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HAMPTON, VA. (MyFox Hampton Roads) -- "As parents you gotta go home and do your homework because the signs are right in your house and you don't even know it," said Corporal Corey Sales of Hampton Police.

Corporal Sales was one of the speakers featured at a gang education forum in Hampton. It took an in-your-face approach that most parents seemed to welcome.

"The sneakers, the tattoos, I mean it was interesting to see. Interesting, but sad," said Vanessa Brown.

Corporal Sales showed community members exactly what to look for; beads, tattoos, red bandanas, symbols like a five pointed star - all signs pointing to gang activity.

You don't have to look past today's headlines to find gang activity is an issue in Hampton. Three suspects charged last week with robbery and firing a gun were also charged Monday with one count of gang participation.

Monday night's meeting was a wake-up call for Vanessa Brown.

"I never knew they had gangs in the area where I'm from," said Brown.

She brought her three children, including 12-year-old Jahrod, who says his mom talked to him about gangs.

"To never be in a gang and do the right thing...get my education," he said.

It seems the message has already reached him. Now the question is how to reach other children, before the gangs do.

"I think parents should pay more attention to what their children are doing nowadays," said Brown

A man involved in a 2006 gang-related shooting was sentenced to 28 years in prison Monday in Waynesboro Circuit Court.
In handing down the sentence to Rashame Washington, Judge Humes J. Franklin said he could not condone gang activity, or the use of firearms in the commission of crimes.
“This young man bothers me in a lot of aspects,” Franklin said.
Addressing Washington, Franklin said, “I don’t think you’ve accepted your responsibility. On the other hand, I don’t think you’ve had any kind of chance.”
Given a chance to testify at the sentencing hearing, Washington said, “It’s crazy, because I ain’t got nothing to do with it.”
Psychologist Joseph Conley of Lynchburg testified that Washington’s IQ was in the 60s to 70s, putting him in the lowest five percent of the population. Washington, he said, had a “severe cognitive dysfunction.”
Reading Conley’s report, Franklin said, “This whole report is a prescription for a catastrophe, isn’t it?” The report stated that Washington has trouble adapting to any social environment.
In addition to having been suspended more than 20 times as a student at Waynesboro High School, Washington has been put in segregation while in jail four or five times for losing his temper, according to the report.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Weidner told Franklin that the shooting “was not spontaneous.”
“It was a cold-blooded plan to kill and it was lucky no one was killed,” Weidner said.
Weidner said in court that had Washington showed remorse, he would have recommended a lighter sentence.
Two other men – Bloods members Brandon Clark and Jordan Strickland – previously pleaded guilty to their involvement in the Nov. 25, 2006, shootings at the South Winchester Street apartment, with each receiving 43-year prison sentences. Sudana Wilmott, 18, of Staunton, pleaded guilty to her involvement in exchange for a three-year prison term. She was 17 at the time.
Washington received a 40-year sentence, with 35 years suspended, for a malicious wounding charge in shooting James O’Brien, and received the same sentence for shooting a juvenile. O’Brien was shot four to five times, with a bullet going through him and hitting another person.
Washington also received a combined eight years for using a gun in the commission of a felony. He received a 10-year sentence, with five years suspended, for being a street gang crime participant, and another 40-year sentence, with 35 years suspended, for breaking and entering while armed at night.
Once released, Washington faces four years of probation.
Ten Waynesboro police officers and sheriff’s deputies were in the courtroom during the hearing, and had to lead out family members following the sentence.
Upon the reading of the sentence, a woman shouted, “You all are liars. He was never in a gang.” A bailiff was also needed to escort Washington’s attorney, Chester Francis, to his car.
Weidner said after the hearing he was pleased with the judge’s recent rulings, saying it’s had a positive effect on curbing gang activity.
“It’s really knocked the gang activity back,” Weidner said.

WAYNESBORO — A Waynesboro man was sentenced to 28 years in prison this afternoon for his role in a November 2006 gang-related shooting that injured two people.





Extra security brought in for the sentencing hearing of 19-year-old Rashame Washington had to usher out a dozen or so friends and family of Washington’s following several verbal outbursts seconds after Circuit Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr. announced the sentence.

“

Liars!” one woman shouted while being restrained.

Washington’s attorney, Francis Chester, also had to be escorted by a bailiff to his vehicle.

