SPORTS: Taylor Harris and the Woodbridge Vikings are 3-0 and feeling good, Page 11
September 19, 2018 | Serving Haymarket, Gainesville and Western Prince William County | Vol. 17, No. 38 | www.PrinceWilliamTimes.com | 50¢
Stewart: Timing of allegations against court nominee ‘a bunch of crap’ By Jill Palermo
delaying Kavanaugh’s confirmation until after the mid-term elections. Stewart, in an interview with the Times Monday, said he’s not sure whether he considers Christine Blasey Ford credible. Now a California college professor, Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party more than 30 years ago when the two
Times Staff Writer
Corey Stewart, the Republican candidate for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat, is calling the recent sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh “a bunch of crap” and a “typical Democratic smear tactic” aimed at
were high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland. “I don’t know, I haven’t looked at her past or anything like that,” Stewart said of Ford, who told the Washington Post over the weekend that Kavanaugh forced her onto a bed during the party, groped her and attempted to remove the one-piece swimsuit she was wearing under her clothing at the
Prince William Fairgrounds up for sale
FILE PHOTO
Scenes from the midway at a past Prince William County Fair. INSIDE Calendar.............................................13 Classified............................................17 News....................................................3 Obituaries...........................................16
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time. The two had been at a private home where the teens were drinking and no adults were present. Ford told the Post Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream and that she managed to get out from under Kavanaugh when one of his friends leapt onto the bed with See STEWART, page 2
Owners expect to hold last county fair in 2019 By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
The Prince William Fairgrounds is planning its 70th fair in 2019. And if all goes according to plan, it likely will be its last. That’s according to Victor Smith, a board member of the private organization, the Prince William Veterans Farm Club, which owns the fairgrounds and has hosted the modern county fair since 1949. For several reasons, including static-to-declining annual fair attendance, difficulty with management turnover and rising costs for taxes and security, the board voted last week to put the 85acre fairgrounds up for sale. Smith won’t say how much the group hopes to get for the property, which is comprised of 11 separate parcels zoned for commercial uses and valued at just under $9 million for tax purposes, according to county records. The board of directors authorized Manassas commercial real-estate firm Weber Rector to market the land for potential buyers, Smith said. “There is no sale price,” Smith See FAIRGROUNDS, page 2
Opinion.................................................9 Puzzle Page........................................10 Sports.................................................11 Real Estate..........................................15
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FROM PAGE 1
Gainesville / Prince William Times | www.princewilliamtimes.com | September 19, 2018
Stewart: Timing of allegations against court nominee ‘a bunch of crap’ STEWART, from page 1 her and Kavanaugh, jostling the two and allowing her to flee and lock herself in the bathroom. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, took heat late last year for his support of former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, a Republican who had been accused of making sexual advances to underage girls when he was in his 30s. Stewart skipped a board of supervisors meeting to campaign with Moore in December 2017. At the time, Stewart, R-At Large, said he questioned the timing of the allegations against Moore, which came to light just weeks before the special election for Attorney General Jeff Session’s Alabama Senate seat. Moore ultimately lost the race. Stewart said he’s once again questioning the timing of the allegations regarding Kavanaugh, who was set to be confirmed for the nation’s high court later this week. “Why did these allegations only come up now? They happened 40 years ago. Why wait 40 years?” Stewart said. “It’s so obvious this is an attack to
“I’m not going to pass judgment on it, but I’ve got to question the timing of it. I think it’s a bunch of crap.” – COREY STEWART
Corey Stewart derail his confirmation.” When asked if Ford’s accusation should affect Kavanaugh’s nomination, Stewart replied: “Not at all.” “I’m not going to pass judgment on it,” Stewart added of Ford’s specific accusation. “But I’ve got to question the timing of it. I think it’s a bunch of crap.” Kavanaugh is denying the allegation, calling it “completely false,” although he said he’s willing to discuss the matter with members of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who Stewart is attempting to unseat in November, has called for Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote to be delayed. “We in the Senate owe it to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to consider her serious charge as we dutifully examine Judge Kavanaugh,” Kaine said in a statement Sunday. “The Judiciary Committee should not vote on his nomination until this allegation is fully investigated.” Ford’s allegations first came to light last week after California Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced she had given the FBI a letter Ford shared with members of the California congressional delegation earlier this summer. The letter was dated July 30, according to press reports. Reach Jill Palermo at jpalermo@fauquier.com
Prince William Fairgrounds up for sale: Owners expect to hold last county fair in 2019 FAIRGROUNDS, from page 1 said. “We’re putting it out there to solicit interest.” Smith said the group has no collective vision for what they’d like to see the fairgrounds become, although he notes its existing zoning would allow for a variety of uses, including a shopping center, doctors’ offices, an assisted-living facility, data center or office building. “We have a right to reject anything,” he added. And although new townhomes have sprouted up in recent years on land across the street from the fairgrounds – at the site of the now-closed Old Dominion Speedway – the fairgrounds would need to be rezoned by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors to allow for new homes to be built there. The National Guard owns about 5 acres adjacent to the fairgrounds, land the Prince William Veterans Farm Club gave to the state for that purpose back when it bought the land in the mid-1950s. The guard has expressed interest in expanding, but Smith said the state has not yet formally expressed an interest in the property.
