Anger counselor charged with pulling gun in parking flap

Washington Post ^ | February 5, 2010 | Tom Jackman

[La Lydia]

A respected domestic violence and anger management counselor in Fairfax County was arraigned in federal court Thursday after he allegedly pulled a gun on two men who he believed were blocking his car on an Annandale street last week. The two men were federal marshals. Jose L. Avila, 57, was ordered held without bond pending a detention hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He has been held in the Fairfax jail since Jan. 25, when he apparently picked the wrong place and time to complain about thoughtless parking.

Avila's attorney said Avila had worked for many years at the nonprofit Center for Multicultural Human Services in Falls Church, which merged with Northern Virginia Family Service in 2008.

Avila is a single parent and former priest from Colombia who was highly regarded by judges in the Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Odio said. Judges and lawyers often referred people to Avila for pretrial or probationary counseling, particularly because he is bilingual.

Avila allegedly encountered two deputy U.S. marshals outside an apartment complex on Americana Drive, near Little River Turnpike and the Capital Beltway, at 9 a.m. Jan. 25. In a court affidavit, Deputy Marshal Floriano Whitwell said he and another marshal, Matthew M. Dumas, had been conducting a fugitive investigation and parked their sport-utility vehicles in designated parking places on Americana Drive....

Found on Avila's seat, Whitwell alleges, was a 9mm Astra A-90 pistol loaded with 14 hollow-point bullets. Once out of his vehicle, Avila reportedly apologized profusely and said he had "never done anything like this before," the affidavit said. When he appeared with the marshals before a Fairfax magistrate, he claimed that he had pointed a cellphone, not a gun, at the marshals...

Officials at Northern Virginia Family Service declined to comment.

[WOBBLY BOB]

If he did, then we would need grief counselors.

[WOBBLY BOB]

(NC State Senator)Gun Control Advocate Shoots Intruder

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2424364/posts

"their hypocristy knows no bounds"

[bravotu]

Do Not Forget ‘The Airing of Grievences”

[SunkenCiv]

Jose L. Avila, 57... had worked for many years at the nonprofit Center for Multicultural Human Services in Falls Church, which merged with Northern Virginia Family Service in 2008. Avila is a single parent and former priest from Colombia who was highly regarded by judges in the Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court... Judges and lawyers often referred people to Avila for pretrial or probationary counseling, particularly because he is bilingual... Found on Avila's seat, Whitwell alleges, was a 9mm Astra A-90 pistol loaded with 14 hollow-point bullets. Once out of his vehicle, Avila reportedly apologized profusely and said he had "never done anything like this before,"

Thanks La Lydia.