At today’s hearing in Waynesboro Circuit Court, Washington continued to deny his role in the shootings at an apartment on South Winchester Avenue the night of Nov. 25, 2006, which injured his future stepsister, 14, and a 19-year-old rival gang member.

“It’s crazy because I ain’t have nothing to do with it,” Washington said.

Two other defendants in the case were both previously sentenced to 43-year prison terms. A fourth defendant, a 17-year-old girl, was tried as an adult and sentenced to three years behind bars.

NORFOLK, Va. (MyFox Hampton Roads) -- A former female gang member, during rare testimony, revealed disturbing details about her dangerous years with the Bounty Hunter Bloods in Norfolk.
On the stand in Norfolk Federal Court, she said she was willing to expose the gang's secrets to save other children, including her own from gang life.

The young woman, who grew up in Ocean View, testified she joined the Bounty Hunter Bloods when she was just 15 years old and she immediately got involved with drugs and went on "missions" doing home invasions and robbing people.

The two co-defendants sat in court listening to the testimony of several former members of Norfolk's Bounty Hunter Bloods. One witness testified co-defendants Mikal Mix and Gary Toliver are two of the gang's top leaders, controlling their chapters in Ocean View and Norview.

She said the state's star witness against Mix and Toliver is the head of all the Bounty Hunter Bloods. Marlon Reed has made a deal with the government to testify against Mix and Toliver.

Another former member of the Bloods testified he had a ,000 bounty put on his head by Reed and that Reed ordered the teenagers and the eight and nine year olds in the gang to "put in work," by conducting home invasions, beatings and drug deals for the Bounty Hunter Bloods.

The Bloods are also tied to last summer's beating death of a 19-year-old man in Ocean View.
The medical examiner testified the man's head was bashed in to the point his brain swelled, killing him.

According to one witness, Toliver is a major drug and gun dealer, selling crack and heroin as well as handguns, shotguns and oozies with silencers. The witness said Toliver even made one sale of 10,000 rounds of ammunition to another drug dealer.

The former female gang member who, with the other girls in the gang, was known as a "ruby." She testified Mix was in on the robbery of two sailors in Ocean View a few years ago. She said a few rubies were used to lure the sailors in, and then Mix and several other Bloods stripped the sailors, robbed them and shot at them.

Now, Mix and Toliver are charged with a long list of felonies including, kidnappings, carjackings, maimings and home invasions.

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 20, 2008
NORFOLK

Seventeen-year-old Skyler Hayward, known as "Little Drama," popped an Ecstasy tablet and chugged a concoction containing Hennessy cognac at a Bounty Hunter Bloods party last summer before she witnessed a mob attack on three young men in East Ocean View.

Hayward, who joined the Bloods when she was 16, testified in U.S. District Court Wednesday about the mob attack that led to the killing of 19-year-old James S. Robertson. She also provided more inside details of how the street gang operated.

Two accused leaders of the gang, Mikal Mustafa Mix and Gary Lynn Toliver Jr., are on trial and face dozens of counts of racketeering, assault, kidnapping, drug dealing, illegal firearms possession and being accessories to murder. If convicted, they could be sentenced to as much as life in prison.

Hayward said she and two friends lured Robertson, his cousin and a friend to 16th Bay Street the night of July 27 last year. As the three men got out of their car, a mob ran out from behind a house and began attacking them.

"They were kicking and stomping. Everyone participated," she said, except for her.

In the middle of the attack, Hayward said, she became frightened at what was happening and shouted "Police!" even though no patrol car was in sight.

After the attack, she said, she and other Bloods, including Curtis Wayne Newby, spent the next 24 hours or so hiding out in area motels. She said Newby slapped her as discipline for shouting for the police.

She testified that she also overheard arrangements being made to get Newby out of town and in hiding. Mix was to help, she said.

Newby was arrested last week in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and gang members testified this week that Mix had Newby hiding out with his relatives there.

Police arrested Hayward at one of the hotels along with several other bloods. She has since pleaded guilty to murder and related charges and is awaiting sentencing. At first, after her arrest, she was a reluctant witness.

"I didn't want to snitch," she testified.

"Why?" asked one of the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherrie Capotosto. "What happens when you snitch?"

"You get killed," Hayward answered, matter-of-factly.

