‘Neighbor feud’ resolved by Rappahannock judge
Rappahannock County District Court Judge Jessica H. Foster found Jeremiah “Jack” Atkins not guilty Tuesday after his neighbors, John and Beth Cappiali, alleged he trespassed on their Amissville property in October.
“The burden is on the commonwealth to prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Foster said before she announced her ruling. “The court simply does not have enough, beyond a reasonable doubt, to find Mr. Atkins guilty.”
The Cappialis contended that Atkins drove his red, dual-wheel pickup truck through their property, passing posted “No Trespassing” signs. Atkins testified that he had not driven his pickup at all on the day in question, Oct. 20, 2024, and had not been on the property since 2016 when he performed a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) inspection as a county employee.
The Cappialis and Atkins have been involved in past civil litigations dating back to 2016, when Atkins complained to the county about the Cappiali property, alleging the couple was running an illegal junkyard. One suit Cappiali brought against the Board of Supervisors was appealed by the county to the Virginia Appeals Court, which sided with the county.
Atkins’ attorney, David Konick, called several current and former government officials — Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson, former Jackson Supervisor Ron Frazier and Page Glennie, who has served as a citizen volunteer on multiple county bodies — to testify to the Cappialis’ “reputation” in the community “for telling the truth.” Their assessments were negative.
Konick asked John Cappiali if he had ever been convicted of a felony.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” Cappiali replied after laughing at the question.
Beth Cappiali testified that when the red truck allegedly passed through, she made a note in her calendar that a red pickup drove by and the driver did not stop when she tried to flag him down. She said she recognized the driver as Atkins.
Konick argued that the “contemporaneous note,” which identified the driver as “some guy,” not Aktins, disputes her testimony that she recognized Atkins as the driver.
Prosecutor John Bell — who was brought in since the case involved a county employee — said that the witnesses’ opinion of the Cappialis’ reputation “really is a neighbor feud, and I think we can disregard it.” He also asserted that John Cappiali found evidence of tire tracks and footprints on the property, and that a “lack of a name” in Beth Cappiali’s note “tells us nothing of credibility except that it did happen.”
Foster ruled that the commonwealth did not have enough evidence to charge Atkins, and she found the fact that the note did not identify Atkins as the driver “quite compelling.”
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