State Sen. Tommy Norment (R-3rd District)
With the new session of the General Assembly underway, legislators are beginning to consider bills, including more than 20 from Sen. Tommy Norment (R-3) that deal with issues ranging from hybrid canines to penalties for hazing at schools and universities.
Hybrid canines made the news last year in James City County when a loose animal — a hybrid of a dog and a wolf — attacked two dogs in October, killing one. Following that incident, the James City County Board of Supervisors enacted a new ordinance that regulated the keeping of the animals, including adding requirements for permits and restrictions on where the animals can be kept.
Norment’s bill allows any locality in Virginia to prohibit by ordinance the keeping of hybrid canines. It also requires veterinarians to report the first visit of any hybrid canine to their office. State law already permitted localities to take steps to regulate the animals as James City County had done, but there is not currently an avenue to outright prohibit the animals.
Norment, an attorney with Kaufman & Canoles, has served in the Virginia Senate since 1992. His district is broad, encompassing all of Gloucester, King and Queen, King William and New Kent counties, the city of Poquoson and parts of Hampton, Suffolk and James City, York, Surry and Isle of Wight counties. The Republican is the current majority leader in the Virginia Senate.
His hazing bill increases the criminal penalty for any person found guilty of hazing that causes bodily injury to rise from a class one misdemeanor to a class six felony. The bill also requires the policies of public schools and colleges to be consistent with model policies established by the Department of Education or the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia. Those agencies would be required to draft model policies.
According to state law, hazing is to “recklessly or intentionally endanger the health or safety of a student or students or to inflict bodily injury on a student or students in connection with or for the purpose of initiation, admission into or affiliation with or as a condition for continued membership in a club, organization, association, fraternity, sorority, or student body regardless of whether the student or students so endangered or injured participated voluntarily in the relevant activity.”
In Virginia, a class one misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in jail for one year or less and a fine of $2,500 or less. A class six felony calls for either imprisonment for one to five years or, at the discretion of the jury or judge trying a case, confinement in jail for one year or less and a fine of $2,500 or less.
Norment is also seeking to eliminate the requirement that a driver’s license be suspended for one year for an adult first-time driving under the influence offender with a blood alcohol content under 0.15. Instead, that offender would be required to have an ignition interlock device for one year. That device prohibits a vehicle from being started unless the device is blown into and either no alcohol content or an alcohol content of .02 percent or less is detected.
He filed another bill dealing with driving under the influence that looks to up penalties for driving or operating a boat while intoxicated in the event that it results in injuries. In the case of permanent impairment due to DUI maiming those convicted would be guilty of a class four felony instead of a class six. Those who cause serious bodily injury without maiming would be guilty of a class six felony.
A class four felony carries a sentence of between two and 10 years and a fine of not more than $100,000.
Another bill looks to modify the number of judges in state courts based off of recommendations from the National Center for State Courts. The bill would leave Historic Triangle district courts with three judges and add a judge to Historic Triangle juvenile and domestic relations Court, leaving those courts with four judges.
The bill would leave intact the number of circuit court judges in Historic Triangle courts. Cases in the City of Williamsburg and James City County are handled at the Williamsburg-James City County Courthouse on Monticello Avenue near New Town, while cases in York County are handled at the York-Poquoson Courthouse in Yorktown. All Historic Triangle courts are part of the ninth judicial district of Virginia.
Norment and Del. Brenda Pogge (R-96) have filed identical bills in their respective houses that seeks to require every notice of property tax assessments to contain the prior two appraisals of the value of land and its improvements and the assessed value if it is different form the appraised value. Under current law, only the current and previous year’s information is included.
Other bills filed by Norment include:
- A bill upping fines for a person found with the intent to distribute large quantities of tax-paid cigarettes
- A bill that increases the minimum amount of time a private institution of higher education must operate with continuous accreditation before receiving a permanent certification from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia
- A bill that amends the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and other parts of state law to require landlords to install and maintain carbon monoxide detectors in all rental dwelling units
- A bill that gives Plains Marketing LP a 3.694-acre easement on beds of the York River for an expansion of the Yorktown Terminal