Gordonsville man to stand trial in alleged Klockner hoax

A Gordonsville man who has accused Albemarle County authorities and a county prosecutor of misconduct won’t have his case dropped.
 
Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins denied several motions Tuesday in the case of Mark Ryland Dowdy, a former Klockner Pentaplast employee accused of putting suspicious powder on signs calling for a boycott of the business. One of the motions questioned if the case could be heard in Albemarle if the targeted company was in Louisa.

Dowdy, 37, is facing five charges of possession of a hoax device. According to authorities, Dowdy put a compound common in lice killer on five signs at the corner of Klockner and Gordonsville roads in Albemarle.

Dowdy is representing himself in the case. In preparation for his June 30 trial, Dowdy recently filed motions to ask for more detailed information about his case, including the exact loca-tions where the signs were found.

Billy Clark, an investigator with the county’s Fire Marshal’s Office, testified Tuesday that all five signs were found at the intersection from Sept. 15, 2008, to Sept. 17, 2008. Although Dowdy has some photographs of the intersection, Clark said in court that Dowdy doesn’t have the ones with landmarks in them to indicate where they were taken.

While executing a search warrant at Dowdy’s home, Clark testified that he got a call that Dowdy wanted to talk. Clark and a detective met with Dowdy at the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange, where the men discussed the case. Clark testified that the detective asked if he could record the conversation, but Dowdy declined.

“You were being cooperative,” Clark told Dowdy during cross-examination in court. “You didn’t want us to record our conversation, so we didn’t.”

However, Dowdy said in court Tuesday that he believes one or both of the men secretly recorded his conversation, and could have done so because Virginia only requires the consent of one person in a conversation to legally record that discussion.

“A recording exists,” Dowdy said in court. “It just doesn’t meet their agenda.”

Higgins ruled that there is no evidence that authorities made a recording of their conversation.

Dowdy himself recorded phone conversations between himself and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jon R. Zug. The prosecutor said in court that the con-ersation between him and Dowdy, which Higgins listened to during the hearing, ended with Zug hanging up after Dowdy reportedly raised his voice.

“I did not feel I could talk to him at all because of his irrationality,” Zug said in court.

Zug said in court that he had a phone conversation with Dowdy about scheduling a dis-overy hearing. However, Zug said in court that he asked Dowdy to wait until he received some information that Zug had recently sent.

Dowdy noted the incident in court as part of his motion to get a special prosecutor for the case. Higgins denied that motion.

Other motions that Dowdy presented on Tuesday included asking if Albemarle has jurisdiction over the case because Klockner Pentaplast is in Louisa County, requesting the full version of Clark’s report and asking the prosecutor to authenticate the charges against him by showing pieces of evidence before the trial.

Higgins ruled that she was satisfied that the signs were found in Albemarle, that Zug is only required to give him a report summary and that the evidence would be presented during the trial.

Dowdy appeared in court in April on several motions in his case. Higgins denied his motion to place a gag order on the commonwealth’s attorney, fire marshal and media from talking about his case. Dowdy said in court in April that the information that was released to the media, including information about a plea agreement that he denies ever existed, would ruin his chances of a fair trial.

Dowdy remains free on bond. According to court records, Dowdy is scheduled to have a trial on a count of possession of a hoax device on July 10 in Louisa Circuit Court.

Kates is a reporter with the Charlottesville Daily Progress.