First fair: 1949 dairy show
Smith is one of 100 remaining shareholders in the Prince William Veterans
FILE PHOTO
Farm Club, all of whom inherited their stake in the organization from family members who were among the founding group, Smith said. The Prince William County Fair stretches back to 1949 when a group of World War II veterans, all from Manassas and Nokesville, met through a night class in agricultural engineering at Brentsville High School, according to a history of the Prince William County Fair published for its 60th anniversary.
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Participants were paid $90 a month to learn best practices in agriculture and dairy farming. Some had an idea to hold a dairy show as a group project, which was held in 1949 in Nokesville. The event’s success inspired the idea to hold a true county fair the next year. The 1950 Prince William County Fair was held over three days and included livestock, produce and homemaking competitions that included both adults as well as young 4-H and Future Farmers of America entrants. The fair was nomadic until 1956 when the group sold $250 “debenture bonds” to buy what would become the fair’s first permanent home: the 64-acre D.H. Polen Farm on Va. 234, about one mile south of Manassas. The county records don’t show how much the land cost at the time of purchase, but advertisements for the bonds said indebtedness for the fairgrounds and its improvements “would not exceed, at any one time, the sum of $45,000,” according to the anniversary book: “Prince William County Fair: Farms Forever, Forever Farms.” Smith is the son of the late H. Selwyn Smith, a World War II veteran who was Virginia’s first director of public safety as well as a Prince William commonwealth’s attorney and a
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circuit court judge. In addition to his legal career, the elder smith, who died in 2013 at age 91, was a Prince William Veterans Farm Club investor. Over the years, the Prince William County Fair grew as it promoted itself as “the Fair of Northern Virginia.” The high-water annual attendance once hit 200,000, Smith said. Now, however, only two of the original investors are still alive. Most of the current shareholders are their children and grandchildren, many of whom no longer live in Northern Virginia. Their interest in continuing the fair is waning, Smith said. Still, it will likely take a year or more to finalize the sale, which is why the farm club is planning to hold at least one more fair in 2019, which will be the event’s 70th anniversary. The new owners would likely find more profitable uses for the land, which is why a successful sale contract is expected to bring the fair to a close, at least at its current spot, Smith adds. “You could not earn the return it would take to use that property only 10 days a year for a fair,” Smith said. “It’s highly unlikely anyone would do that.” Reach Jill Palermo at jpalermo@ fauquier.com
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On the witness stand, surviving officers share details of life-changing shooting By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Two Prince William County police officers who survived the hail of gunfire that killed rookie Officer Ashley Guindon recounted the events of that chaotic day publicly for the first time last week during testimony in the trial of Ronald Williams Hamilton, the Army staff sergeant who has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of both Guindon and his wife, Crystal. Officer Jesse Hempen, who suffered a gunshot wound to his upper leg, and Officer David McKeown, who was shot in the chest, groin and right elbow, spent much of Wednesday, Sept. 12 on the witness stand in Prince William County Circuit Courtroom, telling the jury what happened on Feb. 27, 2016, and how their lives have changed forever because of it. Hempen was the first to arrive at the Hamiltons’ Woodbridge home in the late afternoon of that balmy winter day nearly two and a half years ago. He testified about how Ronald Hamilton first stepped onto his front step unarmed and insisted “everything was fine” and that his wife had just left their home. McKeown, a 12-year-veteran of the police force, told of how Hamilton then retreated back into his home, locked the door and refused to let the officers inside when they insisted on speaking to Crystal. The officers had reason to be concerned. They came to the house in response to Crystal’s 911 call, made eight minutes earlier, during which she said her husband assaulted her. The call went dead after Crystal was heard screaming, “Stop!” What happened next cut Guindon’s life short and forever altered the lives of Hempen and McKeown, both of whom were seriously injured in what became a violent ambush. After McKeown kicked in the door, all three officers were caught in a hail of gunfire from Hamilton’s AK-47, which he shot from “a crouched position” inside the foyer of his Lashmere Court home, McKeown testified. McKeown recalled staring directly into the rifle’s flashing barrel. “I started feeling the impact on my body,” McKeown said. He tried reaching for his own gun, “But my arm stopped working and I knew I had to get out of the way of the gun.” Hempen said he felt a burning sensation in his leg. Both men turned and ran outside. McKeown said he fell “flat on his face” to the immediate right of the front door, while Hempen said he managed to take cover between two cars in the driveway. Neither initially realized Guindon was hit. But Hempen said he saw her lying in the grass near the front of the yard. Hempen said he tried to reassure Guindon but “felt bad because I didn’t know her name.” Guindon had accompanied McKeown, her field training officer, on the call. It was her first day on the job. “I tried to talk to her a little bit,” Hempen said. “I was telling her, ‘Hang in there, new girl. Hang in there.’”
