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Trespassing Case

I attended my son's school party on June 17, 2005. Roger Vanderhye had me arrested in front of my son, held the entire Fathers Day weekend in jail and then prosecuted on a charge of trespassing with a penalty of up to one year in jail. This all happened in spite of Virginia State Law and School District Policy that both require the school to let me attend.

Background Information

VA CODE 22.1-4.3 - Law requires schools to allow non-custodial parents to participate in school activities
District Regulation 2240.3 - School District Policy requires the school to allow non-custodial parents to attend
MP3 Recording of incident at school 06/17/2005 (20 MB)
- Text Transcript Part 1 - Sign in at Office, and harassed by Principal
- Text Transcript Part 2 - In the classroom with my son Liam
- Text Transcript Part 3 - The cops arrive, discuss court orders and arrest me
Aerial photo of school , and with property boundary (from county site) which I crossed (leaving) before I was arrested.
Photo's of me and my son at his class party before I was arrested.
Photos of the school and the public soccer fields next to it where I was arrested.
For more information about the incident see the Hall of Shame page about the Roger Vanderhye.

Supreme Court Of Virginia

03/15/2007 - Petition For Rehearing - same as 02/15/2007 with larger font
03/15/2007 - Letter From Clerk - asking for larger font
02/15/2007 - Petition For Rehearing
02/01/2007 - Order To Dismiss Appeal
10/10/2006 - Petition For Appeal - (MS-word version with html links)
10/10/2006 - Notice Of Appeal

Court Of Appeals Of Virginia

09/14/2006 - "Order" Denying Rehearing En Banc - No responsive reason given, no judge bothered to sign the "order"
09/14/2006 - "Order" Denying Rehearing - No reason given, no judge bothered to sign the "order" (without a judge's signature it's not an order)
04/21/2006 - Petition For Rehearing And Suggestion For Rehearing En Banc
04/07/2006 - "Order" Dismissing Appeal - They claim that a letter to the clerk asking to submit the statement of facts to the Judge between 15 and 20 days doesn't count as the required notice of 15 to 20 days. Its impossible to imagine that the prosecuting attorney was in any way harmed by my notice by letter. When the prosecutor received my statement of facts, without any additional notice from me the prosecutor who does this for a living would have know when the statement of facts was to be presented to the judge and could/should have taken any action he felt necessary. Interesting that the Appeals court can search out such minor rule violations but can't search out the rules/rulings that require it to be less strict with the rules when dealing with a non-attorney such as myself, especially since the reason I had to file the appeal myself is that Judge Finch deprived me of my right to have an attorney represent me. Basically the Appeals court says that if a Judge, deprives a poor person of an attorney and deprives him of a record of the hearing, we will ignore the illegal conduct of the judge. That is circular reasoning because if Judge Finch had complied with the laws there would be a record and I'm being punished because the Judge didn't follow the laws, which is the exact situation the Court of Appeals was created to correct. Once again its been proven that Courts in Virginia only exist to protect the rights of the rich or politically connected.
03/17/2006 - Reply To Brief In Opposition To Petition For Appeal
02/24/2006 - Brief In Opposition To Petition For Appeal
02/03/2006 - Petition For Appeal - certified mail receipt
01/30/2006 - Transmittal Letter, Table Of Contents
12/28/2005 - Record Received
11/23/2005 - Letter to Clerk Asking to Submit Statement Of Facts
11/23/2005 - Statement Of Facts
10/20/2005 - Notice Of Appeal

Circuit Court - Fairfax County Virginia - Judge Gaylord L. Finch Jr.

10/13/2005 - Order and Clerk Notes
10/05/2005 - Kangaroo Court Trial - Guilty, $100/fine - How does Judge Gaylord Finch manage to convict an innocent man in when a Jury gets to decide? Easy, don't let the Jury hear the recordings of the incident or the first trial and then make it clear the witnesses can lie without penalty. That leaves the Jury to rule on what the school wishes had taken place instead of the actual facts or even what they testified to at the last trial. Also it doesn't hurt to tell the court reporter to not record the trial. I doubt I'd have been convicted if the Jury had been given access to the recordings.
10/05/2005 - Jury Instructions
10/05/2005 - Defendant’s Motion For Clarification Of Charges
10/05/2005 - Defendant’s Motion For Court Reporter
10/05/2005 - Defendant’s Reply To Motion To Quash Witness
- Exhibit A - Email from Jack Dale, Superintendent FCPS
- Exhibit B - Email informing school of subpoena
10/04/2005 - School's Motion to Quash Documents - Apparently the school does not want me to have a fair chance to defend myself and is refusing to provide documents related to the case even those that should be open to the general public. The few they did provide were sent to arrive after the trial. Why is the school refusing to provide copies of school policy or email with my wife?
- Only 7 pages of documents I requested were provided
- 15 pages I didn't ask for were also provided (to fill space and help hide the fact they were not providing the requested documents?): IEP
10/04/2005 - School's Notice of Scheduling - scheduled hearing on motion to quash
10/04/2005 - School's Motion to Quash Witness - Apparently Superintendent Jack Dale is too ashamed of his conduct to come to court and answer questions about it.
10/03/2005 - Case Status Form - the court held a hearing to determine a jury trial will be held but then still requires this form to tell them the same thing again.
09/26/2005 - Defendant’s Motion To Dismiss
- Exhibit A - School District Regulation 2240.3
- Exhibit B - page 15 of School Handbook
- Exhibit C - Page from Temp Custody Order requiring wife to provide school info
- Exhibit D - Pendente Lite Order - defined school into to include 'notice of Special Events'
- Exhibit E - Invitation to Class Party - sent to me by wife
09/26/2005 - Defendant’s Motion For Attorney - The Public 'Defender' refused to represent me
09/24/2005 - Defendant’s Request for Witness Subpoena
09/12/2005 - Defendant’s Subpoena - requesting documents from school
09/06/2005 - Schedualing Hearing, Public 'Defender' still refusing to present State Law or relevant Trespassing Case Rulings and withdrew from the case.

District Court - Fairfax County Virginia - Judge Stewart P. Davis

08/08/2005 - Appealed to Circuit Court
08/08/2005 - Ruling: Guilty, 180 days in jail (suspended), appealed to Circuit Court
08/08/2005 - The Public 'Defender' refused to present State Law or relevant Trespassing Case Rulings
08/08/2005 - MP3 Recording - District Court 'Trial' (13 MB) note tape recorder was voice activated...
- Vanderhye Testimony - Text Transcript of Roger Vanderhye's testimony
- Colwell Testimony - Text Transcript of Officer Colwell's testimony
- still working on transcribing closing arguments and sentencing....
07/08/2005 - Case Listing - Fairfax District Court
06/17/2005 - Arrest Warrant - filed after I was arrested
06/17/2005 - Trespass Notice - given to me after police arrived
06/01/2005 - Invitation To Class Party - sent by my wife