Cappiali appeals court order to clear property by Feb. 19
Calls plea agreement clause ‘a tripwire for me’
Almost before the ink was dry on Judge Charles E. Foley’s Jan. 19 order for Amissville resident John Cappiali to remove construction equipment from his agricultural zoned property, Cappiali had led an appeal in Rappahannock County Circuit Court. And thus continuing to ght e orts by the county to get Cappiali to comply with zoning ordinances. The appeal is dated Jan. 21.
Since 2016, Cappiali and business partner Joseph Long have fought the county’s attempts to have Cappiali clear dozens of pieces of construction equipment from his Lee Highway residence. The property, which Cappiali leases from Long, is zoned for agricultural use, yet Cappiali runs his contracting and construction business from there without a contractor’s yard permit from the county.
Cappiali appeared in court Jan. 19 supposedly to accept a plea agreement he and Long made with the county. (Long was also due to appear, but is recovering from surgery and fears exposure to COVID-19. His appearance was continued to March 2.)
In the agreement, Cappiali and Long o ered an Alford plea or no-contest plea — admitting that the prosecutor has enough evidence to prove guilt, while the defendant maintains that he is actually innocent. “The above named defendants shall enter a plea of guilty to the charge as set forth in the summons in this case, they shall stipulate the facts are su cient for a nding of guilt and the court shall nd them guilty upon their pleas,” reads the agreement.
The terms of the agreement included charging Cappiali and Long $1000, suspended on condition that “the violators … abate or remedy the violation,” and a year’s supervised probation.
But at the last minute Cappiali objected to a sentence in the agreement he claimed not to have seen or agreed to before: “[A]ny additional equipment proposed to be brought in to this property shall be described in a letter to the Zoning Administrator of Rappahannock County, together with a photograph thereof prior to bringing the equipment upon the property.”
Cappiali’s objection prompted Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Go to declare, “Then we’re going to trial [here and now].”
“[The last sentence] is a tripwire for me,” Cappiali said.
Go asked, “Isn’t it reasonable for [the county] to know when you bring equipment onto the property? We want to know how long it will stay.”
“If it stays longer, I can contact you?” Cappiali asked. He also told the court that he has moved equipment to the back of the property so that no one could see it from Route 211.
Go told the court, “I still don’t think [Cappiali] understands that he can’t have non-agricultural use equipment on the property.”
To Cappiali’s credit, said Go , Cappiali has removed much of what was originally identi ed during a January 2019 inspection by county of
cials. At that time, Cappiali said he’d been hauling numerous loads of debris to a single recycling center in Culpeper, which provided him with a receipt of the disposed contents for each visit.
“I’ve made 22 trips bringing cars, trucks, scrap metal,” he said a er the inspection, “the lightest trip 1,800 pounds; the heaviest over 7,000 pounds,” including six inoperable cars and three pickup trucks. “So clearly I’ve cleaned up a signi cant amount.”
He also told the court Tuesday that he had applied for a special use permit for a contractor’s yard, but was denied because the look of his property allegedly spoiled the Blue Ridge Mountain view shed. He is appealing the denial in Circuit Court.
“Your objection [to the agreement clause] has no merit,” Foley said in his summation. My concern is if there is equipment on the property, it’s a violation. There’s no question in my mind.” He then imposed a $1000 ne which he suspended on the condition that Cappiali remove the rest of the non-agricultural equipment. The parties had agreed to Feb. 19 as the deadline to have the identi ed equipment removed. “Use good common sense,” Foley told Cappiali, “and put nothing on the property until you have a permit.”
A date has not been set to hear Cappiali’s appeal.