Decided to make this post after some of the views I received. I knew a certain someone was going to get riled up once they saw that a hearing was scheduled. It would be pretty incompetent of any guilty parties to take this development lightly after all.
Given the current political situation with law enforcement, the amount of evidence involved against Manweiler and Charlottesville law enforcement, and the extreme shadiness of the behavior displayed by the CVPD and District Attorney's office, there is a good chance of this situation going badly for law enforcement and the Manweiler's. This upcoming hearing increases the interest of local news media, and thus my chances of this case getting airtime increases significantly. As soon as this entire story hits the public eye everything goes downhill for the guilty parties.
As a lawyer Michelle Manweiler knows what all of the actions and behavior from 2006 and beyond look like. She also knows that the evidence against her could result in felony charges of disorderly conduct (for lying to police, specifically via the evidence she tampered with) and obstruction of justice for deleting evidence (which as a lawyer she would have known not to do). The very evidence she gave police proves she wrote fake dates on the emails. Multiple witnesses, media included, have noted that she deleted evidence right after hearing of my arrest. The fact that she can actually receive felony charges increases the stakes for her considerably, since Virginia has no statute of limitations on felonies.
No amount of finger pointing will excuse her actions. Doesn't matter what I did, doesn't matter what Platania or Chapman did, doesn't matter what the police did. It was her choices and her actions, and nobody made her lie and tamper with evidence. Ironically, Charlottesville law enforcement would have likely done all of this to me without her writing fake dates or forwarding emails to accounts she setup. What Manweiler decided to do in 2006 has hurt a lot of people already, and stands to hurt far more people once it all comes out. One example is that Detective Rudman may lose his job over this. While I don't feel sorry for him after all he's done to aid Manweiler, his family will unfortunately be the victims of this and thus I do feel sorry for them. That however is all on Michelle Manweiler's shoulders - because Rudman wouldn't have been placed in this position had she not lied to him.
While Charlottesville law enforcement has so far tried to cover for Michelle Manweiler, they are only doing so out of their own self interest. Right now it is to their benefit to not go after her, because it means there will be consequences for law enforcement as well. That changes once this story comes out and Manweiler becomes a liability for them. Once Charlottesville law enforcement are in the spotlight they will be forced to file charges against her. After all people will ask why Jussie Smollett initially got charged with a felony for lying to cops, but a rich white UVA student doesn't get the same when she caused direct harm to people through her actions.
The massive preferential treatment received by Michelle Manweiler will also make this case problematic for law enforcement. She has received far more protection than what the average citizen of Charlottesville has ever received. As a lawyer Manweiler already knew this back in 2006. The primary reason for receiving such favorable treatment is due to Manweiler being a UVA student with a rich banker father. Additionally her father not only graduated from UVA as well, but also donated to the university at the time.
Manweiler previously lied to police when she attended William & Mary in 2000 but never answered for it. A W&M campus officer attempted to arrest me at my parent's home, because he stated Manweiler had told him she saw me driving a vehicle around the campus following her around. My family was witness to this statement by the officer, and my mother even told the officer this wasn't possible because I didn't have a license or car at the time. The officer couldn't leave the house fast enough upon learning this information. Michelle Manweiler didn't receive any consequences back then either, and what a surprise that her father is also closely tied to that college (a graduate in the past and an executive partner in his retirement, and has probably donated to the college as well).
People are smart enough to guess what went on behind the scenes in both instances. Given the current college admissions scandal of rich parents paying their kids way into schools, there are some very easy conclusions people will reach for why Michelle Manweiler hasn't answered for her actions.
With the racially charged situation in Charlottesville, not filing criminal charges against Michelle Manweiler would only end up further damaging the already low credibility of the police and district attorney's office. The evidence is very blatant and as mentioned this is the second time she's lied to law enforcement. To allow Michelle Manweiler to walk away again despite all the evidence against her would be a PR disaster for the CVPD and the district attorney's office. Law enforcement can be forced into going after her, and I think deep down she knows this. Hence the views recently. Some of these views came about via Facebook through some apparent link sharing, and there was a focus on the email evidence I posted. However, none of that actually prompted this post. What did prompt it was another post that these visitors focused on.
