Right after
the Virginia Supreme Justice Christian Compton praised the police for
doing such an outstanding job, this article broke in the Roanoke Times,
the daily newspaper. The
Grand Jury found that Foutz and Brown had been running their own little
loan business with Town funds they collected for doing fingerprint cards,
taking bicycles that was meant for needy children
and giving them to their friends and to the children of the police officers
in their command, taking guns from the evidence room for their own ownership
and taking evidence from people without ever charging them with a crime.In addition, Brown was supposed to get a court order for confiscated drugs and destroy them before witnesses. He didn't bother with that, just claimed he burned some, flushed some down the toilet and threw some to the wind. I hardly think he would destroy something as negotiable as drugs if he is stealing money and bicycles and guns. He was getting rid of them someway and that someway could have been through Blaine Hodges.
Brown's wife Carmine, "accidentally" killed herself by running the car in a closed garage at their home. When Brown "found" her he called the Vinton Police Department and not the Botetourt Sheriff Office which had jurisdiction. The Medical Examiner that made the determination, that it was an accident. was Dr David Oxley, the same one that said Blaine Hodges had been dead twenty-four to thirty-six hours longer than the rest of the Hodges family.
I sent an e-mail to the Virginia State Police saying it sounded like a murder to me. I don't know anyone that wouldn't know not to run a vehicle in a closed garage. Plus the fact that all the information came out about Brown and the drugs right before this. Then the Town and Foutz and Brown were the defendants in a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment and discrimination from one of the females in the department.
The State Police sent my complaint right back to the Salem State Police District Office and on to the Commonwealth Attorney of that county. I called and they said they had no jurisdiction in the matter.
The entire thing stinks of cover-up and insurance doesn't pay for murder or suicide, but it may pay double for accidental death. I don't know what kind of insurance she had, or even if she had any, but it would do the Virginia State Police good to look into the matter. I was under the assumption anyone could report a crime. Not when it involves cops in Virginia.
There are about a dozen laws that Foutz and Brown could have been charged with, but never were. For a long time even the Grand Jury findings were kept under seal. Then a Judge allowed the news media to look at the findings for three hours with the stipulation nothing could be copied or photographed. Finally the entire thing was made public with a few names blanked out. So it stands to reason, that if you know a lot of things about a lot of powerful people you can break all kinds of laws and never be punished. Maybe even get away with murder.
This is Michael Stovall, a Vinton cop at the time of
the Hodges murders. He is now a Roanoke County School Board Member and
works for Wachovia Bank the last time I checked.