Kavanagh wants venue change for shooting trial
Defense attorneys claim Rappahannock juror pool is ‘tainted’ by publicity
Thighe Kavanagh, who is facing eight felony charges stemming from a shooting at his father’s Tiger Valley home in July 2019, does not want Rappahannock County residents to decide his fate.
Convening Tuesday for the first time in two months, the Rappahannock County Circuit Court docket reviewed the status of almost 40 criminal and civil cases that had been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown across the state.
Arguably the most prominent case was that of Kavanagh and his eight felony charges surrounding the shooting, among them aggravated malicious wounding and child abuse. A young child was injured in the incident.
Kavanagh’s trial, initially scheduled to be held for two days around Christmas last year, was rescheduled at the request of attorneys for both sides, who told the court they would need four days to hear witnesses and experts.
Four days in February were selected, but after a jury could not be seated Judge Herman A. Whisenant declared a mistrial. Of the 36 potential jurors who appeared for duty on February 25, 16 were eliminated either by Kavanagh’s attorneys or Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Goff.
Of the 16 disqualified jurors, 11 said they had seen a news article about the case and could not be impartial. The next trial date fell during the state’s pandemic shutdown.
Days after Whisenant’s ruling in February, Kavanagh’s attorneys — public defenders David Walls and Paul Fore — filed a motion for a change of venue outside of Rappahannock County “to ensure a fair trial.”
The March 12, 2020 Memorandum in Support of a Motion for Change of Venue charges: “The volume of publicity in Mr. Kavanagh’s case has tainted the citizens of Rappahannock County from being impartial . . . . Citizen after citizen declared their inability to be impartial by reading these articles written about Mr. Kavanagh’s case.”
The memorandum includes 10 exhibits from the Rappahannock News and Blue Ridge Independent, the latter a former website, written about or referring to the case dated from July 26, 2019 to March 11, 2020.
“The volume of interest in Mr. Kavanagh’s case has become inflammatory,” reads the document. “The citizens of Rappahannock County have shown consistent interest in Mr. Kavanagh’s case.” Because of the “enormous amount of social media sharing of news articles . . . a staggering percentage of the population of Rappahannock County” has heard about the case.
Walls and Fore conclude their motion: “Change of venue provides the only method of avoiding the appearance and reality of unfairness created by the impact of publicity and prejudice in the community. An effort to seat an impartial jury in Rappahannock County will be fruitless.”
In Tuesday’s court session, Judge James E. Plowman scheduled a new trial for October 26 through 29, but warned attorneys that for now the Virginia Supreme Court has called a ban on jury trials — another impact of the pandemic — and Plowman could not say when the prohibition would be lifted.
The state Supreme Court, responding to Governor Ralph Northam’s emergency stay-at-home COVID-19 order, issued its own emergency order on March 23 delaying cases. The court’s order was renewed and extended twice.
Of the 16 disqualified jurors, 11 said they had seen a news article about the case and could not be impartial.