The post in question was written back in 2013 and titled "Hypocrisy, thy name is Manweiler", which admittedly is a bad title but it gets the point across. In this post I point out the hypocrisy of Michelle Manweiler, her family, and her friends, for their support of Manweiler's actions. It isn't in the popular posts list and it doesn't make sense why there was suddenly a lot of focus on it, so I definitely took interest in why it received such attention. Once I read through the post however I think I know why there was sudden interest.
In this post I don't just call out Manweiler and her family for their hypocrisy. I mention how vicious her actions were in 2006 with having me threatened out of my right to a fair trial. I mention how I wouldn't support doing the same thing to her. Perhaps this is the reason that this post received sudden attention. Maybe they are assuming that if she is charged, that at least I won't ask for Manweiler to receive the exact same treatment that they demanded for me. The problem with this assumption is that it expects my feelings on this issue to have not changed in the following years since that post was written. Things are very different now.
I truly do not care anymore and have no problem with demanding that Michelle Manweiler receive exactly what she dished out to me. In the years since 2013 my anger and hate towards the Manweiler family, the Charlottesville law enforcement, and my former attorney has steadily increased. My health and personal well-being has declined as this case has continued to wear me down. The events of 2006 constantly go through my mind at every waking moment. I have to fight to focus at work to such an extent that I'm mentally drained by the time I get home and thus I usually just don't do anything. I haven't slept well since 2006. What happened back then hasn't just had an impact on me. My mother's health has declined, and my grandmother in her stroke damaged state was in a panic on her deathbed that people were doing something bad to "her son" (a reference to me, as she had only daughters).
I have lost more than a decade of my life just trying to fix what was taken from me in the first place. Lost time is something I'll never get back. I had plans on my future and things I wanted to accomplish, do and see by now - and all of that evaporated thanks to the Manweiler family. Some of those lost years could have been spent in a violent prison due to those same threats that the Manweiler's are apparently now hoping I wouldn't support for them. Well as I said, things have changed since that post was written.
Michelle Manweiler can have bond denied and sit in jail for months just like I did. Since they forced me to strip down in full view, wear a green padded gown and sleep on a concrete slab in the suicide watch tank just to screw with me - then they can also do the exact same to Manweiler. If she does have kids by now, Ms. Manweiler's mother can take care of them while her daughter sits behind bars for a few months. Let her parents know what my parents went through - to see your child get their life destroyed while you're helpless to stop it. Let the prosecutor threaten her with additional counts and a violent prison stay if she refuses to plead guilty.
Is it right for all of it to be done to her just because she demanded it be done to me? No it isn't, but I honestly couldn't give a damn about it being the right thing to do anymore. I've stopped caring about a lot of things, and Michelle Manweiler's rights were first to go on that list. I did warn the guilty parties that if I was forced to do this on my own there would be consequences. So let Michelle Annette Manweiler reap exactly what she has sown.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019
A Court Hearing in Charlottesville
After Mr. Platania's response to the FOIA request, I contacted the Clerk of Court about my motion filed back in August. I brought up my concerns to her that I felt Mr. Platania was deliberately delaying comment on the motion. I asked if Mr. Platania had a time limit on a response, or if not if there was some way to bypass Platania and have the Judge's decision go through. I unexpectedly had the Judge's Administrative Assistant respond back to me.
I was informed that the Judge has decided to hold a hearing, and his assistant gave me three different dates. She also copied the deputy district attorney Areshini Pather in the email. However, in her response to the date I selected she only sent the email to Platania, and mentioned she had just spoken to him over the phone prior to responding to me. It does however appear that Ms. Pather is going to be the prosecutor appearing, since she responded via email this morning saying she was unavailable for an April hearing. I was not pleased to have the motion further delayed, but at least the apparent confirmed hearing date isn't too far off.
