Lexington Police Chief’s son, 3 others charged in fake emergency radio calls case
An update to a story WSLS first broke on Wednesday , the 18-year-old son of Lexington’s Police Chief, along with three other people faces charges in connection with a stolen emergency radio, and making fake emergency calls over it.
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WSLS News Staff
Published: March 27, 2008
Updated 6:38 p.m.
Rockbridge County sheriff’s investigators charged four young men with a hoax call made over an emergency radio involving “shots fired” and “two men down.”
One of the young men is Justin Crowder, 18, of Rockbridge County.
Justin Crowder is the son of Lexington police chief Steve Crowder.
Investigators also charged Koubon Matasumoto, 19, of Buena Vista, and Byron Jones, 18, of Buena Vista, as well as an unnamed juvenile.
Jones is a freshmen defensive linemen at Hampden-Sydney College.
Jones is also the only one of the four charged with stealing the radio police believe the group used to make the phony emergency calls for help.
To listen to the calls and read more on this story, click here
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Original story posted 1:45 p.m.
An update to a story WSLS first broke on Wednesday , the 18-year-old son of Lexington’s Police Chief, along with three other people faces charges in connection with a stolen emergency radio, and making fake emergency calls over it,
Rockbridge County deputies filed charges against Justin Crowder, the son of Lexington Police Chief Steve Crowder, this afternoon. Justin Crowder faces charges of interfering with transmission of an emergency radio, and falsely summoning law enforcement. Both are misdemeanors.
Deputies also charged Koubun Matsumoto, Byron Jones, and a juvenile in connection with the case. All three face misdemeanor falsely summoning law enforcement charges, but Jones faces the only felony charge. Deputies believe Jones stole the emergency radio that Lexington volunteer firefighter Bill Ramsey laid down at his job as a convenience store clerk on March 15th. Jones faces a felony theft charge in addition to the misdemeanor falsely summoning law enforcement charge.
10 On Your Side’s Scott Leamon is in Rockbridge County, and will have an update on the investigation tonight on WSLS at 6:00 p.m.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( ScottishFlower ) on March 28, 2008 at 6:20 am
In this story I feel the news is focusing on the wrong aspect of the story. There are 4 suspects equally charged with activity that could potentially have had deadly actions for any number of innocent people. The focus on one suspect solely due to his father’s profession is inappropriate. It does not matter what profession the suspect’s parent has. The parent could be a teacher, businessman, minister, or any number of other professions. The profession of the parent does not reflect on the actions of the suspect. Even the best of parents can not always predict what their children may or may not do. Please be fair to all the suspects and stop focusing on just one and the one parent solely due to the parent’s profession.
Thank you
Posted by ( HeyHey11 ) on March 27, 2008 at 8:51 pm
As a news station I feel that you all must cover two sides to a story. I have know these boys for quite some time and I know they are not the criminals and monsters, news 10 is trying to portray them as. I am not upholding them for the actions they did, but I feel we as a community and news station must give these four men a chance to defend themselves. One thing I know for a fact is that the radio was not “stolen” by Byron. He found it lying un attended in the bathroom of the gas station. This is a little yet important piece of information news 10 as well as Bill Ramsey left out of their story. I know this for a fact because I am a close friend of the family. All that aside these boys I feel learned a hard and tough lesson. Their good names which they have all worked hard for has been smeard by the media and around town. Pending the results of the court case, I feel they have received enough punishment.