Meet the Attorney Appointed to Defend Accused Charlottesville Attacker
Charles Weber Jr., the defense attorney assigned to the case, is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit over the statue of General Robert E. Lee at the heart of the controversy.
August 14, 2017 at 03:51 PM
2 minute read
Virginia lawyer Charles “Buddy” Weber Jr. will defend the man accused of plowing his car into demonstrators protesting a white supremacist rally, killing a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.
Judge Robert Downer Jr., of the 16th Judicial District in Virginia, appointed Weber to defend James Alex Fields Jr. Monday, during his first court appearance. According to Weber's website, he is a solo practitioner based in Charlottesville, where he's kept an office for nearly 20 years. The public defender's office declined to represent Fields because a relative of an employee was involved in Saturday's crash.
Weber is the treasurer of the Charlottesville Republican Committee, and ran unsuccessfully for City Council there in 2013.
Following a 27-year career in the Navy, which included combat missions over Vietnam as a pilot, Weber retired from active duty in 1995 and attended the University of Virginia School of Law.
Fields was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of a hit-and-run. He was not granted bail, and his next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25.
Weber, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is not new to the controversy that sparked this weekend's violent rally. Activist Jason Kessler organized the “Unite the Right” rally to protest, among other things, Charlottesville's plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Weber is a plaintiff in a lawsuit fighting the statute's removal, and represented Kessler on a misdemeanor assault charge for punching a man during a disagreement as he collected signatures for a petition regarding the statue's removal. Weber defended Kessler, who was sentenced to 50 hours of community service, according to court records. Weber told the local paper in Charlottesville, the Daily Progress, in May that he no longer represented Kessler.
In March, a group that included 11 individuals, the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc. and the Monument Fund Inc. sued the city over its plan to remove the statue of Lee. Weber is the Monument Fund's spokesman, and also an individual plaintiff. The lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Charlottesville is still pending.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Jay Clayton, Ex-SEC Chief and Sullivan & Cromwell Lawyer, Eyed For Manhattan US Attorney's Office
Trump Election-Interference Prosecution Appears on Course to Wind Down
4 minute read
'Dismissal Required'?: Trump Cites Another Supreme Court Ruling in DC Jan. 6 Case
4 minute readTrending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