I am unsure if this hearing is due to Platania attempting to contest the release of the files. I was rather surprised he would be crazy enough to fall into that trap over a minor request as this. Unless of course there is more in that file than just my pre-sentencing report, but I have no reason to believe that after the Clerk's comments on the contents. If all it is is a pre-sentencing report, I can't imagine Platania wasting everyone's time by trying to fight that. Not to mention that a hearing is not going to work out well for Platania's office, in fact it's the last thing he should want to do. The events of 2006 look extremely shady on his part and that of the Charlottesville police. Even the brief summary in the motion makes them look bad, and I didn't even go into everything or accuse them of wrongdoing (I'll post that motion again at the bottom of this post).
The assistant specifically said that it was the Judge who wanted to have the hearing however, so perhaps this had nothing to do with Platania contesting the release of the documents. Perhaps the Judge is annoyed that the prosecution has delayed so long in a response. After all I stated my concerns to the Clerk on why Platania hadn't responded. Given the motion was filed in August, Platania has had no excuse for letting it drag on this long. The assistant also only scheduled 30 minutes for the hearing, saying she felt it shouldn't take long.
I would think that any contesting response from the prosecutor would involve a motion. They really haven't had the time to file one between the time I spoke with the Clerk and when the Assistant first got back to me about a hearing. If the prosecution did file one in that short of time, it only shows how they have been deliberately delaying the motion to unseal. Perhaps their response is still on the way in the mail and will come in the next couple days, but I would think either the Clerk or the Assistant would have mentioned it.
I wouldn't be surprised however if the prosecution had communicated ex parte on this privately through an email without copying me (which they are not allowed to do). In the responses to the Assistant's emails on arranging the hearing date, both prosecutors seemed to not like hitting "reply all". Thanks to this I feel there is a high possibility of some ex parte communication that I have not seen. If such actions are going on I would caution the prosecution, as lawyers have been disciplined for ex parte communications (one such example here). They may not be taking this case seriously right now, but I'm very aware of what they aren't allowed to do and I'm definitely keeping an eye for any missteps like that. I'll wait to see if any documentation turns up in the mail.
However, it is far more likely that the Judge has requested the hearing in order to call out the prosecution. The wording of his Assistant lends a high amount of weight to this belief. I would imagine that no Judge would appreciate a district attorney delaying a motion in this way. After all, I think his request for the prosecution's response was a result of the prosecution's actions listed in the motion. As you'll see in the re-posted motion, the actions of the police and prosecution look very suspect. This wasn't my intention when writing it, I merely wanted to go over the justification on why I needed the file unsealed. I could have easily gone into more detail and made my other accusations, but these were not appropriate for a motion asking to have files unsealed. Merely stating a few facts of the case however makes the Charlottesville law enforcement look very bad.
I think the Judge felt this as well and wanted Platania to get involved. By ignoring the motion and delaying comment, I think Platania may have pissed off the Judge and perhaps this is why we are having a hearing. Again, we'll see in the next couple weeks whether a copy of any motion from the prosecution shows up in the mail. If there is no motion or any documentation bringing up their challenge, then I don't think the prosecution requested the hearing.
While this hearing works out in my favor, it wasn't what I planned or expected and thus it changes things just a little bit. I was planning to head down within a couple weeks of hearing a resolution on the motion. But now there is a concrete date that I'm required to be in Charlottesville. Which can create a potential issue if there is a conflict later with work.
Before this hearing was arranged, I could delay the trip if there was a problem at work. That is no longer an option. But getting this felony removed, my name cleared, and the guilty parties held responsible is far more of a priority. So work will have to wait while I get my life back. If anything this hearing forces me to move forward regardless of my worries and fears, so it was probably for the best in that regards. Though it doesn't help me be any less stressed - I had a fear of courtrooms even before my life was ruined in one.
