent Town Road that’s being prepared for a new turf farm. In Fauquier County, turf farming is allowed by-right on land zoned for agricultural uses. The neighbors are mostly upset, however, with activity going on to prepare the site, including the use of non-agricultural fill, which has been trucked to the area to build an access road for the new farm.
See TURF FARM, page 2 Some Midland property owners are concerned with activity going on to prepare a turf farm off Brent Town Road. TIMES STAFF PHOTO/ JAMES IVANCIC
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Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | August 1, 2018
CVS murder witness heard gunshots, saw man walk away MURDER from page 1 “This defendant took his own brand of retaliation on 26 of July, 2017, when he assassinated Mr. Rex Olsen,” Fisher said. Fisher also told jurors they will hear testimony and see evidence of cell-phone records and DNA evidence that tie Duse to the crime. But defense attorney John Carroll told jurors the evidence will not support prosecutors’ version of events. “This was a rush to judgment from the beginning,” Carroll said. For one thing, Carroll told jurors, while Lloyd eventually said he did not know the race of the
shooter, he first told police the gunman was “a white guy.” Duse is African-American. “The only eyewitness said it was a white guy who shot Mr. Olsen,” Carroll said. On the witness stand, Lloyd said did not know the race of the shooter, but said he was tan and wore a tan jacket and tan cap. Another witness who testified Monday, Brian McClain, said he was waiting in his vehicle in the CVS Pharmacy drive-thru around the time of the shooting. “I heard a very loud noise, several of them, that kind of caught my attention,” he said. “To me it sounded like throwing wooden pallets on the ground.”
McClain said he didn’t give much thought to the sound at the time, but the next day he heard about the shooting on social media and realized that what he heard must have been gunfire. He could not see the dumpster area at the time and saw nothing suspicious while he was at the pharmacy, he said. “I felt kind of bad that I reacted so nonchalantly,” he said. “…you just don’t think of something of that nature happening in town.” Duse’s trial is scheduled to run through Friday. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison for murder and three years in prison for use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Reach Amanda Heincer at aheincer@fauquier. com
New turf farm sparks complaints about construction fill TURF FARM from page 1 Meanwhile, Thomas Schottler, who owns the turf farm property, denies that construction debris or asphalt are part of the fill material being used to prepare the site and insists the construction project is adhering to all state and county regulations. “I’m doing everything by the rules,” said Schottler, who owns four other turf farms under the name NOVA Turf Farm The Fauquier County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will soon consider changes to local zoning rules that would require farmland owners to receive special-use permits to use nonagricultural excavation material, waste and debris as fill if it’s not generated on the farm. The planning commission deferred action July 19 to allow county staff to work on the amendment’s language. The amendment will be ready for commission action at its Aug. 16 meeting, according to Rob Walton, the county’s chief of zoning and development services. Next, the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing and take a final vote. Supervisor Rick Gerhardt (Cedar
Dwane Long Run), who represents the Midland area, said the text amendment regarding non-agricultural fill is the only thing the county can do to try to address the situation. “Obviously, we can’t supersede state law and regulations,” he said.
Neighbors complain of runoff, debris
Such changes can’t come soon enough for complaining neighbors of the new turf farm, who include Dwane Long, who lives on Aquia Road, and Steve and Jennifer Rainwater, who live on Brent Town Road. The new access road to the turf farm uses an easement that passes
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close to the Rainwaters’ home. Jennifer Rainwater said the road has created runoff and flooding problems, making the water their small pond unfit as a source of drinking water for their two rescue draft horses. “Why did he have to ruin an acre and a half of my land?” she asked in a recent interview. “What used to be 2 acres of pasture is now a half acre.” She said the silt fences put up by the fill hauler are “a joke.” She and her husband have an attorney. “This is a landfill, not a terraced sod farm,” she added. From their second-floor windows, the Rainwaters say they are able to see over mound of fill more than 20 feet high. “A civil suit is coming,” Jennifer Rainwater said. Long has gone so far as to post deer cameras along the property line to record the dump-truck activity. He said he’s followed trucks from a construction site on Minnieville Road in Prince William County coming to unload at the turf farm site. Long is a business partner of Pat Hupp, who owns the property on Aquia Road abutting one side one side of the turf farm site.