Mix's attorney, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., got Hayward to agree that she lied several times on the stand about some of the details of the attack.

"I'm sorry," she said at one point. "My nerves are just in a bunch right now."

Hayward said she joined the gang by withstanding a 31-second beating, known as "shooting a 31." She said she is called "Little Drama" because she "doesn't give a lot of drama."

Also on trial is Elizabeth Horne, charged in one of the gang's signature home-invasion robberies.

The trial is expected to last another week or two.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 19, 2008
NORFOLK

Defense attorneys Monday challenged the government's case against two accused leaders of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, saying during their opening arguments in federal court that witnesses will be lying and the evidence will be thin.

"This case is based on the credibility of the witnesses," said Virginia Beach attorney Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., who represents Mikal Mustafa Mix, one of the suspected leaders of the Norfolk Bounty Hunter Bloods.

"You've got to not only listen to the song," Woodward told the jury during his opening statements, "you've got to listen to the singer."

Mix and codefendant Gary Toliver Jr. face dozens of counts of racketeering, assault, kidnapping, drug dealing, illegal firearms possession and being accessories to murder. They face as much as life in prison if convicted.

A third defendant, Elizabeth Horne, faces kidnapping and maiming charges related to one home-invasion robbery that the indictment alleges was led by Toliver.

Federal prosecutors said the gang operated in parts of Ocean View, Little Creek and Norview for about the last nine years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Muhr told the jury that Mix controlled Ocean View while Toliver had Norview. Together, they ruled by guns and violence and supported themselves through drug dealing, according to prosecutors.

"You are going to learn about the Bounty Hunter Bloods, a particularly violent street gang," Muhr told the jury.

He said leaders often recruited teenagers and sometimes boys as young as 8 and 9. To join, the boys allegedly would have to withstand a 31-second beating, known as a "shoot a 31." Girls in the gang, called rubies, allegedly were forced to have sex with male gang members in order to join.

Muhr ran through a litany of assaults and shootings linked to the gang since 2004. He said the gang was started here in 1999 by Mix and another man, both of whom moved here from New York.

Muhr said the case is "about power. It's about a quest for money. It's about respect."

Mix and Toliver are accused of being accessories after the fact to a July 27, 2007, mob attack in East Ocean View that left 19-year-old James S. Robertson dead.

But Woodward and Toliver's attorney, Rebecca Colaw, said the government has little direct evidence linking the two men to that attack, other assaults, shootings or drug dealing.

The evidence, they said, hinges on testimony of accomplices who cut deals with prosecutors.

"The individuals who are testifying are testifying out of a sense of revenge," Colaw told the jury.

In a related case, state prosecutors dropped murder charges Monday against two teenagers accused of participating in the East Ocean View mob beating.

Nichelle Carter and Ieshia Rountree were released from Hampton Roads Regional Jail on Monday, but are expected to be brought back into custody Wednesday after a grand jury rehears the 10 original felony counts against them, plus an additional count of lynching by mob, said Amanda Howie, a spokeswoman for the Norfolk commonwealth attorney's office.



Staff writer Meghan Hoyer contributed to this report.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com

Posted: Aug 18, 2008 05:46 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 19, 2008 12:54 PM EDT

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY.com) -- The alleged leaders of a violent street gang in Norfolk were in federal court Monday for the start of dramatic trial.

The charges against the two defendants, members of The Bounty Hunter Bloods, range from carjackings and Kidnappings, to maiming and home invasions.

The gang is linked to the mob beating death of a 19-year-old man in Ocean View last summer.

Opening statements finished shortly after 5 p.m.

Police and prosecutors paint a dangerous picture of the Bounty Hunter Bloods.

According to court records, the gang peddles crack and heroin, and rules Ocean View with an iron fist.

And now, two so-called leaders or top generals, Mikal Mustafa Mix and Gary Lynn Toliver, Jr., are on trial for a long list of crimes.

Gang experts say the Bounty Hunter Bloods having been ramping up violence in Ocean View for the last several years and they've been recruiting kids and women.

Court records state when young girls are initiated into the gang, they are quote "sexed in." That means they are forced to have sex with at least five gang members.

When guys are initiated they "Shoot 31," which means they must withstand 31 seconds of a gang beating with fists, bats, guns, sticks and other weapons.

Girlfriends of gang members are called "Rubies."