Obviously if I'm going to be there for a hearing, I need to make the most of the trip. My first stop will be with the Charlottesville Police Internal Affairs to get that ball rolling and the investigation off the ground. The initial plan was afterwards to confront Platania prior to my visit with the media. I wanted to confront him to see if he would finally cooperate before I had to air out all the accusations against him and the police to the news stations.
Had Platania actually been willing to cooperate by dismissing the charge against me and filing felony charges against Michelle Manweiler, I would have been open to some deals and agreed to limit the damages the Charlottesville city and law enforcement was facing. One example is that I would have agreed to not bring up a lot of the behavior and actions of Charlottesville law enforcement to the media. I also would not have publicly requested any criminal investigations of the involved departments, allowing the police to handle their issues internally without any heat from the media.
I would have been open to more depending on what was asked and how much cooperation I received - and depending on what I found to be fair and acceptable. As I said before, if one party came forward to fix this I would have agreed to make a deal to limit what that party faced to the greatest extent I possibly could. Make this easier on me and my family, and I make it easier for you. But this hearing changes things now.
I can't pass up contacting the media first. Having a court hearing greatly increases the interest of the news stations in Charlottesville. I have no choice but to take advantage of that opportunity if I want to get my life back. I'll admit I'm also quite angry at Platania's behavior and want to see him answer for his actions. He has more than demonstrated that he believes he is above the law. Since Platania decided to play around with this motion, it has now come back to bite him in the ass. Instead of going to Platania first, think I'll go to the media instead with my accusations in order to force Charlottesville law enforcement into fixing their mistake.
Right now Charlottesville media is very receptive of news that would cause damage to law enforcement officials who behave in a corrupt manner. Anger towards law enforcement in Charlottesville is at an all time high after the white supremacist rally. Platania himself has been a target of negative press related to this as I mentioned in a previous post. Consider all the allegations against the guilty parties, the bad behavior by law enforcement even to this day, and the sheer weight of the evidence against Michelle Manweiler - and you have a scandal that I don't see Platania's career surviving once the full details are out.
I think it'll cause some major damage and absolute loss of trust in the police department. It may take decades before anyone ever again trusts the police and district attorney's office in Charlottesville. Already the police department has issues getting recruits and keeping officers because of the situation in Charlottesville. Imagine what will happen once all the allegations of this case come out. People will wonder why a rich white UVA alumni gets away with lying to police, especially when she seriously harmed people in the process. The public will also wonder why the prosecution has worked hard to protect her from answering for her crimes. There are at least two felonies that can be filed against Michelle Manweiler with more than enough evidence to back it up. Yet Platania won't lift a finger, and people are going to question why he's refusing. They will rightfully conclude that Platania did something wrong in 2006 that he is trying to cover up.
The police initially had the option to put the majority of the blame on Michelle Manweiler, and Platania could have blamed his former boss for the result as well. It would have certainly made things less disastrous for them. They will lose that ability once I've gone to the media with this case. They have already lost a lot of the opportunity to play innocent, given that they can't claim they aren't aware of the allegations and evidence against Manweiler. Not lifting a finger to investigate or fix this until May is not going to look good. If they truly believe they will come out of a scandal like this intact, then perhaps the police and the DA's office really need to take that massive hit.
I likely will not post anything further until the hearing is resolved, I have a lot to get ready for after all. The only thing likely to change this decision is any actions from the prosecution prior to my trip to Charlottesville (either a motion showing up in the mail or other such contact). Just before I make the trip to Charlottesville I plan on closing the blog to public viewing. I don't want to risk Manweiler trying to get off the hook from all the evidence getting broadcasted on TV before she's even been charged.
When reading through the motion I filed below, ask yourself how bad this looks for the Charlottesville law enforcement. Then keep in mind that there is even more involved that was not brought up in this motion. Those items not mentioned are even worse than what was mentioned here. What conclusion do you think the public and the media will draw from just the events listed in this motion?
