James City County Board of Supervisors member Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) has provided eyewitness accounts that corroborate his retelling of an incident and the ensuing conversation with police outside his New Town restaurant earlier this month.
On Oct. 4, Kennedy said a crowd of 40 to 50 kids gathered in front of Dudley’s Bistro, the restaurant he owns on Main Street. A boy in the crowd allegedly unzipped his pants, exposing himself to another boy who, in turn, slapped him. An emailed account of the evening from the responding officers did not include this information, and also listed comments Kennedy made suggesting the police “shoot the little bastards.”
Kennedy acknowledged he made joking comments to the police, but said the officers also engaged in the jokes.
County Attorney Leo Rogers followed up with two people who dined at Kennedy’s restaurant that evening.
In an email to the Board of Supervisors, Rogers wrote the two eyewitnesses provided similar descriptions as Kennedy.
“A crowd of teenagers were gathering in the street near the restaurant,” Rogers wrote. “[Both eyewitnesses] described the incident as one teenager unzipping his pants and describing a sexual act in profane language and then a fight ensued.”
The fight prompted the wife and teenage son of one of the eyewitnesses to leave the restaurant to return home, according to one of the witness’ emails.
According to the email, Kennedy called the James City County Police Department, the crowd dispersed and then the officers spoke to Kennedy. As Kennedy was describing the boy who unzipped his pants, the email reads, Kennedy saw the offender across the street and pointed him out. The officers approached the teenager, who took off. The officers gave chase but lost the teen and returned to Kennedy’s restaurant.
“Both [witnesses] described a lighthearted conversation that ensued. The police, Mr. Kennedy and them were grinning, laughing and joking,” Rogers wrote. “They indicated that the officers joked about using Tasers or stun guns. [One witness] described Mr. Kennedy’s sense of humor as ‘interesting.’ They indicated that Mr. Kennedy made several of the statements attributed to him, but clearly stated that everyone was kidding around.”
At Kennedy’s request, a third person offered his observations from that night in an email to Kennedy. The supervisor then forwarded his email to County Administrator Robert Middaugh and Rogers.
“At around 9:00 pm there was a huge commotion just outside the patio, with dozens of young kids/adults running around/screaming. Two of the kids got into a brief fight which escalated the noise and number of people outside the patio,” the witness wrote.
He continued to write many of the diners left Dudley’s Bistro’s patio, adding, “I dine in New Town frequently and have seen similar incidents around Dudley’s and the Movie Theater before.”
The witness’ account of Kennedy calling the police, pointing out the boy whom police followed and the police returning to Kennedy coincides with the two witnesses Rogers interviewed.
“The officer’s returned to Dudley’s and had an extended conversation with Mr. Kennedy,” he wrote. “I could not [hear] what was specifically said between Mr. Kennedy and officers, but the conversation appeared to be lighthearted and joking as there was a lot of laughter from both sides of the conversation.”
The witness ended his email writing he has “witnessed many similar incidents in this area of New Town,” primarily on Friday and Saturday nights.
“I have had several people tell me that they do not go out to this area of New Town due to the roughhousing/skateboarding/excess noise coming from the kids that frequent the area,” he wrote.
In addition to the information specifically regarding the Oct. 4 incident, Kennedy turned over to Middaugh and Rogers emails from residents who detailed concerns about previous incidents in New Town. The emails had been sent to Kennedy at various times throughout the year. On Oct. 17, Kennedy forwarded most to Rogers, some to Middaugh and some to both men.
“I would like to inform you of my concern regarding vandalism and incidences in the New Town residential area,” one New Town resident wrote in an Oct. 16 email. “The behavior of a segment of young teenagers visiting our neighborhood has caused us concern since it seems to be escalating. Last Christmas we experienced a series of 5-6 teenage boys banging on doors and then running.”
The resident continued to say the ding-dong-ditch activity had “older single female residents” concerned their homes would be burglarized.
“Just over the month we have had the windows broken in several storefronts in New Town. Also, our community pool was vandalized shortly after Labor Day with parts of the boundary fence removed and pool furniture thrown over the fence,” the email reads.