visited the site three times and that “all is in compliance.” “I’ve been doing everything legally and morally. There are one or two people who are up in arms. … I’m being treated as though I’m the anti-Christ,” Schottler said. R.C. Hawkins, of R.C. Construction Co., was hired by Schottler to do the site work. Hawkins challenged Long’s contention that 300 or more truckloads have been delivered to the site in a single day. At most, the traffic has amounted to 176 trips per day, he said. Hawkins said he hopes to have the front half of the front field planted for sod by mid-September and the back half by next April or May. Added Schottler: “I’m building a state-of-the-art turf farm.” What’s now a dirt field will be “beautiful sod” in time. Reach James Ivancic at jivancic@ fauquier.com
Owner, contractor say fill is legal
Schlotter said he obtained a forestry permit before felling trees on the property and is working with the U.S. Forestry Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Fauquier County. He said DEQ inspectors have
FAUQUIER FOCUS Now in the Lifestyle section — Page 26
Community Editor Anita Sherman, 540.351.1635 asherman@fauquier.com ISSN 1050-7655, USPS 188280 Associate Editor John Toler, 540-351-0487 Published every Wednesday by jtoler@fauquier.com Piedmont Media LLC Staff Writers How to reach us Karen Chaffraix ADDRESS: kchaffraix@fauquier.com 41 Culpeper Street Warrenton, Virginia 20186 James Ivancic, 540-878-2414 PHONE: 540-347-4222 jivancic@fauquier.com FAX: 540-349-8676 HOURS: 8 a.m. 5 p.m. weekdays, Jonathan Hunley, jhunley@fauquier.com 24-hour answering service Leland Schwartz, 540-351-0488 Publisher lschwartz@fauquier.com Catherine M. Nelson, 540-347-4222 Sports Editor cnelson@fauquier.com Peter Brewington, 540-351-1169 pbrewington@fauquier.com NEWSROOM Editor in Chief Sports Staff Writer Christopher Six, 540-212-6331 Jeff Malmgren, 540-874-2250 csix@fauquier.com jmalmgren@fauquier.com Managing Editor ADVERTISING Jill Palermo, 540-351-0431 Ad Manager jpalermo@fauquier.com Kathy Mills Godfrey 540-351-1162 Web/Copy Editor kgodfrey@fauquier.com Amanda Heincer, 540-878-2418 aheincer@fauquier.com
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Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | August 1, 2018
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Casanova monopole providing cell, internet service By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
A towering achievement of sorts was celebrated last week with a formal “cord-cutting” ceremony next to a 140-foot monopole off Casanova Road that’s bringing cellular and internet service to an area of Fauquier County in need of it. The tower has Verizon providing cell service and Omnipoint providing broadband internet. There’s room for three more service providers and inquiries have been made to T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T to gauge their interest, said Barb Pivec, a partner in Calvert Crossland, which located the site for the pole in a farm field in Casanova and got the necessary approvals to erect it there. The tower will serve a 6-mile area. “This was developed for people in rural areas. We hope to bring quality service to Fauquier County,” said Timothy Paul, Omnipoint’s president. Charles Thomas, Omnipoint’s vice president, noted the tower is in a heavily wooded area and uses nonline-of-sight systems that can transmit through obstacles such as leaf cover. “It’s a radio signal, so it will bounce and be greater in some areas and less in others,” he explained in an email. “…We get some pretty good tree penetration so putting this up in the summer, when the trees are full, is a great test. Performance will improve in the fall and the winter months.” Each tower deployed on company’s macro system can serve up to 200 subscribers, but Thomas said the company generally does not reach full capacity to keep performance levels high for customers. “Once fully deployed on several towers around the county, we can look at pockets the macro systems miss and deploy micro cells, which target smaller groups of homes (communities). Utilizing both of these methods will allow us to reach a high number of the population throughout the county,” he said. Calvert Crossland is working to
TIMES STAFF PHOTOS/JAMES IVANCIC Barb Pivec, Calvert Crossland partner, John Bolton of Helpcomm, Supervisor Rick Gerhardt, Timothy Paul of Omnipoint, Jerry Jones of Telrad and Charles Thomas of Omnipoint, from left, participated in the “cord” cutting for the new Casanova cell and internet monopole. Below right, the monopole in Casanova is delivering cellular and internet service as part of Fauquier County’s effort to reach unserved and underserved areas. get transmission poles up in Goldvein, Saddle Ridge in Catlett, Hume and on Green Road outside Warrenton. Fauquier County partnered with Calvert Crossland to place towers in six locations and received a $90,000 grant from the PATH Foundation that will help pay for three of them. Fauquier County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Executive Director Devon Dennis Settle said the new tower is hoped to improve the organization’s efficiency. The SPCA is on Rogues Road in Casanova. “Everything we do, we rely on our ability to do it online,” she said. “This is going to make a difference,
so we can be more efficient. We couldn’t be happier.” Supervisor Rick Gerhardt (Cedar Run) lives 4 miles away from the monopole and said he’s already seen a “drastic change” for the better in his service with speeds of 33 megabytes download and 5 megabytes upload. “I’m thankful we have this alternative. This a viable last-mile service,” he said. Gerhardt headed a broadband advisory committee that studied the need and possible solutions to deliver cell and internet service to unserved and underserved areas of the county. Reach James Ivancic at jivancic@ fauquier.com
It’s official: Brentmoor sale finalized
Former home of Col. John Singleton Mosby sold to Warrenton family By Leland Schwartz Times Staff Writer
The sale of the historic Brentmoor, also known as the John Mosby House, was finalized Friday, bringing an end to a long dispute over whether the historic home should have been given another shot at as a museum and cultural meeting center. As expected, Warrenton residents Kirk and Rebecca Goolsby bought the 157-year-old house from the Town of Warrenton for $425,000, the price the Warrenton Town Council agreed to in May. Right before the sale closed, Kirk Goolsby said the family was “very excited” and hoped to move in early next year.
The Town of Warrenton had owned the home since 1999, when it purchased it for $460,000 and later spent about $100,000 in town funds as well as $800,000 in grant money and donations to return it to the way it looked in 1861. Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby, also known by his nickname, “Grey Ghost,” lived in the house from 1875 to 1877. The home was open for about one year, from 2013 to 2014, as the John S. Mosby Museum, but it closed after an initial operating grant of about $138,000 ran out. The council voted last fall to place the house on the market to escape ongoing upkeep costs and place the property back on the tax rolls. Some on the council said they approved of the idea of re-
PHOTO BY ERIC STRAWSER The sale of Brentmoor to private owners has been finalized. turning it to a private family. Those who wanted to return the house to a museum argued it was a valuable town asset that could draw tourists and money to the town and, particularly, to Main Street.