Honestly, I have no idea what the hell is going on with this story.
Every so often, you get a statement from law enforcement about a bizarre incident. This may be the best one of the year.
A City of Danville Utilities Department employee has been charged following an investigation of disrupted electrical services.
Benjamin Paul Hairfield, age 40, of Martinsville, VA was charged with two (2) counts of diverting electrical service. These charges stem from electrical outages at a residence on Rocky Knoll Ln. in May of 2013 and a business on Riverside Dr. in January of this year. The investigation revealed that the power was shut off on both occasions without legitimate reason. Both locations are connected to another employee of the Utilities Department.
Today, Hairfield was also placed on indefinite suspension pending termination from city employment. He was carried before a magistrate and released on a $2,500 unsecured bond.
So, this guy cut a co-worker’s power off? Huh? Why? There’s a criminal charge for this? It’s truly time to use one of my favorite phrases when you’re faced with a bizarre situation like this.
“Say, That’s Odd.”
On the off chance that we’d end up representing the guy, I will leave my commentary at a link to the code section that appears to be the one he would be charged under:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-163
[…] been a wild few months at Danville Utilities. First we had a supervisor charged with cutting off a “friend”‘s electricity service, then a few weeks ago we had a Danville Utilities employee commit suicide in a cemetery after […]
[…] of the employees fired so far had Ben Hairfield (the utilities worker who cut off the Director of Support Services husband’s electricity) as their […]