The email said the activity could be “children being children,” but vandalism comes with a cost in New Town: to the developer, homeowners and businesses who have to shoulder the cost of repairs.
‘Kids Hanging Out Being Kids’
While some of Kennedy’s patrons, business owners and residents have complained about teenagers in the past, the complaints are few and far between, according to police and the New Town Business Association.
“I have not heard anybody complain about teenagers except for one individual,” said Scott Grafton, owner of Iron-Bound Gym and founder of the NTBA.
The NTBA meets monthly, and James City County Master Police Officer Alan McDowell has attended a few of the meetings to discuss crime in New Town.
McDowell attended a March NTBA meeting after some reports were made about teens hanging out and cursing, Grafton said. He said they had heard people weren’t coming to New Town because of teen issues in the spring, so they wanted to further examine that possibility. From the meeting and conversation with McDowell, Grafton said he learned there are very few calls made to the police about activity in New Town, and the crime rate in that area is comparable to elsewhere in the county.
Asked how he thinks juvenile activity in New Town is now, Grafton said, “I definitely don’t see them getting any worse, that’s for sure, because I think it’s very misperceived that things are bad.”
“A lot of teens like attention, when they’re with groups they like to show off with their friends. All teens have been there at some point. … I think we all need to be very careful of having one bad egg reflect on all the good teens who come here,” Grafton said. “You hate for parents not to feel safe bringing their teens here if there’s one incident or one person out of so many that come here that ruin it for everybody.”
Similarly to Grafton, Nationwide Agent Elaine Obie, who has served as the business watch coordinator for New Town for the past six years, said she does not believe New Town has a crime problem any different than other parts of the county. Obie’s role as business watch coordinator has her serving as a liaison between businesses and the James City County Police. If an incident does occur in New Town, Obie usually hears from businesses and she follows up with the police.
“Kids hang out. That’s not illegal, and kids are kids,” Obie said. “I don’t think we have serious issues here. I think we have kids hanging out being kids.”
Obie said the NTBA member businesses that attend meetings sometimes share concerns, but there is no serious outcry about crime.
“The kids milling around is probably the worst of it,” Obie said. She did hear about the windows being vandalized, which was an issue the police handled.
Regarding the Oct. 4 incident at Dudley’s Bistro, Obie said she did not know the incident occurred until she read WYDaily’s article. She said she has asked Kennedy to join the NTBA, but he has not opted to do so. Kennedy said he has never attended an NTBA meeting. Obie said Kennedy has never contacted her about any incidents in the past.
“I don’t know what the recent flare-up is. I have not received any other calls about this event on Oct. 4, not one other business has called,” Obie said, explaining she can’t recall the last time she received a call about kids hanging around. “I don’t understand what’s happening. … I haven’t been informed by any other businesses that there’s been an issue from that night or any other one.”
In an interview, James City County Chief of Police Emmett Harmon said he could not recall many calls about teenagers’ activities in New Town. When calls do come in, it’s most often on Friday nights — but not every Friday night. He also said Saturday nights tend to not have as many calls as Fridays. Quite often, officers respond to calls and find no issue, he said.
While arrests have been made in New Town and kids have been banned from the area in the past, Harmon still thinks the area is “family-friendly.”
“I’m confident that the police responded as they should have and took the actions they should have taken,” Harmon said regarding the Oct. 4 incident. “… The number of kids that do hang out there especially Friday nights, we are mindful of that.”
Master Police Officers Keith Campbell and Robert McKenzie, who responded to the New Town incident Oct. 4, were named Officer of the Year in 2009 and 2007, respectively.
“They’re both excellent police officers and they both do a tremendous job,” Harmon said.
He said he has not seen a rash of kids so out of control that people should be wary of strolling around New Town.
Harmon added he wants New Town to be as safe as Kennedy wants it to be, and he works to put officers out in that area every weekend.
The police are “not receiving a lot of complaints from a lot of other people … I just don’t recall receiving a lot of other complaints from other businesses out there,” Harmon said.
Data on the number of complaints reported to police in the New Town area are not immediately available.
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