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PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Martinsburg, WV Ashburn PERMIT #86 Attention Postmaster: Time sensitive material. Requested in home 06-4-09 Brambleton ❖ Broadlands ❖ Lansdowne On Patrol News, page 3 Deputy Gary Gaither, a 19-year veteran of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department rejoined the patrol beat after 12 years in undercover narcotics, five years of helping train deputies, and then desk work. A shift lieutenant, Gaither oversees the 40 or so deputies on patrol during a given shift and responds to calls in a supervisory capacity. Classifieds, page 13 Classifieds, ❖ Sports, page 12 ❖ Calendar, page 8 Democrats To Choose Gubernatorial Candidate News, page 4 Hat Trick Highlights Broad Run’s Title Win Sports, page 12 Photo by Aaron Stern/The Connection www.ConnectionNewspapers.comJune 3-9, 2009 ❖ Volume VI, Number 13 online at www.connectionnewspapers.comLoudoun/Ashburn Connection ❖ June 3-9, 2009 ❖ 1 News Observed and Overheard During the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department’s 11.5-hour evening patrol and the other driver involved was no shift on Friday, May 22 from 3 p.m. to longer on the scene — Safford told the woman who called police that he 2:30 a.m., police activity was slower could not issue a citation. In such than expected with the kickoff of Memo- instances the most Safford said he rial Day Weekend. Below, a sample of would be able to do would be to take some of the incidents that three down a note in the incident report by Photo Loudoun County Sheriff’s deputies re- that would attach to the offending sponded to that night, as well as driver’s vehicle registration, but he snippets from radio dispatches and ob- did not do that in this case. servations by the deputies. Aaron Stern Aaron 5:38 p.m.: Safford stops to talk to 4:49 p.m.: After sitting for 10 minutes another deputy at the intersection of in a striped area between a left-hand Loudoun County Parkway and Ryan turning lane and continuing lanes of Road as the remnants of a two- northbound Loudoun County vehicle hit-and-run are cleared up. Parkway at the intersection of Stop signs mark the three-way /The Connection Waxpool Road and Loudoun County intersection now and traffic signals Parkway, Loudoun County Sheriff’s are in the process of being installed, Deputy Mike Safford but as of now this is a dangerous stops a man in a intersection, Safford said. In this case On Patrol Toyota Solara a white Ford Expedition — a large convertible for SUV — ran a stop sign, slammed into running a red light a Nissan Sentra — a small economy while turning left sedan, crushing the cars rear end — onto Loudoun County Parkway. and kept going. The leading cause of Safford makes a quick u-turn, flips on such blatant stop sign violations is Deputy Eric Cote pulls over a Cadillac Escalade for having a headlight out. He issued his lights and siren briefly; the driver drivers being unfamiliar with an waves his hand in the air and pulls area, said Safford. the driver a warning and made a note about the stop in his onboard computer. Notes over. Safford issues the driver a are not part of a legal record but come up whenever police look up the registration or ticket that will total about $100 in 6 p.m.: Safford responds to assist on a licensing information. Traffic stops are the “most dangerous thing we do” said Deputy fines, Safford said. “I always come to medical rescue call. The woman for this light about this time of day,” said whom an ambulance is dispatched is Mike Safford. Domestic disputes also lend themselves to volatility. Safford. “People are so focused on reportedly elderly, highly intoxicated, the car in front of them … that they’ll and on blood thinners, and has fallen or to others and an Emergency turns out to be the case. The elderly and unopened country club in the run that light by five, six seconds.” and struck her head against wrought Custody Order must be issued. In woman is hysterical, her adult rising Loudoun County Estates, iron and is bleeding from her head. that case officers assume temporary daughter can not reason with her, Lieutenant Gary Gaither notices a 5:11 p.m.: Safford responds to a civil Safford expects it to be a routine custody of such subjects until a and Safford is forced to take her into work van with its backdoors open. He complaint in Brambleton Town assistance call where he simply mental evaluation can be completed custody. At midnight Safford is still Center where two drivers had a makes sure that everyone involved is and the person can be released either listed on the dispatch roster as being verbal altercation after one stopped safe and the