REMS Teacher Pleads Guilty to 11 Charges

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
      Riverview Elementary-Middle School computer technology teacher Teresa Ann Hale Seitz, 47, of Grundy, entered a plea of guilty last Wednesday in Tazewell County to four counts of prescription fraud.
     She also pled guilty, under a written plea agreement to a seven-count information in Buchanan County charging her with obtaining or attempting to obtain the administration of a controlled substance by fraud, deceit or forgery or the alteration of a prescription.
        Sentencing was taken under advisement until April 2009.
      Seitz has been on a medical leave of absence from the Buchanan County Public School System since October 2005.
       The charges on which she was indicted in Tazewell County or charged with in the information in Buchanan County last week make references to alleged incidents in 2003 and involved the drugs Hydrocodone and Vicoprofen.
       The seven-count information was filed April 12 in Buchanan Circuit Court by Tazewell County Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Melanie Menefee.
      Tazewell Commonwealth Attorney Dennis Lee noted was appointed as a special prosecutor in the case. He said Seitz was charged by the Virginia State Police.
       Lee said Seitz was being prosecuted under Virginia’s first offender statutes which will allow her case to be reduced to a misdemeanor if there are no problems during a 36-month probation period agreed to in a written plea agreement.

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Grundy Attorney Gets Public Reprimand from VSB

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        Following a hearing in Buchanan Circuit Court last week, Grundy Attorney Wayne T. Horne has been prohibited from practicing criminal law for a period of 18 months.
        A three-judge panel convening last Wednesday issued the public reprimand with terms.
      According to a synopsis of the case filed by the Virginia State Bar Association, the judges found "among other things, that Mr. Horne failed to provide competent representation to a court-appointed criminal defendant."
       The judges found Horne allegedly improperly quoted a fee of $2,500 to proceed with an appeal of the court-appointed case and he also allegedly accepted $400 and made an oral motion before the court for a sentence reduction without determining his client’s eligibility for a reduction. Further, the synopsis noted, the court before which Horne made the motion lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the motion.

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Mapping Office Seeks to Settle Road Questions; Sets Goal for Database

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
       Seeking guidance on how best to proceed when it comes to clearing up right of way problems existing on county roads, Buchanan County Mapping Director Todd Van Meter spoke to members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, Monday.
       Van Meter also brought board members up to date on what he and County Road Engineer Marcus Stiltner have been doing in an attempt to settle road questions once and for all.
      "Our road files are in a mess," Van Meter said of the files he and Stiltner inherited when they began working for the county. "It does no good to point fingers, or to lay blame."
        He noted the goal now is to straighten the files and create a good database of information.
       Already, he said, every district has its own files of roads and every road has a file. Any documentation related to that road has now been placed in the named filed and he said for roads on which the office has a file, but no documentation, that more than likely that's an indicator there may be some problems with that particular road.
       "If there’s nothing there, then probably we don’t have anything on that road," Van Meter said.
       He said in addition to creating the hard copy master file, the office is also creating a digital file and is in the process of going through the roads individually.
       "So far, we’ve had about a 35 percent success rate in finding deeds recorded and on record," Van Meter said.
        He reminded board members that under Virginia law, a deed doesn’t exist in the eyes of the commonwealth unless it is recorded.
        On a few occasions, Van Meter said, he and Stiltner had found deeds signed but not recorded, but that in the interim period, property had changed hands, which led to a whole other scenario.
        He noted County Attorney Mickey McGlothlin had advised the mapping office they could not just take deeds out and have them signed and he reminded the board that road surveys do not establish ownership, they just fix the width and location of a road. For ownership, he said, full blown boundary surveys would have to be conducted.
        "For probably 25 to 40 percent of the roads, there are no deeds . . . no deeds signed, recorded or anywhere in our files," Van Meter said.
        He noted a whole stack had been located as signed, but with no assigned road numbers or districts.


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