We don’t have much news here in Front Royal, which might be why we make the most of what little news we have.

I have written before about the hazards of bad user interfaces on self-service tills. Well, now it’s possibly bit someone in the ass; in the Warren Sentinel’s words, a man’s life hangs in the balance. I don’t know whether I’d go that far: he’s likely facing a $25 fine. See what I mean about making the most of the news?

On Tuesday, a four-woman, three-man jury took just 30 minutes to return its verdict after hearing nearly seven hours of testimony and argument stemming from [Warren County Zoning Administrator Gordon] Jones’s ill-fated trip through a malfunctioning automated teller machine at Food Lion on July 18, 2003.

Jones contended he paid the machine — which was left open despite an apparent inability to take money, credit cards or coupons that day — with a combination of 12 Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea $1 coins and some change. Jones testified he was dumping the coins he received in change from a stamp machine at the post office earlier in the day. The Front Royal Post Office is located across the street from the Warren County Government Center where Jones works.

Jones testified he was trying to keep a promise to his mother to avoid fast food after being diagnosed with diabetes by buying a rotisserie chicken and boxed baby spinach, along with a six-pack of diet soda at the grocery for his lunch that day.

Of course, the whole situtation is murky as hell; it should have been easy to determine whether or not everything had been paid for by counting the money in the machine and checking to see whether or not it was light. Apparently it didn’t even occur to anyone to do this. Jones maintains that this is all part of a vendetta against him on the part of the manager of the Food Lion.

The two front-page stories in this week’s Warren Sentinel, complete with all the intrigues, conspiracies, and even a zoning dispute of all things, are included in their entirety below the fold. If you happen to live in the Warren Sentinel’s distribution area, I strongly urge you to buy a copy of the paper; I would hate to think that I am cutting into that fine publication’s circulation by reproducing this here, but the Sentinel doesn’t have much of a web presence.

I am beginning to think that I should establish a ‘Front Royal’ category here in order to collect all these little tales of Twin-Peaks-On-The-Shenandoah.

Jury verdict questioned in grocery theft case
Zoning chief takes leave ending judge’s ruling on guilty verdict verdict

By ROGER BIANCHINI
The Warren Sentinel

Warren County Zoning Administrator Gordon Jones will take leave pending Warren County Circuit Court Judge Dennis L. Hupp’s Sept. 10 ruling on a defense motion to overturn a jury’s guilty verdict on a single petty larceny charge.

On Tuesday, a four-woman, three-man jury took just 30 minutes to return its verdict after hearing nearly seven hours of testimony and argument stemming from Jones’s ill-fated trip through a malfunctioning automated teller machine at Food Lion on July 18, 2003.

Jones contended he paid the machine — which was left open despite an apparent inability to take money, credit cards or coupons that day — with a combination of 12 Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea $1 coins and some change. Jones testified he was dumping the coins he received in change from a stamp machine at the post office earlier in the day. The Front Royal Post Office is located across the street from the Warren County Government Center where Jones works.

Jones testified he was trying to keep a promise to his mother to avoid fast food after being diagnosed with diabetes by buying a rotisserie chicken and boxed baby spinach, along with a six-pack of diet soda at the grocery for his lunch that day.

A teenage cashier overseeing four U-Scan machines stopped Jones and his cart containing approximately $15 to $20 worth of goods after seeing a light flashing on U-Scan-4 indicating what she testified she assumed was a payment problem.

“Something for nothing, that’s what this case is about,” substitute prosecutor Alex Iden told the jury during opening arguments.

“We just thought the evidence was inconclusively in favor of the prosecution,” said jury foreman Jennifer A. Keys in explanation o the verdict. Asked how evidence can be inconclusively in favor of the prosecution when reasonable doubt rests with the defense, Keys corrected herself.

“Conclusively in favor o the prosecution. We found that the prosecution definitely had the stronger case.”

The other six jurors stood by Keys perception and their verdict.

The seven jurors perception of that stronger case revolved around Jones’ admitted evasiveness about the dollar coins he said he paid with and his failure to identify the 12 Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea coins to police at the time he was questioned at the scene.

“He stated in court that he was purposely evasive. It counted against him,” juror Pat Flowers said. “They were asking him what form of currency he used and he said he didn’t remember. How do you not remember? It was too soon after the transaction for you to forget what type of currency you used.”

“We felt it countered his three character witnesses… because he said he was personally evasive in dealing with the police,” Keys added.

The three character witnesses whose testimony in support of Jones the jurors dismissed due to his admitted evasiveness about his payment method were former Warren County Treasurer Doris Miller, Warren County Sheriff’s Office Captain Billy Chapman and local architect Fred Andreae. All three, who said they have known Jones for six to eight years, called Jones “an honest and truthful person.”

In explanation of his evasiveness, Jones testified he was holding the dollar coin information as a trump card for when the scanning machine was opened in front of police and he could say “now count 12” of the distinctive coins out, “there is my money.”

However, U-Scan-4 was not opened while either the police or Jones was still at the scene, though Jones said he requested it be opened. Kaufman and her assistants denied hearing Jones make such a request.

