The Staunton Police lieutenant who pulled over a towing company owner who raced his truck past a sidewalk of political protestors in April advised the driver against “spinning tires” as the officer let the man off with a verbal warning.
What I need to highlight with that: Virginia case law has determined that driving at a rate of speed that produces spinning tires does constitute reckless driving.
Other factors at play in this incident – the proximity of the speeding truck to a large group of protestors at the Augusta County Courthouse for a political rally, and the concession from the driver, Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout, that the truck was close enough to the crowd of protestors that he claimed a man reached out and “smacked” his truck as he drove by – would seem to buttress that case.
“No spinning tires, all that stuff,” the Staunton PD officer, Lt. S.G. Bird, told Armentrout, at the end of an interaction initiated by Bird on the afternoon of April 5, moments after Armentrout drove his three-ton vehicle at a high-enough rate of speed to spin his tires through the intersection of Johnson Street and Augusta Street.
A 12:39 p.m. time-stamp is on the footage from Bird’s body cam from the traffic stop that we obtained today, in advance of an Aug. 13 hearing in Staunton General District Court in which Armentrout, the owner of Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing, will be tried on a Class 1 misdemeanor reckless driving charge.
The Johnson Street-Augusta Street intersection is in front of the Augusta County Courthouse, which at 12:39 p.m. on April 5 was the site of a “Hands Off” political rally organized by local groups to protest the overreach of the Trump administration.
From the archives
- Staunton: Magistrate issues warrant in ‘rolling coal’ incident at April 5 protest
- Staunton: Somehow, I’m now the prosecutor in the April 5 reckless driving case
- Update: Judge issues continuance in Staunton protest reckless driving case
Armentrout, driving a 2000 Ford F-350 with neo-Nazi insignia on the front bumper, was idling at a stoplight at the intersection of Johnson Street and Augusta Street, and after the light turned green, the truck blew a tower of smoke through a modified smokestack located in the bed of the truck, then made its way through the intersection at a high rate of speed with tires spinning.
Bird was in a police cruiser at the intersection as all of this happened, and initiated a pursuit that ended in the Wharf parking lot, about a block away from the Johnson Street-Augusta Street intersection.
Armentrout was only given a verbal warning, with a police spokesperson telling us in an email on April 7 that the officer, then not identified to us, but who we now know to be Bird, only gave Armentrout a warning “as they did not witness any reckless driving themselves.”
From the video, we first see Bird asking Armentrout for his license and registration, and Armentrout being combative as he complies.
“They can smack my truck?” Armentrout asked Bird, ahead of an unidentified man in the passenger seat issuing an apparent threat, which prompted Bird to respond, “Well, if you do, then you’ll get arrested.”
“And they didn’t smack the truck,” Bird said.
“Yes, they did. The fucking old guy right there at the corner,” Armentrout said.
“After you started it,” Bird said.
“I didn’t do shit,” Armentrout said. “He came right up to our fucking truck. Down the little fucking alleyway.”
Need to interject here: there is no alleyway at or near the Johnson Street-Augusta Street intersection.
There is a sidewalk that connects Johnson Street and Lawyers Row that runs by the courthouse.
At 12:39 p.m., there was an overflow of people attending the protest rally on that sidewalk.
Back to the video, and Armentrout pleading his case:
“He smacked the side of my truck,” Armentrout said. “You gotta be fucked up if I’m going to let somebody come up and smack my truck. How ‘bout if I smash his …”
There was a pause here, before Armentrout continued:
“Run down a fucking alley, smack my truck, and you didn’t fucking see that.”
Here, the passenger interjects to say that he has video on his phone of the alleged truck-smacking.
Bird asks the men to produce the video, and after Armentrout takes a phone call, and the two fumble with their phones, they concede that there is no video.
The next couple of minutes of video is uneventful, with Bird in his cruiser running the license and registration, country music playing in the background.
After Bird returns from his cruiser, Armentrout is seen jawing with people who had walked down from the political protest to take photos and video of the interaction with the police.
“Why don’t you tell them to delete the video that they just pointed at me?” Armentrout asked Bird.
“They can, they can get video of you. You can go video them if you want,” Bird said.
“But, no spinning tires, all that stuff,” Bird said.
“When they smack my truck again, I’m gonna get out and punch them right square in the motherfucking mouth,” Armentrout said.
“And then we’ll deal with that,” Bird said.
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Chris Graham
