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Another mistrial for man held for 2 years without conviction

By The Associated Press

STAFFORD, Va. (AP) — Another mistrial has been declared in the case of a Virginia man charged with child sex abuse who has spent more than two years in jail without a conviction.

The Free Lance-Star reports 35-year-old Herbert Eugene Smitley’s trial for aggravated sexual battery was supposed to start Wednesday. A judge declared a mistrial after the jury selection process left 17 jurors from which to select a panel, instead of the required 20.

A new trial is scheduled for Aug. 8.

Smitley was arrested in May 2015 on three counts of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of sodomy involving a 13-year-old girl. The jury couldn’t agree on a verdict in his first trial last March. In January, another jury acquitted Smitley of four charges, but couldn’t agree on the remaining count.

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Information from: The Free Lance-Star, http://www.fredericksburg.com/

Amid controversy over memorials, group vows more Confederate battle flags along Va. highways

By Max Smith
WASHINGTON — A Virginia group that puts up oversized Confederate battle flags on private property along highways across the state said it plans to install even more of them in response to an effort in Stafford County to get the flags that opponents call racist taken down. “The Va. Flaggers have no plans to remove any of our 26 Roadside Memorial Battle Flags across the Commonwealth, including the Fredericksburg Memorial Battle Flag on I-95 in Stafford County,” the Virginia Flaggers' spokesman Barry Isenhour said in a email statement provided to WTOP. “In fact, in light of the recent attempts by the Governor and a few local politicians to encourage the destruction of Confederate Memorials, we intend to fast track the installation of several new projects in the next few months.”
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