UMW Athletes Have Direct Connection to Fredericksburg Nuisance Violations

Nearly all of the written violations of Fredericksburg's nuisance or noise ordinance since mid-2011 are against University of Mary Washington students and most are for athletes, including a group of repeat offenders who will be evicted from their apartment.

Fredericksburg Patch reviewed each written violation to the city’s nuisance and noise ordinance to determine what happens once the cases reach the judicial system and to find out how often the violations are connected to university students.

Almost all 23 charges involve University of Mary Washington current or former students. Most—15 of 23—involved athletes in the basketball, tennis, field hockey, track and field, soccer and lacrosse programs, according to court records and documents requested from the city and the police department. Of all of the cases filed since the summer of 2011, only one resulted in an outright guilty plea and the female student was fined $10 plus $94 in court fees for the charge on Oct. 30, 2011. One other student, a former soccer player, prepaid his $84 court fees.

The rest of the cases either remain active or the judge gave a deferred disposition for the case after issuing a warning when the students pleaded guilty. A deferred disposition basically means that the judge does not make a ruling in the case and will dismiss the charge if the student is on good behavior for a period of usually six months. Most of the students have not been charged again since the first incident and effectively avoided any punishment other than paying $84 in court fees.

. He said the university does listen to community concerns and it has taken numerous steps to ensure off-campus students are behaving, and a majority of the students are behaving.

It is important to note that filing the charges has changed the behavior of some students who live off campus.

Santiago D. Sueiro and his roommate, Colin Gannon, both live in a rental on Dandridge Street. They were charged for violating the noise ordinance on Oct. 22, 2011. Sueiro said it was Homecoming and they had a party in the home with about 30 people. He said a neighbor knocked on the door because the neighbor needed a parking space for a handicapped relative, but he was unable to find the owner of the vehicle. Shortly after, the police arrived and cited them with violating the noise ordinance.

"It was about 10:15 p.m. and the 30 people who were there when the neighbors showed up had mostly left when the police got there," he said. He said because there was a prior noise complaint filed on the home, the police cited them for a violation. Sueiro said they pleaded guilty and the judge gave them a warning and deferred their cases to April 17, when the charge will be dismissed.

"He didn’t want to see us there again," Sueiro said.

Sueiro said they haven't had any parties at the house since then and that the citation did change their behavior. He said it has become a pattern that UMW as a whole is taking the brunt of the criticism.

"I guess we’re used to it at this point," he said. “There was a bit of a misunderstanding perhaps. We understand that it might be a little bit of a pain to have 30 kids next door when you are trying to have relatives come in or whatever.”

Working Together?

Tonight at 7 in Lee Hall Room 411 the UMW Student Government Association is having a town-hall style meeting where students and local residents can discuss and air their concerns. Lee Hall is off Campus Drive on the left and directions are attached with this article.

Monique dela Cruz, SGA vice president, said she hopes students and residents can peacefully and constructively discuss the issue and solutions, and build a greater understanding of both perspectives.

“Should students be more conscious of their actions? Yes. Are some members of the community stereotyping students as a whole? Yes," dela Cruz said Tuesday. "The school and the students, we do good things for the community. I think both sides could be more open minded and ask ourselves, how can we work together?"

Evictions Pending at 1503 Stafford Ave.

One of the biggest problem homes is 1503 Stafford Ave., rented by Ryan E. Farrar, Craig Stephen Silverthorne and Thomas A. Dickman. Farrar and Dickman are UMW basketball players and Silverthorne is a former player. The UMW basketball program is still reeling from last week's arrest of UMW basketball head coach Rod Wood on charges of refusing to submit to a breath or blood test, DUI and reckless driving. Farrar also has prior charges of underage possession of alcohol and a DUI charge stemming from a traffic stop on March 18, 2010. He was found guilty of the DUI charge and the other charge was dismissed after he paid a $350 fine and $174 in court costs.

These three students have been cited twice—on Jan. 28 and on Sept. 24, 2011—for violations of the city’s noise ordinance. During the Jan. 28 incident, Nicholas Shepherd, a 19-year-old UMW soccer player, and Samuel Wichlin, a 20-year-old UMW tennis player, were also cited with charges of underage possession of alcohol. Police said Shepherd allegedly used false identification to avoid arrest.

The violations cited to Farrar, Dickman and Silverthorne from the Sept. 24, 2011, incident were deferred to May 1, 2012 after the judge gave them a warning. Silverthorne is the only one who had three violations of the city noise ordinance, including one from Oct. 19, 2010. He pleaded guilty and was fined $300 plus $84 in court costs. He was also found guilty of being drunk in public on April 9, 2010, but it is unclear what his punishment was for the incident.

