A Staunton judge granted a continuance in the case of Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout, a local towing company owner charged with misdemeanor reckless driving in a “rolling coal” incident at a political protest in Staunton on April 5.
The case had been set for a hearing on Friday morning. Less than 24 hours earlier, the Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Office had notified me that it was not going to participate in the prosecution of the case, leaving it to me – because I initiated the criminal complaint.
Citing the short notice, Judge Robin J. Mayer agreed to continue the case to Aug. 12.
In a related development: Armentrout had updated his personal Facebook page on July 13 to replace the cover photo with a photo of me, a selfie that I took from the press box at the 2024 College World Series.
The message sent to me with that: an obvious attempt at intimidation, of some kind.
Note to Mr. Armentrout: you might have noticed that I was in court today, so, it didn’t work, at least not with me.
(Update: Armentrout has updated his profile page to remove my photo. That’s why it’s important to get screenshots, as you are able to see here.)
I can’t say the same for the folks at the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office, though.
I mean, I get it, that this Armentrout fellow might be something of a bad guy – he is facing another hearing in Harrisonburg-Rockingham County General District Court next week on three pointing/brandishing a firearm charges.
ICYMI
But dealing with bad guys would seem to come with the territory when you sign up to be a prosecutor, right?
Whatever the reason is, the CA office in Staunton is not prosecuting the April 5 case, basically treating it like it’s a civil complaint, which, it’s not.
The hands-off treatment was to the point that the Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney assigned the case, Cody Bowen, physically left the room after announcing that the office was not participating in the case.
The elected Commonwealth’s Attorney, Jeff Gaines, was in the room when Armentrout finally arrived for the hearing 14 minutes late, as there was another case on the docket scheduled to start at 11:15 a.m., but Gaines, who is not running for re-election this November, left things with regard to the Armentrout case to me.
Cowards.
ICYMI
To be clear, I am an eyewitness in the case, just because I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Augusta County Courthouse around 12:40 p.m. on April 5.
A few feet away from me, 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 at around 12:40 p.m.
After the light turned green, the driver 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, putting more than two dozen people on the sidewalk mere feet away at risk.
A Staunton Police Department cruiser was at the intersection as all of this happened, and Armentrout, later identified to me as the driver, was stopped by an officer after a brief pursuit that ended in the Wharf parking lot.
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.
A local magistrate reviewed my complaint on April 15, and issued an arrest warrant for Armentrout a day later.
ICYMI
That’s my participation in this case. Only after the PD declined to investigate did I take the ball and initiate a citizen-led investigation, which I then presented to a magistrate, who heard the complaint and then decided that there was enough evidence to merit a criminal charge.
At that point, a reasonable expectation would have been, the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office would reach out to the PD to get the name of the officer who had pulled Armentrout over, subpoena said officer, reach out to me to get access to the evidence that I presented to the magistrate, and somebody between the two of them – the PD and the Commonwealth’s Attorney – would canvass for additional witnesses.
Why is this being left to me, is a good question.
The evidence in this case suggests that Armentrout put multiple people in danger as he sped through the Johnson Street-Augusta Street intersection, and that a police officer witnessed this and decided to let him off with a verbal warning.
I followed directions – it was the police department that told me that “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.”
If the magistrate says, no, this isn’t enough to proceed with a criminal charge, that’s it – the case was made, a decision was made, life goes on.
Instead, the magistrate signed off on an arrest warrant, three months ago.
After three months of sitting on this, it was just yesterday that I learned the CA office was leaving the prosecution to me, like the matter at hand is two people trying to resolve some sort of personal dispute.
For the record, I’ve never met this Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout guy, and would likely have never heard or read his name going forward, if he hadn’t sped by me and a couple dozen other people at a political rally at a high rate of speed, obviously, to me, trying to intimidate people that he doesn’t think should have been at the Augusta County Courthouse on April 5 to exercise their First Amendment rights.
To me, people who threaten the free speech, and the safety, of others, like it seems to me Mr. Armentrout was intent on doing in the April 5 case, need to be held accountable.
The Staunton Police Department didn’t want to do its job.
The Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Office doesn’t want to do its job.
To be clear, I don’t want to do this job, either.
The defendant in this case seems to be trying to threaten me, which I could do without.
I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t crossing my mind that something bad could happen.
And I’m not going to pretend that I’m some brave guy who doesn’t care.
But I do believe, fervently, that we can’t let people bully us from doing the right thing.
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Chris Graham
