Camblos: If The Birthday Fits, You Must Convict

I listened to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos on WINA this morning. It was, in a word, lame. Hosts Jane Foy and Jay James — both of whom are friends and whose work I enjoy — handed one softball after another to Camblos, never following up on his often-bizarre responses. No calls were permitted. I had fully intended to restrain myself from writing anything about the interview, figuring enough is enough, but there was one moment that has earned me more e-mails and phone calls today than anything else about this case.

Camblos said that the oldest kid in the case (“the ringleader”) was born on the 100th anniversary of Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of Columbine. I held my breath during the sentence, thinking where can he possibly be going with this?. And then he did it — Camblos concluded the sentence with: “we took that very, very seriously.”

Whaaa? I’m not quoting anything out of context here: Camblos made a single statement in which he asserted that this kid was a suspect because of the date on which he was born. The Hook picked up on the same bit, pointing out that Jessica Lange was born on the same day. Presumably Mr. Camblos will be having her arrested shortly.

There were lots of forehead-slapping moments in this interview (like Camblos’ repeated insistence that “they were all convicted,” and his claim that investigating suspects before arresting them is “not the real world”), but I just couldn’t let this one go without remark.

A clap on the back and a hearty handshake to the first cvillenewser who can discover Mr. Camblos’ birthdate. I’m hoping that Molly Cliborne will indulge us by explaining what crimes Mr. Camblos may be guilty of by virtue of his birthdate.

9:39pm Update: Thanks to everybody for their help — we’ve got it. Suffice it to say, it appears to have been a very dark day in world history on many, many occasions. More on that tomorrow.

08/26 Update: WINA, God love ’em, has two audio extracts of the interview on their site: talking about the case on the whole, responding to criticism. And, finally, the Hitler clip. Bonus points to the first person to remix that into a dance tune.

08/28 Update: Charlottesville Podcasting Network now offers the audio of the entire interview.

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