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A special investigative grand jury Tuesday handed down a murder indictment against the Culpeper town policeman who shot and killed a 54-year-old unarmed woman on Feb. 9. Thirty-two-year-old Daniel Harmon–Wright, aka Daniel Wayne Sullivan, aka Dan Wayne, turned himself in to Prince William County authorities Tuesday night near his home in Gainesville, sources said. According to the Virginia State Police, Harmon–Wright has been charged with one count of murder, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The charges stem from...

The special prosecutor assigned to review the Feb. 9 fatal shooting of local housewife Patricia Ann Cook by a Culpeper Police Officer has requested a special grand jury investigate the matter. Potential grand jurors from Culpeper could be summoned as early as next week to commence their work the first week of May, according to Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney James P. Fisher. The special prosecutor said he was hopeful the grand jury review and evidentiary review could be complete by the end of June at which time all the forensic and scientific evidence would also be finalized. “Whether such an...

By AUDREY BARNES/myfoxdc CULPEPER, Va. - Investigators are trying to figure out what led to a police shooting that killed a 54-year-old woman in Culpeper. A telephone pole on North East Street is where police say the confrontation between Patricia Cook and a five-year veteran of the Town of Culpeper Police Department ended. Ironically, it began about 75 yards up the street outside of the church Cook attended. And if you had to pick a person least likely to be shot and killed by police, the victim's next door neighbor said it would be Patricia Cook. “She’s always talked really...

In tribute to the brave men of Culpeper, Orange, and Fauquier counties who helped establish our lasting heritage of Freedom and the identity we all share today The Minute Battalion of Culpeper County, Virginia 1775 - 1776 Left to Right: Private Man, Officer in Captain Taliaferro's Company, Private Man, Officer in Captain Wm. Pickett's Company Military Uniforms in America Plate No. 259 Copyright 1973 by Company of Military Historians Provided to Culpepper Connections! by Chip Culpepper who received it from Gene Norris Culpepper. At the Virginia convention held May 1775, in Richmond, Patrick Henry and the Committee of Safety ordered...

After heading the Culpeper Department of Human Services for the past 21 years, and being elected mayor of the Town of Culpeper last May, DHS Executive Director Calvin “Chip” Coleman is retiring from the post at the end of this month. Since taking the reigns in February of 1989, Coleman has overseen the Department of Human Services’ growth from about 20 employees to more than 180, and the development of a myriad of local programs to help DHS’ clients with everything from finding work and obtaining transportation to accessing affordable childcare.

Culpeper County public school officials have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes. "The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition," which was published on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, will not be used in the future, said James Allen, director of instruction for the 7,600-student system. The school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints about instructional materials, Allen said....

The hundreds of civil war gravestones in Culpeper cemetery tell of the town’s bloody history. Halfway between the opposing capitals of Richmond and Washington, it saw more battles than anywhere else in the United States. Today this town in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains is a battlefield of a different kind. In 10 days’ time Virginia, which last November voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1964, goes to the polls for a governor in the first electoral test of the Obama presidency. This contest between Bob McDonnell, a Republican, and Creigh Deeds, a...

PROJECT: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE SUBJECT: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION / RESPONSE ON THE U.S. LOCAL LEVEL FILE: OPPOSITION RESEARCH TRANSLATION: SPANISH to ENGLISH (w/BABELFISH) Original Spanish Title: ("Virginia: Inmigrantes Son Ahora Blanco de Junta del Condado") TEXT OF SPANISH-TO-ENGLISH TRANSLATION Text of Article: ”8 August of 2007, 03:41pm ET CULPEPER, Virginia. (AP) – Even without a debate, in a meeting of the County Supervisors of Culpeper County in Virginia, they have unanimously declared a resolution making English the official language of the county. Also, the meeting held on Tuesday was whether to go along with other localities in Virginia to look to the...

Prince William County [Va.] supervisors have taken immigration enforcement into their own hands — an encouraging example for other jurisdictions that want to crack down on the influx of illegal aliens into their communities. "I'm extremely excited about what Prince William County has done, and I certainly hope that kind of fans the fire of other municipalities across the state — including Culpeper," said Culpeper Town Council member F. Steve Jenkins. Culpeper County is one locality that appears to be taking Prince William County's lead on addressing the cost of illegal aliens.

JUNE 10--Meet Jerry Hawkins. The 43-year-old Virginia man is facing a drunk driving rap after blowing a whopping .32 on a police Breathalyzer test. While that's nothing special, as noted in the below Culpeper Police Department report, Hawkins was pulled over as he tooled down Main Street astride a red riding mower. Hawkins, who reeked of booze, explained to cops that he was headed to the 7-Eleven for gasoline.

By DONNIE JOHNSTON A Rixeyville man has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol on Culpeper's Main Street--on a lawn mower. Town police Sgt. Chris Settle was patrolling the 880 block of North Main Street about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when he noticed a man on a red riding lawn mower heading north in the left lane, according to Detective Richard Brooking. At one point, the man stopped in the middle of the lane for almost a minute and carried on a conversation with the driver of a passing vehicle, Brooking said. "After Settle watched the man almost get...

Sportsmen pack meeting Concerned hunters and other gun owners turned out in force yesterday to voice their disapproval of a suggested Culpeper County shooting ordinance. Wearing blaze-orange caps and sporting National Rifle Association insignias, more than 125 outdoorsmen skipped work to form an overflow crowd at the Board of Supervisors' Rules Committee meeting. And the exclamation heard over and over again was a resounding, "This is not Fairfax County!" The gun enthusiasts showed up to complain about a suggested ordinance--a slightly reworked version of a Fairfax County law--that would limit shooting to parcels of land 20 acres or larger and...

William Dranginis says he saw Bigfoot near Culpeper, Va., on a spring day in 1995. He and two friends were using metal detectors in a field when a 7-foot-tall thing with thick hair and bulging muscles jumped from behind a tree. Soon afterward, Dranginis reported his sighting to one of the nation's premier Bigfoot researchers in the Pacific Northwest. The guy laughed at him, Dranginis says. ... It was his initiation into the East Coast Bigfoot hunters, a group whose members say they are a put-upon subculture in the already marginalized world of sasquatch researchers. ...

In Jesus' name, you can't pray. The Culpeper County Ministerial Association isn't bowing down to that "suggestion" from the Culpeper Town Council. The group says it may challenge an Aug. 11 memo from Town Attorney Robert W. Bendall asking ministers not to refer to "Jesus, Christ or any variations of those names" while praying at the opening of council meetings. The memo stems from a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision July 22 ruling that a Great Falls, S.C., legislative prayer violated the First Amendment clause prohibiting the establishment of a state religion. The ruling sparked a similar controversy...

Sheriff investigating golf-course hijinks By DONNIE JOHNSTON Date published: 10/23/2003 A Fauquier County sheriff's deputy has resigned and two others have been "severely" disciplined after they allegedly shot up a golf cart during a tournament at a Culpeper County golf course last week. Culpeper County Sheriff Lee Hart confirmed yesterday that his office is conducting a criminal investigation of the incident and will let Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close decide whether to prosecute. The alleged shooting occurred on Monday, Oct. 13, during a birthday celebration for the wife of one of the officers at South Wales Golf Course near Jeffersonton, Fauquier...