The four people involved in a racially-charged dispute on Partlow Road last summer recently met with the Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney office and decided to discontinue the cases.
Elizabeth Wolfrey and Mark Goodman, both of Spotsylvania, were facing a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a firearm and indecent exposure, respectively.
Amylah Majors and Jamaria Gaskins, a Black couple from Richmond, were each facing a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report and a felony charge of obtaining money by false pretenses.
Majors was also charged with reckless driving. Hearings were scheduled for this month for all the cases.
The incident began on July 20, when Majors and Gaskins said they stopped their vehicle on Partlow Road after running over debris. They alleged that Wolfrey and Goodman exited their home and shouted racial epithets and obscenities at them. They recorded Wolfrey holding a firearm and Goodman exposing his backside.
They sped off in their vehicle, wrecked, and Majors suffered serious injuries. They alleged that someone pulled beside their vehicle on a four-wheeler and pointed a weapon at them, leading them to speed away.
A partial video of the incident went viral on social media, along with pictures of Majors’ severely bruised face, prompting a national outpouring of support, including raising $21,131 on the crowdfunding site Gofundme.com.
After Majors and the Spotsylvania NAACP encouraged Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey to pursue hate crime charges against Goodman and Wolfrey, a grand jury, instead came back with charges against Majors and Gaskins, including the obtaining money by false pretense indictment, which stemmed from the fundraising effort.
Mehaffey said when both sides met with attorneys recently, it was evident the most logical path forward was dismissing all charges against everyone, with prejudice, meaning they can’t be brought back.
“So, both sides of the case had attorneys, and after looking through everything thoroughly, both sides, in consultation with their attorneys, decided that they wanted to discontinue the criminal prosecution,” Mehaffey said.
Mehaffey added that there were strong emotions on both sides of the case, and there likely wouldn’t have been an agreeable resolution after trials. He said neither side was completely innocent.
“After a thorough investigation of the facts, it was apparent there was fault that could be laid on both sides,” Mehaffey said … “The matter is definitely done.”