I was informed that the Judge has decided to hold a hearing, and his assistant gave me three different dates. She also copied the deputy district attorney Areshini Pather in the email. However, in her response to the date I selected she only sent the email to Platania, and mentioned she had just spoken to him over the phone prior to responding to me. It does however appear that Ms. Pather is going to be the prosecutor appearing, since she responded via email this morning saying she was unavailable for an April hearing. I was not pleased to have the motion further delayed, but at least the apparent confirmed hearing date isn't too far off.
I am unsure if this hearing is due to Platania attempting to contest the release of the files. I was rather surprised he would be crazy enough to fall into that trap over a minor request as this. Unless of course there is more in that file than just my pre-sentencing report, but I have no reason to believe that after the Clerk's comments on the contents. If all it is is a pre-sentencing report, I can't imagine Platania wasting everyone's time by trying to fight that. Not to mention that a hearing is not going to work out well for Platania's office, in fact it's the last thing he should want to do. The events of 2006 look extremely shady on his part and that of the Charlottesville police. Even the brief summary in the motion makes them look bad, and I didn't even go into everything or accuse them of wrongdoing (I'll post that motion again at the bottom of this post).
The assistant specifically said that it was the Judge who wanted to have the hearing however, so perhaps this had nothing to do with Platania contesting the release of the documents. Perhaps the Judge is annoyed that the prosecution has delayed so long in a response. After all I stated my concerns to the Clerk on why Platania hadn't responded. Given the motion was filed in August, Platania has had no excuse for letting it drag on this long. The assistant also only scheduled 30 minutes for the hearing, saying she felt it shouldn't take long.
I would think that any contesting response from the prosecutor would involve a motion. They really haven't had the time to file one between the time I spoke with the Clerk and when the Assistant first got back to me about a hearing. If the prosecution did file one in that short of time, it only shows how they have been deliberately delaying the motion to unseal. Perhaps their response is still on the way in the mail and will come in the next couple days, but I would think either the Clerk or the Assistant would have mentioned it.
I wouldn't be surprised however if the prosecution had communicated ex parte on this privately through an email without copying me (which they are not allowed to do). In the responses to the Assistant's emails on arranging the hearing date, both prosecutors seemed to not like hitting "reply all". Thanks to this I feel there is a high possibility of some ex parte communication that I have not seen. If such actions are going on I would caution the prosecution, as lawyers have been disciplined for ex parte communications (one such example here). They may not be taking this case seriously right now, but I'm very aware of what they aren't allowed to do and I'm definitely keeping an eye for any missteps like that. I'll wait to see if any documentation turns up in the mail.
However, it is far more likely that the Judge has requested the hearing in order to call out the prosecution. The wording of his Assistant lends a high amount of weight to this belief. I would imagine that no Judge would appreciate a district attorney delaying a motion in this way. After all, I think his request for the prosecution's response was a result of the prosecution's actions listed in the motion. As you'll see in the re-posted motion, the actions of the police and prosecution look very suspect. This wasn't my intention when writing it, I merely wanted to go over the justification on why I needed the file unsealed. I could have easily gone into more detail and made my other accusations, but these were not appropriate for a motion asking to have files unsealed. Merely stating a few facts of the case however makes the Charlottesville law enforcement look very bad.
I think the Judge felt this as well and wanted Platania to get involved. By ignoring the motion and delaying comment, I think Platania may have pissed off the Judge and perhaps this is why we are having a hearing. Again, we'll see in the next couple weeks whether a copy of any motion from the prosecution shows up in the mail. If there is no motion or any documentation bringing up their challenge, then I don't think the prosecution requested the hearing.
While this hearing works out in my favor, it wasn't what I planned or expected and thus it changes things just a little bit. I was planning to head down within a couple weeks of hearing a resolution on the motion. But now there is a concrete date that I'm required to be in Charlottesville. Which can create a potential issue if there is a conflict later with work.
