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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • April 1, 2015
INSIDE Rule change for payday lending - 2 Kindergarten rhyme time - 5 Art therapy sessions - 10 Hookah warning - 14 LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE
In Virginia ABC arrest numbers, tilt is toward buyers rather than sellers Agents working for Virginia’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued more arrest warrants to minors for buying or having alcohol than to stores for selling to underage drinkers in 2014, agency records show. The statistics, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, shed some light on the ways in which the agency in charge of the state’s liquor monopoly also cracks down on crimes ranging from shoplifting to child abuse. Approximately 130 special agents are tasked with enforcing Virginia’s alcohol laws, but they are also given the legal authority to address any crime in the commonwealth. Since the violent arrest of a black University of Virginia student celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in March, lawmakers and school officials are questioning the department’s law enforcement power and judgment. The ABC agents made 397 arrests in 2014 related to the illegal purchase of alcohol, of which 343 were for unauthorized purchase by people younger than 21. The remaining 54 were for the use of fake IDs or for adults buying alcohol for underage people. Agents made 377 arrests for alcohol sales to underage drinkers. About 20 percent of the arrests ABC agents made in 2014 involved charges that have no direct connection to alcohol. Ninety-one arrests targeted drugs, more than half of which were possession of marijuana. An additional 50 involved theft,
U-Va. student Martese Johnson, center, and his lawyer, Daniel Watkins, right, speak to the media after Johnson's hearing at the Charlottesville District Court on March 26 in Charlottesville. GETTY IMAGES including four for shoplifting. The agency made two arrests for child abuse or neglect. “They’re not looking for these things, but they discover them” in the course of investigating alcohol violations, said Carol Mawyer, a spokeswoman for the agency. Only six charges were logged for resisting arrest, assault on law enforcement officials or obstruction of justice, suggesting that contentious
encounters with the public — like the arrest of Martese Johnson near U-Va.’s campus on March 18 — are rare. Altogether, 1,157 people were charged with crimes after ABC agents arrested them in 2014. Because some were accused of multiple crimes, the agency catalogued a total of 1,394 charges. In the same year, the agency issued 783 administrative charges to bars and restaurants for failing to comply
with the state’s strict rules regarding alcohol sales. Public drunkenness or swearing and resisting arrest without force were the two charges ultimately lodged against Johnson, 20. ABC agents were videotaped handcuffing Johnson as he lay on the ground, bloody and indignant. He required 10 stitches to his head. The ABC has declined to comment (continued on page 4)