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A Spotsylvania County teacher accused of having sex with two of her students appeared in court Friday. Bonnie Sue Davis, 35, is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and having sex with a child. It's a fight for her freedom, and one her attorney says she intends to win. On Friday, a Spotsylvania county judge heard arguments over procedural issues about school records at Courtland high where she taught -- before being suspended after her arrest for allegedly taking advantage of two teenagers. Davis has worked in the Spotsylvania school system for the past six years. Her...

Parents, P.I. suggest county brushed them off A private investigator claims that Courtland High School's administration was slow to respond to accusations of sexual misconduct on the part of special education teacher Bonnie Sue Davis. School officials assert that they followed proper protocol. Davis, 35, is accused of sexual misconduct with two Courtland High boys, ages 14 and 15. Ralph Bennett, private investigator and proprietor of R&R Bennett Inc. in Fredericksburg, said he found out about the allegations through a friend of his family. He began a pro bono investigation shortly thereafter, he said. The parents of the two boys...

Spotsylvania teacher charged with sexual misconduct A Courtland High School special education teacher has been charged with nine offenses involving sexual relations with two teenage students, police said. Bonnie Sue Davis, 35, of Spotsylvania County is charged with two counts of sodomy, six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and having sex with a child. She was arrested late Thursday and placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail, sheriff's Lt. Eddie Peck said. Davis, who has worked for the Spotsylvania school system for six years, is accused of sexual misconduct with two Courtland High boys, ages 14 and...

Nobles: Peter Benchley, a writer whose imagination still captivates — and terrifies — all who venture into the deep. Benchley must have deterred from the water, one might be inclined to place the author of "Jaws" into the Knave category. Rarely has a work of fiction touched so powerfully on one of humanity's greatest fears, as unreasonable as that fear might be. Benchley's talent deserves recognition for lifetime achievement. He set out to scare the pants off readers and succeeded to the tune of 20 million copies sold since 1974. Then, of course, there was the film with its signature...

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. -- Undercover sex is getting the OK from a Virginia sheriff. Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith said he stands by the practice of allowing detectives to receive sexual services in the course of their investigations so they can catch suspects in the act. Court documents show that four times last month, county detectives allowed women at a massage parlor to perform sex acts on them. In one case, a lawman left a $350 tip. Smith acknowledged the practice is not new. Smith told The Washington Post that only unmarried detectives are allowed to do the under-the-covers work. He...

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. - The sheriff said Friday he will no longer allow detectives to receive sexual services while investigating suspected prostitution after they spent $1,200 at massage parlors last month and sparked a public outcry. Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith defended the practice as necessary to obtain a conviction but told his department he was suspending it. “As sheriff, I understand the feelings and concerns the citizens of this county have expressed,” Smith said in a statement sent to the Associated Press. “And I empathize with those feelings. Because of the public’s express response, I have suspended this practice.” Court...

"Spotsylvania County's practice of allowing detectives to receive sexual services in prostitution cases has exploded across the nation, fueled by snickering bloggers and talk radio shows, and the county's top official has asked the sheriff to stop using the investigative technique." "Smith, an elected official, did not return several calls yesterday. In a joint news release Monday, the day the practice was reported in The Washington Post, Smith and the county's chief prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney William F. Neely, defended the tactic. They said detectives needed to go beyond striking verbal deals of sex for money because the "masseuses," whom they...

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. (AP) -- The sheriff said Friday he will no longer allow detectives to receive sexual services while investigating suspected prostitution after they spent $1,200 at massage parlors last month and sparked a public outcry. Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith defended the practice as necessary to obtain a conviction but told his department he was suspending it. "As sheriff, I understand the feelings and concerns the citizens of this county have expressed," Smith said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Friday. "And I empathize with those feelings. Because of the public's express response, I have suspended...

Spotsylvania County's top prosecutor says Virginia's prostitution law could be expanded to avoid having detectives pay for oral sex as part of an investigation. Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely said yesterday that Virginia's prostitution law doesn't forbid paying for certain sexual acts--including fondling. The law requires the act to be either intercourse or oral sex. Neely said that aspect of the law put the county Sheriff's Office into a "dicey" position during a recent investigation into the Moon Spa--a now-closed massage business on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania that is suspected of prostitution. Authorities say a detective, who is single and...

They enter the massage parlors as undercover detectives. They leave as satisfied customers. In Spotsylvania County, as part of a campaign by the sheriff's office to root out prostitution in the massage parlor business, detectives have been receiving sexual services from "masseuses." During several visits to Moon Spa on Plank Road last month, detectives allowed women to perform sexual acts on them on four occasions and once left a $350 tip, according to court papers. Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard D. Smith said that the practice is not new and that only unmarried detectives are assigned to such cases. Most prostitutes are...

