While the case is advancing, the charges against a University of Virginia student accused of targeting another Jewish student and threatening him with a gun in their shared house last year have been significantly downgraded.
The judge’s decision came Thursday after three witnesses provided testimony in Charlottesville General District Court disputing the Jewish student’s account.
Walking into court Thursday, 20-year-old Robert Cabell Romer had been charged with perpetrating a hate crime, issuing a threat, brandishing a firearm and entering a property with the intent to damage its contents — the first two of which are felonies in Virginia. Judge Andrew Sneathern certified the threat charge but downgraded the hate crime charge to a misdemeanor and dismissed the two other charges altogether.
"I think a lot of the early media on this case only had one side of the story," Romer’s lawyer Graven Craig told The Daily Progress afterward. "I think when a jury hears the case that my client will wind up on the right side of justice."
The charges against Romer stem from a tumultuous week in late October last year for a group of young men all residing in a former UVa fraternity house on Rugby Road in Charlottesville.
As previously reported, Romer sent a concerning text message in a house group chat on a night when his alleged victim, Evan Nied, may have already felt threatened.
"I am going to free Palestine," Romer allegedly texted the group. "Anyone is welcome to join in the beating."
That text and another one in which Romer asked the 18-man group if anyone had seen Nied, whom Romer had telephoned and urged to meet up with him, were elements bolstering the threat charge. Courtroom testimony also confirmed that Romer had earlier used the group chat to share a pair of anti-Jewish memes.
Romer then sent another text: "When do you guys think we should do Evan Nied’s trial?"
"I was worried at that point," Nied testified Thursday when questioned by Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania. "I felt fearful."
Two nights later, there was another confrontation in which Romer and other residents gathered in the house’s kitchen and urged Nied to return home from the library.
"We’re going to bring him to the hell room," Romer allegedly texted. "It has to be nonchalant."
Nied testified that Romer then "manhandled" him and attempted to take him down to the house’s basement. He said he fled upstairs to his bedroom but that Romer followed, forced his way inside with a foot at the doorjamb and flopped down on a sofa before leaving.
The final incident, the night before Halloween, found Nied walking upstairs and finding Romer again inside his room, this time holding a gun.
Nied’s account, however, was challenged by two witnesses.
Mohammad "Tahoor" Zafar, the resident who purchased the 9mm pistol earlier that day, testified that Nied himself twice handled the weapon during that interaction. Another resident of the house, Brody Barr, said that while Romer displayed the firearm atop his flattened, upturned palm, Nied gripped the gun in a manner that concerned Romer.
"Rob said, ‘Don’t point that at me,’" Barr testified in court Thursday.
The brandishing and property charges were dismissed at the close of Thursday’s preliminary hearing.
All three defense witnesses alleged that Romer’s unhappiness with Nied stemmed not from religious differences but from Nied’s insistence on hosting disruptive parties in the house, and Romer’s attorney portrayed the housewide group chat as a place where trash talk was routine.
While Nied conceded that he sent a laughing emoji when someone suggested buying a gun and shooting anyone who leaves their dishes in the sink, he suggested there was a limit.
"I would say there’s a difference," testified Nied, "between dirty dishes and ethnic slurs."
However, Craig then got Nied to admit that he’d called two of his Asian housemates "commie spies." Craig also attempted to get Nied to confirm three additional allegations: that he had called Zafar, who is of Pakistani ancestry, a "dirty Paki" and had also used the slurs "chink" and "faggot" in conversation.
Nied denied the first allegation, said he didn’t think he’d made the second and the judge disallowed Craig’s question about the anti-gay slur.
Two of the defense witnesses also disputed the allegation that Romer had "manhandled" Nied.
"He placed his arm around Mr. Nied," said one witness, Luke Movius. "Just put the arm around the shoulder."
As his testimony was winding down, Nied said that Romer’s actions were so concerning that he began locking his bedroom door at night and later decided to spend the spring semester studying abroad.
Movius, however, testified that Nied and his parties were causing trouble in the house, compounded by Nied’s mismanagement of the house bank account. He also testified that, contrary to the perception that Romer was the only one with an issue with Nied, "10 to 13 of us" followed Nied upstairs after the kitchen confrontation.
"Each person had separate qualms with Evan," said Movius.
Romer, who left the house and UVa after the charges against were announced, is reportedly back at the university and the Rugby Road residence. He did not testify Thursday.
The two surviving charges against Romer will be presented to a grand jury on June 16.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com