situation is stable. The into the custody of family or must be in the emergency room with the to let off passengers and backed up one possibility that could change that hospitalized for further psychological elderly woman. traffic. Since it is a misdemeanor equation is if the subject in question evaluation. Such cases tend to take committed outside of his presence — is considered a danger to themselves up most of an officer’s shift. That 7:15 p.m.: Driving past the brand new See Observed, Page 8 2 ❖ Loudoun/Ashburn Connection ❖ June 3-9, 2009 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Loudoun Connection Editor Steven Mauren News 703-917-6431 or [email protected] On Patrol with Deputies on Friday Night ticularly as it kicked off Me- Unpredictable morial Day Weekend. Cote trumps routine. and other officers on duty that night said that they expected many alcohol-related By Aaron Stern calls and stops, but by 3 a.m. The Connection Cote had done little more than stop the Escalade and half hour before mid assist a rescue for a man night on Friday, May who had crashed his bicycle Photos by Photos A22, Loudoun County in the back of the Southern Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Walk Plaza in Broadlands Cote pulled over a white Cadillac and was transported semi- Escalade luxury SUV on Loudoun Stern Aaron conscious to the hospital. County Parkway because one of its Slow nights happen. As headlights was out. Lights flash- Friday’s lack of activity in- ing, his cruiser idling, Cote sat and dicated, there is little rhyme waited for 10, 15, 20 seconds. He or reason to what creates always does that, he said, to see if /The Connection busy nights versus slow ones anyone inside the vehicle is mov- other than the human sto- ing around or doing “anything ries behind each individual squirrelly.” call and each stop that a Cote got out of deputy makes. That said, Ride-along his car and there are certain types of walked towards calls that naturally lend the truck. After A man who crashed his bike behind the Southern Walk Plaza in Brambleton was trans- themselves to volatility. checking for traffic, he approached ported to the hospital after midnight on Saturday, May 23. Originally described by Nighttime stops like the one the vehicle with a wide berth, his dispatch operators as a single vehicle motorcycle accident, the call instead was a man Cote made on the Escalade right hand held out cautiously to who for unknown reasons crashed his bicycle. No witnesses saw the crash but a his side, his left hand directing a woman who found him laying unconscious made the emergency call. The difference flashlight at the driver’s window. between what a call is dispatched as and what it turns out to be is what Deputy Eric “Traffic stops are the When he got to the driver’s win- Cote described as a version of the childhood telephone game where an original dow he closed the three feet or so message becomes misconstrued from party to party. Emergency callers are often most dangerous that he had kept between himself distressed and consequently provide inaccurate or incomplete information to dis- thing we do, because and the vehicle. He spoke with the patchers who then interpret the calls as best they can before alerting deputies of the vehicle’s driver for two, three min- situation. For such reasons deputies are trained to park near but not directly in front we’re approaching utes, then returned to his patrol of residences involved in disturbances so that they can assess the situation as they car. He flicked on a muted red approach and keep a safe distance if necessary, Cote said. the unknown.” overhead light instead of the regu- — Deputy Mike Safford, lar dome lamp as he pulled the onboard laptop computer from outside his vehicle, Cote said. left hand held to his ear and vehicle’s registration records and mounted to the dashboard. The The driver’s records didn’t indi- pointed at the driver’s window, 2-year veteran ran the driver’s license through the red light is so that he can’t be seen cate a previous criminal history his right arm held outward. He and the car — registered to an returned the licenses and registra- are always nerve-racking, older man with the same last tion and walked briskly back to his but of all the calls a police name, presumably the father of car. officer will respond to on the driver who was college-aged, “Traffic stops are the most dan- any given shift, it is the do- said Cote — also came back clean, gerous thing we do, because we’re mestic disturbances that are though it was stopped for the same approaching the unknown” said the most volatile and unpre- reason three months previously.

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