Officers rush to the scene
Four witnesses took the stand in the second day of testimony in Hamilton’s trial, which is expected to last until November. They included Hempen
Prince William County police officers Jesse Hempen, left, and David McKeown, right, were seriously injured when they were shot Feb. 27, 2016, while responding to Crystal Hamilton’s 911 call. Crystal Hamilton and Prince William County police officer Ashley Guindon were killed by gunfire that day. Ronald Hamilton, Crystal’s husband, is on trial for capital murder in their deaths.
and McKeown as well as Officer Brandon Rutherford, the first police officer on the scene after the three officers were shot. Bonita Royall, a neighbor of the Hamiltons, said she watched the scene unfold from her home across the street in testimony that largely corroborated the officers’ accounts. Hamilton, 34, pleaded not guilty in August to capital murder and other charges in the shooting deaths of Guindon and his wife, Crystal, then a 29-year-old working mom who counseled wounded Marines at Quantico’s Wounded Warrior Regiment. After Hamilton was taken into custody, Crystal was found dead in the couple’s bedroom, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her head and torso. Guindon, 28, was pronounced dead from her wounds at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, where all three injured officers were flown from the scene via helicopter. Hamilton, an Army staff sergeant who served two tours in Iraq before he settled his family in Woodbridge when he took a job at the Pentagon, again appeared in court in his dress service uniform.
Rutherford: ‘I contemplated taking a shot [at Hamilton]’
From the witness stand, the officers described a chaotic scene during which Hamilton initially hid inside the house and then emerged to toss his handgun onto the lawn only to go back inside. Eventually, Hamilton walked outside the front door with his hands up, allowing arriving officers to take him into custody. The back-and-forth made it difficult, at first, for officers to attend to the wounded officers on the ground. They feared Hamilton might shoot at them from inside the home and were initially forced to take cover behind their squad cars, guns trained on the house, while the wounded officers lay bleeding in the yard and driveway. During particularly sensitive points in the day’s testimony, Hamilton’s defense attorney, Edward Ungvarsky, wrapped his arm around Hamilton’s back and gripped his shoulder. The proceedings were emotional for the officers as well. McKeown’s voice broke as he talked of calling a “signal one” on his police radio, which just happened to land next to his face when he fell onto the grass.
The term is the equivalent of “send in the cavalry,” McKeown testified, explaining every officer on duty rushed to the scene when the call went out. Rutherford was the third officer to testify Sept. 12. He told the jurors he saw the officers lying on the grass but at first could only take cover behind his patrol car while loading his shotgun in anticipation of confronting Hamilton, who remained armed with his AK-47 inside the house. Rutherford said he then saw Crystal and Ronald Hamilton’s son, Tyriq, then 11, emerge from the front door and onto the lawn. Both Hempen and Rutherford said they told the boy to run. “He was frantic. He appeared scared,” Rutherford recalled. “He took a step toward me, at which time I said, ‘Just go! Go!’” Suddenly, the front door opened. Rutherford said he saw Hamilton standing behind the glass storm door. He put his arms halfway up while still holding his handgun. Rutherford said he yelled commands: “Show me your hands! Put down your gun!” Moments later, Rutherford said, Hamilton tossed the handgun outside. “I contemplated taking a shot [at Hamilton],” Rutherford said. “For whatever reason, I didn’t.”
McKeown: ‘I feel useless’
Toward the end of their testimonies, both McKeown and Hempen explained the extent of their injuries, their long recoveries and how the shooting continues to impact their lives. Hempen testified in a Prince William County police uniform. He told jurors he spent five days in the hospital, endured two surgeries and had difficulty walking without assistance “for a long time.” Now, Hempen is back on duty with the police department, working at the police academy. Jurors saw pictures of the large scar that remains on his upper leg. Hempen said his injured leg is still weaker than his uninjured leg, and that he suffers discomfort and has lost some sensation in his leg because of the extensive scarring. McKeown wore a suit to court. He has also returned to work for the police department, also at the police academy, but has had to remain on “light duty.” Because of his injuries, McKeown said he is no longer physically capable of being a patrol officer. For McKeown, the shooting resulted in a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a broken femur and a “nearly destroyed” right elbow joint. McKeown said he has had two surgeries on his leg and 13 surgeries on his elbow, including the insertion of pins and plates and even cadaver bone, but still remains largely unable to bend his arm beyond a few degrees, which he demonstrated to the jury. The injury, he said, keeps him from doing a variety of everyday activities with his right arm, including brushing his teeth, washing his hair and shaving. “It is unstable. It’s not strong, there’s no foundation for it to bend,” McKeown said of his elbow. “There’s a bunch of clicking and grinding as well.” When Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Lowery asked McKeown if his injuries have affected him emotionally, he said, “Yes,” adding: “I feel useless.” Reach Jill Palermo at jpalermo@fauquier.com
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