The prosecution of a Staunton tow truck company owner charged with misdemeanor reckless driving in a “coal rolling” incident at the Augusta County Courthouse at an April 5 political rally will be handled by … me?
“Upon due consideration, I will not be participating in the prosecution of this citizen-obtained criminal complaint,” Cody Bowen, by title an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office in Staunton.
I was Today Years Old when I learned that “the Commonwealth’s involvement in misdemeanor prosecutions is, in part, discretionary,” which is what Bowen, an alum of Washington and Lee Law School, informed me this afternoon via email.
For the record: my BA is in American government from the University of Virginia, with a focus on constitutional law, which sounds related, but truth is, I know not the first thing about court rules and procedures, and, no, I don’t even watch cops-and-courts shows on TV.
“I have not participated in the prosecution of citizen-obtained criminal complaints for many different types of cases in the past. That decision is made to ensure that complainants have the ability to have their day in court and be heard on the complaint prepared and obtained by them, personally,” Bowen wrote.
ICYMI
OK, so, technicality here, I prepared the complaint, but I don’t know that it could be said that I obtained the actual arrest warrant in this case, involving Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout, the owner of the Staunton-based Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing, on my own.
An individual, in this case, me, files a complaint; a magistrate hears the complaint and then decides whether there is enough evidence to merit a criminal charge.
Which is what happened in the Armentrout case, but only after the Staunton Police Department itself decided not to get involved in the case.
I am an eyewitness in the case, because I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Augusta County Courthouse around 12:40 p.m. on April 5, as Armentrout, who was identified as the driver of the 2000 Ford F-350 with neo-Nazi insignia on the front bumper that idled at a stoplight at the intersection of Johnson Street and Augusta Street, blew a tower of smoke through a modified smokestack located in the bed of the truck, then drove at a high rate of speed and squealed tires as he made his way through the intersection.
A Staunton PD cruiser was at the intersection as all of this happened, and Armentrout was stopped by an officer after a brief pursuit that ended in the Wharf parking lot, but Armentrout was only given a verbal warning, with a police spokesperson telling us in an email on April 7 that the officer only gave Armentrout a warning “as they did not witness any reckless driving themselves.”
ICYMI
The spokesperson, Sgt. CD Ammons, noted in the April 7 email that the driver had been identified, “and anyone who witnessed him spinning tires can obtain a reckless driving summons on him if they want to by coming to the police department and going before the magistrate.”
Challenge accepted.
We got the ball rolling after getting the email back from Ammons on April 7, the first act being, posting an item on our AFP Facebook page asking anyone who had attended the rally, held in conjunction with more than 1,200 rallies nationwide to protest the overreach of the Trump administration, Elon Musk and DOGE, and had photos or videos of the incident to feel free to share what they had with us.
In short order, readers shared video of Armentrout driving through the scene at a high rate of speed, and photos of the suspect vehicle showing the proximity of the vehicle to rallygoers on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
ICYMI
- Staunton PD had past issues with tow-truck driver charged in April 5 rally incident
- ‘No complaints’: Armentrout Towing still on Virginia State Police rotation list
- Staunton: Towing company owner arrested on misdemeanor weapons charges
The magistrate reviewed my complaint on April 15, and issued an arrest warrant for Armentrout a day later.
I was served with a witness subpoena on May 2 with a July 18, 11 a.m., court date and time listed in the case.
May 2, at this writing, was 76 days ago.
No one from the Commonwealth’s Attorney office made contact with me in the intervening 76 days in regard to the case.
I tried to track down somebody last night to find out what was going on, and Ammons was a big help here – locating and then getting me in touch with Bowen, who is the assistant in the Staunton Commonwealth Attorney’s office handling the July 18 docket.
Bowen initially asked me via email for any evidence that I had to share in the case, and I sent copies of two videos and a photo that had been shared with me by other witnesses, and which I had then shared at the April 15 meeting with the magistrate.
I also shared in the email to Bowen a throwaway line about case law on reckless driving that I’d discovered with a quick Google search.
I thought twice about including the line on the case law, thinking, like I need to tell a licensed attorney this.
The next communication from Bowen was the less-than-24-hours notice that I’m now handling the prosecution by my lonesome.
“It seems you are prepared in terms of your understanding of the law as well as what types of evidence will be required,” Bowen wrote me.
That’s what I get, for sharing what I learned from a Google search.
This whole thing is so unfathomable to me that I’m half-wondering if somebody is filming a pilot for a reboot of the TV show “Punk’d.”
A magistrate, three months ago, decided there was enough evidence to charge Armentrout with misdemeanor reckless driving.
Two weeks later, I was subpoenaed to appear as a witness in the case.
A day before the court case, I’m told that I’m apparently now Hamilton Burger.
I’ll assume that Bowen just doesn’t want the loss on his – and the office’s – record.
I take the L, they get an early lunch, life goes on.
The part about me taking the L is where the Hamilton Burger reference that I made is apt.
I’m already 0-and-2 career trying my own cases – both defeats coming in my effort to get Augusta County to release an MP3 of an illegally-held closed meeting of the Board of Supervisors in 2023.
ICYMI
Whoever Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout has as his lawyer doesn’t have to be Perry Mason tomorrow, but if I have anything to do with it, he’s going to look like it.
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Chris Graham