According to the court documents, the Bounty Hunter Bloods wear the colors, red and black, they flash the number five or a five point star and they even have their own dance, the "Blood Dance."

Some of the members are rappers, according to the documents, and they record rap CD's under their own record label "Thug Related Brotherhood."

The trial is already getting off to a dramatic start with allegations of witness intimidation and word that gang members will be testifying against each other.

Prosecutors will start calling their first witnesses Tuesday at 10 a.m.

NORFOLK – Jurors were being picked Monday for a trial that’s expected to pit alleged gang leaders against each other.

According to court documents, Mikal Mix and Gary Toliver Jr, both alleged to be in the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang, face dozens of federal charges including racketeering, illegal possession of drugs and firearms, and accessory to murder.

That last charge stems from the July 2007 mob beating where 10 people are accused of luring three young men and then beating them. Two victims were injured; a third was killed.

According to court documents, the Bounty Hunter Bloods have been active in Ocean View for a decade, but violence escalated in 2003.

A third person connected to the federal trial, Elizabeth Horne, allegedly was in on a violent home invasion in August 2007.

According to court documents, Horne set up her boyfriend and helped Gary Toliver torture him as they tried to steal money for drugs and impress gang leaders.

Marlon Reed, one of the gang’s leaders, made a deal with prosecutors and is expected to testify.

The trial is expected to last a week and a half.

Meantime, in Norfolk Circuit Court Monday morning, charges were nolle prossed against two teens accused in that July 2007 beating that left 19-year-old James Robertson dead.

However, the first-degree murder charges and a new charge of a lynching deemed murder will be put before to the Grand Jury on Wednesday in hopes of a direct indictment, Amanda Howie with the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney office told WVEC.com.

Ieshia Rountree and Nichelle Carter, both 15 at the time, are among 10 charged in that attack.

Prosecutors temporarily withdrew the charges since the judge wouldn’t grant a continuance in the case.

“So now, at this Wednesday’s Grand Jury, through direct indictments, we’ll be bringing all of the original charges back and adding the lynching charge for both girls,” explained Howie.

One girl, Skyler Hayward, has already pleaded guilty and will be sentenced September 12 for first degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and three counts of robbery.

Trials are pending for a half-dozen other suspects.

Posted to: Crime News Norfolk

Timeline

Late 1990s The Bounty Hunter Bloods get their start in Norfolk.

2003-2007 The gang, relatively dormant until this point, begins selling kilo quantities of cocaine, carrying firearms and letting it be known that the Bloods control Ocean View, as well as parts of Little Creek and Norview. The level of violence attributed to the gang steadily increases. Members make names for themselves by committing home-invasion robberies as well as store robberies .

Last summer The gang is linked to two crimes – a shooting in downtown Norfolk and a mob beating in East Ocean View.

Today Two Bloods leaders are scheduled to stand trial in U.S. District Court. They face dozens of counts, including racketeering and accessory to murder.

Identification

Members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods wear red and black and often display the number 5 and a 5-point star. They identify with each other through various hand signs, tattoos and dances.

Graffiti usually marks their territories, and they are forbidden from using the hard C sound when talking to each other.






NORFOLK

Last summer, Marlon "Black Marlo" Reed and a group of his Ocean View-based Bounty Hunter Bloods headed to a house in Virginia Beach with the intent to commit another of the gang's signature home-invasion robberies.

The events that followed would turn macabre.

They thought the house contained ,000 in drug money. The cash belonged to a boyfriend of one of the gang members, and she, according to federal authorities, set him up that day.

Reed admitted in court that he and the others, with guns drawn, stormed the home in the College Park section on Aug. 20, 2007, and tied up the boyfriend and another man who lived there. The authorities have not identified the victims.

Over the next three hours, the gang members burned the boyfriend with a hot iron, gouged his skin with a screwdriver, beat him and poured hot water on his body. The girlfriend, Elizabeth Horne, joined in as a way to impress Reed, the Bounty Hunter Bloods leader, according to court records.

Two other Bloods leaders, Mikal Mustafa Mix and Gary Lynn Toliver Jr., are scheduled to stand trial today in U.S. District Court. Mix and Toliver, also known as the gang's "generals," face dozens of counts, including racketeering and accessory to murder.

Reed has pleaded guilty to several charges in federal court and will be sentenced this fall. Horne will stand trial only on charges related to the Aug. 20, 2007, attack.

