Charges certified in harassment case

Why are they withdrawing the charge of misusing the registry? OK, the perpetrator admits to the police he got the FSOs name from the registry, but then, in court, the police say they have no knowledge of that fact! How about getting the right officer on the stand, the one who admitted what he heard in the police station. No wonder they have so few of this type of registry misuse convictions. Something smells here.

12-7-2010 Virginia:

HOPEWELL A Hopewell man testified yesterday that he feared for his life when four men in an SUV chased him on his mo-ped, eventually striking it, after harassing and cursing him because he is a convicted sex offender.

Rudolph H. Ellis said he felt lucky to be alive after the suspects’ 2000 Lincoln Navigator struck his mo-ped on Hill Avenue near Atlantic Street after they pursued him from a convenience store into a nearby residential area.

“I knew he was going to hit me because the truck was right up on top of me,” Ellis testified in Hopewell General District Court, referring to Daniel R. Narron, 19, of Hopewell, who was driving the SUV.

After hearing that and other evidence during a two-hour preliminary hearing, retired Judge Kenneth W. Nye certified charges of attempted murder and attempted malicious wounding by mob to a Hopewell Circuit Court grand jury.

Earlier, co-defendants Damon J. Silvestro, 20, of Colonial Heights; Eric B. Harris, 25, of Hopewell; and Thomas W. McCall, 21, also of Hopewell, waived their preliminary hearings on similar charges and Nye certified them.

Without explanation, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elizabeth Fields withdrew a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge against Narron and failure to report an accident against the other three defendants.

In addition, she withdrew a charge of misusing information on Virginia’s sex-offender registry against Narron, who is accused of initiating the confrontation with Ellis after encountering him at The Corner Store at 2223 Atlantic Ave. After Narron was arrested, police said Narron began harassing Ellis about being a sex offender based on information he obtained from the sex-offender registry.

Trooper J.P. Deckard, who investigated the case, testified that he had no evidence that Narron learned about Ellis through the registry. Deckard said Narron told him that Ellis’ status was “general knowledge” and something that “everybody knew.”

After yesterday’s hearing, Fields declined to say whether she would reinstate the registry charge against Narron. Ellis, 52, testified how he was confronted outside the convenience store after buying beer and hearing two voices in a vehicle next to his mo-ped curse and call him a child molester. After cursing back, Ellis said, he drove away on his mo-ped and soon found himself being chased by Narron and his three companions.

At one point, Ellis darted through some trees and behind a house in an effort to lose them, but his pursuers didn’t give up, he said. As Ellis darted across Hill Avenue to get to a friend’s house, he said, his mo-ped was struck from behind and he fell to the ground uninjured. The suspects then drove away, he said.

Deckard testified that Narron admitted chasing Ellis and that Narron’s account of his route was consistent with Ellis’ account. The two men differed on the conversation that led to the confrontation, Deckard said.

Ellis, who is listed on the sex-offender registry, was convicted in Sussex County of aggravated sexual battery and abduction for immoral purposes in 2000, and failing to register as a sex offender in Hopewell in 2006. Ellis testified that he doesn’t know Narron nor could he recall ever meeting him. ..Source.. by Mark Bowes