Before this hearing was arranged, I could delay the trip if there was a problem at work. That is no longer an option. But getting this felony removed, my name cleared, and the guilty parties held responsible is far more of a priority. So work will have to wait while I get my life back. If anything this hearing forces me to move forward regardless of my worries and fears, so it was probably for the best in that regards. Though it doesn't help me be any less stressed - I had a fear of courtrooms even before my life was ruined in one.
Obviously if I'm going to be there for a hearing, I need to make the most of the trip. My first stop will be with the Charlottesville Police Internal Affairs to get that ball rolling and the investigation off the ground. The initial plan was afterwards to confront Platania prior to my visit with the media. I wanted to confront him to see if he would finally cooperate before I had to air out all the accusations against him and the police to the news stations.
Had Platania actually been willing to cooperate by dismissing the charge against me and filing felony charges against Michelle Manweiler, I would have been open to some deals and agreed to limit the damages the Charlottesville city and law enforcement was facing. One example is that I would have agreed to not bring up a lot of the behavior and actions of Charlottesville law enforcement to the media. I also would not have publicly requested any criminal investigations of the involved departments, allowing the police to handle their issues internally without any heat from the media.
I would have been open to more depending on what was asked and how much cooperation I received - and depending on what I found to be fair and acceptable. As I said before, if one party came forward to fix this I would have agreed to make a deal to limit what that party faced to the greatest extent I possibly could. Make this easier on me and my family, and I make it easier for you. But this hearing changes things now.
I can't pass up contacting the media first. Having a court hearing greatly increases the interest of the news stations in Charlottesville. I have no choice but to take advantage of that opportunity if I want to get my life back. I'll admit I'm also quite angry at Platania's behavior and want to see him answer for his actions. He has more than demonstrated that he believes he is above the law. Since Platania decided to play around with this motion, it has now come back to bite him in the ass. Instead of going to Platania first, think I'll go to the media instead with my accusations in order to force Charlottesville law enforcement into fixing their mistake.
I think it'll cause some major damage and absolute loss of trust in the police department. It may take decades before anyone ever again trusts the police and district attorney's office in Charlottesville. Already the police department has issues getting recruits and keeping officers because of the situation in Charlottesville. Imagine what will happen once all the allegations of this case come out. People will wonder why a rich white UVA alumni gets away with lying to police, especially when she seriously harmed people in the process. The public will also wonder why the prosecution has worked hard to protect her from answering for her crimes. There are at least two felonies that can be filed against Michelle Manweiler with more than enough evidence to back it up. Yet Platania won't lift a finger, and people are going to question why he's refusing. They will rightfully conclude that Platania did something wrong in 2006 that he is trying to cover up.
The police initially had the option to put the majority of the blame on Michelle Manweiler, and Platania could have blamed his former boss for the result as well. It would have certainly made things less disastrous for them. They will lose that ability once I've gone to the media with this case. They have already lost a lot of the opportunity to play innocent, given that they can't claim they aren't aware of the allegations and evidence against Manweiler. Not lifting a finger to investigate or fix this until May is not going to look good. If they truly believe they will come out of a scandal like this intact, then perhaps the police and the DA's office really need to take that massive hit.
I likely will not post anything further until the hearing is resolved, I have a lot to get ready for after all. The only thing likely to change this decision is any actions from the prosecution prior to my trip to Charlottesville (either a motion showing up in the mail or other such contact). Just before I make the trip to Charlottesville I plan on closing the blog to public viewing. I don't want to risk Manweiler trying to get off the hook from all the evidence getting broadcasted on TV before she's even been charged.
When reading through the motion I filed below, ask yourself how bad this looks for the Charlottesville law enforcement. Then keep in mind that there is even more involved that was not brought up in this motion. Those items not mentioned are even worse than what was mentioned here. What conclusion do you think the public and the media will draw from just the events listed in this motion?
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