The home at 1503 Stafford Ave. is owned by Bill Vakos of WJ Vakos and Company, which developed the Courthouse Village in Spotsylvania County. Fredericksburg City Attorney Katherine Dooley twice informed Vakos that the city has been getting complaints about the tenants of this home. But the city did not get any response back from Vakos until Dooley sent a second letter on Feb. 13 notifying him that the tenants were charged with violating the noise ordinance again. Two days laters, Vakos wrote back.

“My apologies for the inconvenience caused by the tenants at the above address,” Vakos wrote. “Please be advised that we have retained R. Scott Pugh, Attorney, to begin the eviction process against all tenants currently residing therein.”

Vakos did not return a message seeking comment for this article.

The three tenants of 1503 Stafford Ave. were scheduled to be in General District Court on Tuesday, but their cases were continued to March 13. Attempts to reach the students for comment were unsuccessful.

Community Complaints

UMW is limited in what it can do with students who live off campus, but Searcy said there is a judicial process for students who misbehave. Some students move off campus in the first place to get away from the rules and disciplinary measures. For example, it is easier to smuggle alcohol to an apartment off campus than it is on campus. But what's also difficult for the university is that even with its new student dorm complex in Eagle Village, there still aren't enough rooms to house every student.

Many students laugh at the notion that UMW is a party school, because comparitvely speaking it isn't. What complicates the issue is that off-campus housing in home rentals can be scattered among long-established neighborhoods. In the case of 1503 Stafford Ave., an elderly widow and a family with a young daughter are the two closest neighbors and Living Word Fellowship Church is directly across the street. Most people on that street own their homes and have for years. A few party houses in different neighborhoods can adversly impact the university's image, and they have in Fredericksburg. 

A lot of the landlords of these rentals don't live in the city and they are less inclined to respond to community concerns, let alone maintain the homes in good condition, which is a complaint residents have made to City Council.

Rodger Provo, a resident of the College Heights neighborhood, wrote an opinion editorial to The Free-Lance Star that was critical of the university for not wanting to acknowledge "the damage that their students are doing to College Heights" and criticized the police department for what he called a "passive response to concerns in the community."

Provo recently met with college officials and said he thought the meeting went well. He said they discussed the university conducting a housing study to better determine where students live off campus and some specific steps that could be taken to help solve the problems. UMW's .

"It is important to note that the university has implemented ongoing support for community concerns as issues have been brought to our attention," Searcy said. "For example, two years ago the University instituted the off-campus judicial policy to address student behavior concerns within the local community."

Police Respond

Fredericksburg Police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said the police chief plans to attend tonight's SGA meeting. She said the police responses to these concerns have been almost entirely complaint driven.

"Any arrests stemming from these complaints have always been and will continue to be discretionary, based on the circumstances present at each incident," she said. "For example, if a tenant has already received a warning about noise for a previous party at his house and the police respond there again for the same problem, the tenant will then be arrested for violation of the noise ordinance. Alcohol violations do not need a prior warning, but they also must be handled with reasonableness. A party with  50 guests, all of whom have some level of intoxication, will not result in 50 arrests."

Bledsoe said the city has had an increase in complaints related to UMW student behavior off campus since the beginning of this school year. Most of the complaints focus on noise, trash and alcohol consumption. In response to the increasing number of complaints, the police department now:

• tracks addresses that are the source of complaints and refers those with repeated violations to the City Attorney’s office for action,
• notifies the UMW administration of all arrests of UMW students, including the type of offense and the circumstances surrounding the offense. The University then refers the involved students for administrative review.
• Started a special overtime detail consisting of one or two officers who patrol areas known for disruptive student activity. The patrols have been working on Friday and Saturday nights primarily in the College Heights neighborhood, but they are expanding to include Thursday nights and other neighborhoods where complaints are highest. The University has agreed to share funding for this enforcement. 

This new level of enforcement has resulted in more arrests. During the first semester, 31 students were arrested for various crimes (mainly noise violation, public intoxication, and underage possession of alcohol). However, since the start of the second semester 36 students have been arrested. 

"The most significant difference has been for underage possession of alcohol, which increased from five arrests in the first semester to 14 arrests during the second," Bledsoe said, adding that not all of these arrests are related to house parties. "Obviously the police department has taken the concerns of the neighborhood residents very seriously, and we intend to continue this attention on alcohol and nuisance violations until the problems are abated."