Spotsylvania (Va,) County's sheriff is defending the recent decision to allow a detective to pay for sexual services during a prostitution investigation, but some disagree with the tactics used. Sheriff Howard Smith said yesterday that a detective paid for and received oral sex during an investigation into suspected prostitution at the Moon Spa, a now shut-down massage business next to Old Country Buffet on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania. Smith said that detectives went into the business, which was raided in late January, four different times. But he said only once did sexual activity, as defined under Virginia law, occur....

WASHINGTON - They enter the massage parlors as undercover detectives. They leave as satisfied customers. In Spotsylvania County, as part of a campaign by the sheriff's office to root out prostitution in the massage parlor business, detectives have been receiving sexual services from "masseuses." During several visits to Moon Spa on Plank Road last month, detectives allowed women to perform sexual acts on them on four occasions and once left a $350 tip, according to court papers. Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard D. Smith said that the practice is not new and that only unmarried detectives are assigned to such cases. Most...

Nine illegal aliens detained last year after a traffic stop in Spotsylvania County, Va., were deported over a span of nine months in what federal officials said is an example of the immigration system working properly. "We are committed to working to enforce the immigration laws of the United States," said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "The arrest and removal of these individuals is a testament that the process works." Virginia State Police found the aliens April 12, riding in a van on Interstate 95, south of Fredericksburg, where a trooper stopped the vehicle...

An illegal alien, Jose Ramirez, 28, has been arrested and charged with the brutal beating of a 15-year-old girl who allegedly ignored his whistles at a construction site in Spotsylvania County. Police say the 15 year old girl suffered a broken nose, bone fracture to the right side of her face and received approximately 30 stitches to her face and back of her head. Police say the 15 year old girl was walking by on a road, when Ramirez, who was working on a construction project at a nearby townhouse, whistled at her. Witnesses told police the next thing they...

An illegal alien, Jose Ramirez, 28, has been arrested and charged with the brutal beating of a 15-year-old girl who allegedly ignored his whistles at a construction site in Spotsylvania County. Police say the 15 year old girl suffered a broken nose, bone fracture to the right side of her face and received approximately 30 stitches to her face and back of her head. Police say the 15 year old girl was walking by on a road, when Ramirez, who was working on a construction project at a nearby townhouse, whistled at her. Witnesses told police the next thing they...

Dawn and Marvin Hamrick's dreams came true three years ago when they finished building a two-story Colonial-style home in Spotsylvania County. But they got a shock this spring when a rotten-egg odor settled over their Catharpin Road property. Their son, J.R., first noticed it one morning while walking to the school bus stop. "He thought something had died on the side of the road," Dawn Hamrick recalled. "He thought he was going to get sick." The stench seemed to dissipate during the day, but returned one evening as the family tried to enjoy their new deck. "It was that night...

<p>The acrid aroma of burned black powder hung in the evening air as four men in blue and gray fired their muskets over the grave of a long-ago fallen soldier.</p> <p>When a bugler sounded the somber notes of taps, a pelting rain ended and a beam of sunlight broke the gloom at Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery.</p>

100 fastest growing counties Population Estimates for the 100 Fastest Growing U.S. Counties with 10,000 or more Population in 2004: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004 Geographic Area Population estimates Change, 2000 to 2004 July 1, 2004 April 1, 2000estimates base Number Percent Loudoun County, VA 239,156 169,599 69,557 41.0 Flagler County, FL 69,005 49,832 19,173 38.5 Douglas County, CO 237,963 175,766 62,197 35.4 Rockwall County, TX 58,260 43,083 15,177 35.2 Forsyth County, GA 131,865 98,407 33,458 34.0 Henry County, GA 159,506 119,404 40,102 33.6 Kendall County, IL 72,548 54,544 18,004 33.0 Newton County, GA 81,524 62,001 19,523...

WASHINGTON -- America has no more than 20 years before the last of the unprotected but critical Civil War battlefields are "preserved or paved over," the president of the Civil War Preservation Trust said Thursday. Revealing a list of the 10 most-endangered battlefields at a news conference with country musician Darryl Worley, trust president O. James Lighthizer called the hallowed acreage "outdoor classrooms" under serious threat of development. Although the trust has had success in preserving more than 18,000 acres of critical battlefields, including parts of Shiloh in Tennessee, Iuka and Corinth in Mississippi and Antietam in Maryland, important tracts...

Spotsylvania School Board moves toward revoking policy that forces students to stand during Pledge of Allegiance Spotsylvania County's policy on the Pledge of Allegiance in schools is likely to change--largely because of the objections of a seventh-grade student. The county requires all students to stand facing the flag with their right hands over their hearts during the pledge at the start of each school day. Students can choose not to recite the pledge if they or their parents object on religious, philosophical or other grounds. That policy is consistent with state law. But Virginia code also allows students to quietly...