Toliver also is accused of being with Horne in the 2007 incident. And according to the indictment, Toliver and Mix are linked to the mob beating death of a 19-year-old in East Ocean View last summer.

Court papers filed in the case, testimony and interviews recount the violent lives of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, who have ruled parts of Ocean View and terrorized other areas in the region for the past 10 years.

The trial is expected to involve dramatic testimony from "snitches" - either rival victims of the Bloods or gang members cooperating with the authorities.

The case also will pit leader against leader, as top generals of the gang, including Reed, have agreed to testify against Mix and Toliver.

The case intensified last week when Mix's girlfriend was arrested on charges of threatening a witness in the case.



The Bounty Hunter Bloods emerged from a housing project in the Watts section of South Central Los Angeles in the early 1970s, after splitting from the larger, more established Crips (originally called Cribs) gang. To this day, the Bloods and Crips remain mortal enemies.

The Bloods spread East, first to the larger metropolitan areas before fanning out. In poor neighborhoods, with youths feeling disenfranchised, drug dealing and violence became a way of life.

The Bounty Hunter Bloods got their start in Norfolk in the late 1990s when an "original gangster," whom authorities have not identified, moved here from New York and began recruiting underlings. The hierarchy of Bloods gangs begins with an original gangster followed by generals, foot soldiers and rubies.

In 1999, Mix, then in his early 20s, also moved here from New York. He met Reed, who was older, and together they became the "top generals" of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, according to a federal indictment and other court records.

Reed, according to the indictment, would later become an "original gangster" and went by the nicknames "OG" and "boss," as well as Black Marlo - all names underlings were instructed to call him. Toliver, who joined the gang years later, also is listed in the indictment as a leader.



The gang remained relatively dormant until 2003, when Reed and Mix began dealing ounces of cocaine in Norfolk, according to the indictment. Soon, as Reed admitted in court, they were selling kilo quantities, carrying firearms and letting it be known that the Bloods controlled Ocean View, as well as parts of Little Creek and Norview.

When a young man "disrespected" Reed in the fall of 2003, he was shot in the face. The victim, who has not been identified, survived the attack. Reed admitted in court that he shot the man.

Over the years, the Bloods recruited dozens of members, many of them juveniles and young women.

Getting accepted wasn't easy, especially for females.

In order to join, girls and young women had to be "sexed in," meaning they were forced to have sex with five gang members. Boys and young men had to withstand a 31-second beating, called "Shoot a 31," with gang members using their fists, feet, guns, bats and other weapons.

Bloods wear red and black and often display the number 5 and a 5-point star. They identify with each other through various hand signs, tattoos and dances. Graffiti usually marks their territories, and they are forbidden from using the hard C sound when talking to each other.

"The leaders of the enterprise give orders and directives to perform various tasks or jobs, referred to as missions," the indictment says. "These missions include narcotics distribution and various acts of violence, including attempted murder for the purposes of retribution, retaliation and financial gain."



Between 2003 and last fall, the level of violence attributed to the Bounty Hunter Bloods steadily increased. Members made names for themselves by committing home-invasion robberies as well as store robberies, court records say.

The gang has been linked to two crimes that happened last summer - a shooting in downtown Norfolk and the mob beating in East Ocean View that left James S. Robertson, 19, dead and two others injured. Mix and Toliver are charged with being accessories to that killing, and about eight others face charges in state court.



The federal indictment has caused much consternation within the Bounty Hunter Bloods. In recent weeks, witnesses have been threatened and intimidated, and authorities said they have had to move witnesses from jail to jail for their protection.

Last week, Mix's girlfriend, Tiara Billie Gosney, was arrested on a federal charge of intimidating a witness. Gosney is accused of confronting an unidentified trial witness outside a McDonald's in Norfolk on July 12, throwing an iced coffee in the person's face and trying to start a fight.

FBI agent Matthew Schlegel testified at Gosney's bond hearing on Thursday that Gosney yelled at the witness: "You think this stuff is funny. We'll see how funny this is when me and my homies run up into your house."

Virginia Beach attorney Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., who represents Mix, declined to comment last week. Other defense attorneys and federal prosecutors also declined comment, citing the sensitive nature of the case.