The store’s security video cameras, which Jones also said he asked be viewed while police were there, were, as was U-Scan-4, on the blink that day, Kauffman testified.

“Why didn’t you just openthe machine while the police were there, this could have all been settled right then?” Gunter asked Kauffman.

“I just didn’t think about it,” she replied.

A third party Kauffman asked to attend the opening of U-Scan-4 an hour or two after the incident also testified. Central Coca Cola o Winchester employee Shawn McDaniel testified he was present when Kaufman opened the ailing UScan-4 machine. The machine has three slots, one far coupons, one for cash and one for coins, McDaniel verified.

Under cross-examination McDaniel said he didn’t know what was in the coin slot because it was not opened in his presence.

During questioning by Gunter, Kaufman later testified she didn’t think McDaniel understood how the U-Scan machines were set up and that he did, in fact, see in all the slot receptacles.

Gunter said he was “very disappointed” in the verdict but holds out hope the judge will uphold his argument that the jury’s verdict was flawed.

Should Hupp agree with defense arguments to overturn, Gunter said the judge has the option of either finding his client not guilty or ordering a new trial.

Should Hupp uphold the verdict he is likely to impose the jury’s sentencing recommendation of a $25 fine.

The Class I misdemeanor has a sentencing range of up to a year in jail and a fine of from 1 cent to $2,500.

But as Gunter told the jury, a guilty verdict jeopardizing Jones’ credibility and career was the ultimate sentence his client faced.

*  *  *

Seven jurors stand by their verdict, citing defendant’s ‘evasiveness’

By ROGER BIANCHIINI
The Warren Sentinel

A seven-plus-hour jury trial is not exactly par for the course on misdemeanor petty larceny charges involving approximately $20 of goods that never left the store and which may have failed to be auto scanned, purposefully or not.

However, defense attorney Eugene Gunter noted that in effect his client Warren County Zoning Administrator Gordon Jones’ life and career were on the line.

“He may have made an honest mistake. He said he would correct it if that was the case but he was never given an opportunity to do that. He did not shoplift, an act that would certainly destroy his life,” Gunter told the jury.

Gunter characterized the case as one of credibility, his client’s versus an admittedly malfunctioning auto-scan machine and a store manager with an axe to grind over a zoning violation Jones said he cited Ruth Kauffman for about three weeks prior to the July 18, 2003 incident.

But the jury was unimpressed with the defense case.

“Why would such a man do something like this, was he mad things weren’t moving faster, was he upset the machine wasn’t working correctly? That’s not the question — he did it. The facts are what the facts are. The witnesses saw what they saw,” Iden concluded during closing arguments shortly after 7 p.m.

However, defense counsel Eugene Gunter argued that no human being saw Jones fail to pay as he said he did, nor was the machine opened in front of Jones and police.

Gunter pointed out that the prosecution’s case was built on three store employees’ assumption that an admittedly malfunctioning machine correctly indicated Jones failed to scan all the items with which he was leaving the store.

“All the testimony today bears down to whether that machine was working properly. That’s what you’re asked to convict on, the evidence of the machine,” Gunter said in closing.

“Venom, vindictiveness, viciousness — that’s what this case is about,” Gunter told the jury.

The defense argued that Food Lion Store Manager Ruth Kauffman had a personal vendetta against Jones over a zoning ordinance violation Jones testified he cited her for on June 30, about three weeks before the incident.

“She said ‘I’ll get you, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.’ Well here we are today — I guess she got him,” Gunter said.

Kauffman was called as a hostile witness by the defense after the prosecution failed to call her to testify, even though she was the person who swore out the warrant against Jones three days after police allowed Jones to leave the scene without filing charges. The prosecution also tried to block Kauffman’s testimony as a hostile defense witness.

“Why?” Gunter asked.

On the stand Kauffman denied having ever received the June 30 zoning violation letter from Jones and also denied calling him at work to threaten him with arrest if he returned to inspect her property.

However, the defense produced a zoning violation file on Kauffman containing a letter dated June 30, 2003, as well as expert testimony from a GIS employee who handles the county’s computer maintenance.

Eric Patton cited 22 years’ experience working with computers to indicate he would have detected any alterations made to the letter’s content or file name. He said he found the Kauffman letter in the county computer system at the request of Jones and County Attorney Doug Napier following their trip to pick up the warrant for Jones’ arrest on Oct. 6.

Patton said the computer log showed the zoning violation letter to Kauffman was created around 11:15 a.m. June 30 and completed some nine minutes later. He testified he could have detected and dated any alterations to the file name or content of the letter but found no such evidence.

Jones testified he didn’t tie the Food Lion manager to the June 2003 zoning violation case until he and Napier picked up the warrant with Kauffman’s name as the complainant on Oct. 6. The warrant against Jones with his Locust Grove address apparently languished in the FRPD files for nearly three months before Jones’ name was recognized as a county employee.

County Administrator Doug Stanley was then notified there was an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for Jones.

Following the verdict and a private meeting with Jones, his family, who was in attendance Tuesday, and Gunter, Stanley informed the media of Jones’ leave pending a final decision on the verdict. He would not speculate further on Jones’ future with the county.