Barbi A. Goodman, a former nurse for the Department of Corrections appeared in Circuit Court Tuesday, charged with obstruction of justice. A plea agreement was reached and Goodman plead guilty.

On November 27, 2007, a cell phone was found in inmate Lavelle Fowler’s cell. When questioned by investigators, Goodman admitted to providing the prisoner with the cell phone and said that she and Fowler had developed a relationship. Goodman was fired from the Department of Corrections at the conclusion of that investigation.

Judge Thomas V. Warren accepted the plea agreement and imposed the specified sentence: 12 months in prison, all time suspended for five years, and a $200 fine.

Marcellus A. Robinson, 51, was in Circuit Court Tuesday, charged with feloniously committing fraudulent utterance. Robinson plead guilty to the charge that carries up to 10 years in prison.

On April 4, 2007, Robinson filed a claim with Geico Insurance Co. for a car stereo system that he said was stolen. Geico requested the receipts from the original purchase of the stereo system and Robinson delivered forged invoices that reflected the purchase of stereo equipment valuing $1,830.

Robinson admitted to investigators that he got the forged documents from a friend.

Judge Thomas V. Warren accepted Robinson’s guilty plea and ordered him to return on October 14 for sentencing.

Odell Morris was in Circuit Court Tuesday for sentencing on two charges of cocaine distribution.

“I want to apologize to the community of Powhatan,” said Morris. “I put myself into this situation.”

Judge Thomas V. Warren sentenced Morris to 10 years in prison for each distribution charge, with eight and a half years suspended for a period of 10 years. Those sentences will run concurrently.

Roger Dale Simmons Jr., 41, was in Circuit court Tuesday, charged with fraudulently accepting funds to perform work. Simmons entered an innocent plea to the felony charge and waived his right to trial by jury.

On March 27, 2007 Simmons met with John Fusetti, a Powhatan home owner, to discuss plans for an addition to Fusetti’s home. On that date the two parties signed six separate contracts for the project. Those contracts reflected a division of the total project into six smaller ones, each totaling $7,400. Fusetti made payment on the first of the six contracts that day.

Janet Kramer, a field supervisor with DPOR investigated the complaint against Simmons. In sworn testimony Tuesday, she said that Simmons’ contractor’s license had been revoked on December 15, 2004. At the time that Simmons signed the contracts with Fusetti, he was operating under a Class C license in his wife’s name. 

Powhatan County denied Simmons’ application for a building permit based on the total value of the combined six-contract project. Class C contractors can only perform work on projects that do not exceed $7,500.

“The original contract goes well above the limits of a Class C contractor,” said Richard Cox, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney. “It goes directly to the defendant’s intent, the way he staggered the contracts the way he did, in six stages of $7,400.”

Fusetti testified Tuesday that after speaking with a county building inspector about the nature of the denied request, he decided to end the project. He contacted Simmons and over the course of several months, tried unsuccessfully to retrieve the initial $7,400 payment.

“He operated outside the scope of his license and that fraudulently induced the Fusetti’s to enter into the contract,” said Cox. “He had no way of completing the project and that speaks to his fraudulent intent.”

“There was a breach of contract and there may have been other civil issues,” said Defense Attorney Kevin E. Johnson, “but there was no material attempt to commit fraud.”

Judge Thomas V. Warren struck the case, finding insufficient evidence of fraud.

“I don’t want you [Simmons] to think that the word innocent is coming from this bench,” said Warren. “You and your wife scammed and cheated the system, but I don’t think that the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the intent was fraud.”

David Woodfin Jr., 21, was arraigned in Powhatan General District Court last Wednesday, charged with first degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Woodfin allegedly shot and killed his uncle, Donald P. Malkemus, 49, Friday August 1 at a family member’s home on French Hill Drive.

Rodney Jefferson is the court appointed attorney representing the defendant.

Woodfin is due back in court September 19, 2008 at 11 a.m.

Ethan Scott Parrish, 24, and Joseph Parrish Jr., 17, were arraigned on August 6 on new charges related to the June 24 shooting death of 18-year-old Tahliek Taliaferro. The arraignment formally charged both with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony for the shots fired at Tommie Williams and Lawrence Harris, passengers in the car with Taliaferro at the time of the shooting.

Additionally, Joseph Parrish was charged with feloniously possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and a second juvenile charge that stems from a recent incident at the James River Juvenile Detention Center. A motion to have him moved to an adult facility was filed by James River Juvenile Detention Center in response that incident. The two Parrishes and Stephanie Reynolds, 19, had previously been charged with first degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, for the shooting death of Taliaferro, a popular Powhatan High School student. At that time, all three were also charged with malicious wounding and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for shooting and injuring Courtney Jones, 15, the fourth passenger in the car with Taliaferro.

All charges are scheduled to be heard August 27 when the three suspects are back in court.

New River Valley Juvenile and Domestic Court Judge Michael Keith Blankenship, 44, was in Powhatan General District Court Friday, August 8, charged with a hit and run that caused property damage. He pleaded guilty and received a $200 fine and an order to pay restitution on the damage caused by the accident.

The April 27 hit and run that resulted in an uprooted tree was the judge’s second driving-related offense in two months. He was arrested on March 1 in Smyth County, Va., after a Virginia State Trooper noticed Blankenship’s vehicle swerving onto the grassy median. The officer reported that Blankenship appeared to be intoxicated but the judge refused a field sobriety test and, afterwards, refused breath and blood screenings.

Blankenship pleaded guilty to reckless driving and unreasonably refusing a blood or breath test on May 20 in Smyth County General District Court. The charges had been reduced from driving under the influence. He was ordered to pay a $100 fine for reckless driving and his driver’s license was suspended for one year for the refusal charge.

Blankenship appeared before the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission in June but the results of the commission’s investigation are confidential.

Blankenship was placed on paid leave by the commission and did not indicate that he would resign his bench.