The case is being handled by the FBI along with police from Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and the Virginia State Police. FBI spokesman Phil Mann said he could not comment.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com

By REED WILLIAMS

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

As the sheriff sees it, keeping order in sparsely populated Charles City County requires a willingness to help the people who are acting up, but it also demands a readiness to arrest someone you know.

"A big part of the job is to give counseling, to give advice," says first-term Sheriff Javier J. Smith. "A long time ago, they used to be called peace officers."

With a population of about 7,100 people, Charles City is a sleepy place. Last year, it had the lowest crime rate per capita in central Virginia. Deputies made 57 arrests in the first seven months of this year. In 2007, the sheriff's office received 3,421 calls for service, compared with 33,108 in next-door New Kent County. Charles City's most recent homicide was nearly three years ago.

Smith, who joined the department in 1997 and won a four-way race for sheriff in November, says he has managed a smooth transition. He has acquired new patrol cars, video cameras for the vehicles and new service pistols.

He has had setbacks as well. He pledged during his campaign to hire a school resource officer, but the state rejected the funding request last month. A state board found that the application was incomplete, noting that it omitted statistics of crime in school and failed to specify which school or schools the resource officer would serve. The county has three schools: an elementary, middle and high school.

That disappointment came soon after county officials had started trying to address what they see as a new problem for Charles City's schools: the specter of gang activity.

On March 21, two Charles City High School students got in a fight outside a dance at a community center. One of the teenagers, 14, said it started because the other student, 15, had been trying to recruit him into a so-called gang, the Parrish Hill Posse. Both students were living in the Parrish Hill area.

The 14-year-old's mother earlier complained to authorities that the older boy had been harassing her son on the school bus and coming by his house to recruit him, said sheriff's Capt. Jayson Crawley.

A month earlier, a student with a red bandanna dangling from his back pocket started punching another student in a high school classroom after he heard the victim discuss the Bloods and Crips, Crawley said. It took several teachers to stop the attack.

Crawley said that the aggressor used to live in Richmond and "kind of brought that mentality with him."

The two incidents, along with recent reports of students drawing gang-inspired pictures, prompted a meeting of school and law-enforcement officials who decided to offer training to help teachers understand gangs and spot warning signs.

"It's just that we've never had it out here that I know of," said Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Tyler. "It's not like we've got 50 gang members taking over the schools, and frankly, I think they're wannabes."

Smith, 37, was born in Belize. His mother is a native of the Central American country, and his father was born in Charles City. The sheriff's wife of 15 years, Holly Smith, is a member of the Chickahominy Tribe in Charles City.

Smith said he never considered a career in law enforcement until former Sheriff B.A. Washington Sr., who retired last year, asked Smith whether he would be interested. Unhappy with his job making cardboard boxes, Smith accepted.

He later realized that police work suited him.

"It was very rewarding to know that you were in a field where you could actually make a difference in someone's life," he said.

The Sheriff's Office has a total of 11 sworn positions, including a part-time bailiff in charge of court security. Only one deputy at a time patrols the county's 184 square miles of land during the day, and two deputies patrol in the evening. Smith and Crawley provide backup as needed and also assist the courthouse security team.

State Sen. A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who represents Charles City and parts of Richmond and Henrico County, said he empathizes with Smith's limited staffing.

"There is still a problem with people peddling drugs down there," McEachin said. "We'd like to see those [crime] statistics reduced even further."

Charles City has its violent moments. This year, two brothers got in a drunken fight and one stabbed the other in the neck, Crawley said. In November, a man pulled a car over and beat a woman badly on the side of the road. He stopped the car again across the James City County line and struck her with a lamp.

Such brutality is rare. But police work in such a small place can be more personal than elsewhere, said B. Randolph Boyd, who retired as commonwealth's attorney last year but is still Charles City's county attorney. It is not unusual for deputies to encounter relatives and old acquaintances in the line of duty.

"When somebody needs to be arrested, there's no fiddling around," Boyd said. "I've seen them arrest their cousins without thinking twice about it."

The sheriff said he admires the personal skills of his bailiff, Doris Banks, a 31-year veteran with the department. She says her secret has always been that she "called everybody 'Baby'" and gave defendants hugs in court.

"I learned a lot from this lady right here," Smith said on the firing range this month, gesturing toward Banks as she rolled up her paper shooting target. "And I'm not ashamed to say that."
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332

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