First

*is a Latham partner's son, fails the bar, keeps my job when the other bar failers get laid off*

Go Hoos

People from Suffolk spit on cawps all the time. After they shart, that is.

Easy: she's too much of a genius to deal with something as mundane as being respectful to the police.

I've never sharted, but I have furinated.

- Boston Female Associate

Wow a Ellie post that talks about police and race. Amazing!

Oh man, these comments are going to get ugly. At least my conscience is clear that I wasn't the one who tipped ATL.
-UVA Sectionmate

Shit is gonna hit the fan...

UVA Classmate

I suppose that I should know the answer to this question, but is the University of Virginia School of Law accredited by the American Bar Association?

Reading comp and games are all well and good, but has any thought ever been put into adding an anger management section to the LSAT?

"She loves the LSAT, but spit on a cop. That, my friends, is a puzzle."

sigh

I wouldn't want to be stuck on a desert island with someone who did this!

Wtf is the LSAT?

This chick was the most obnoxious, horribly uninformed person in one of the classes that I attended with her. To be a "gunner" (as this article suggests), don't you at least have to know what you are talking about??

Good riddance.

You gotta give Elie props for Dilophosaurus.

15 - no unfortunately you don't need to know what you are talking about. That's the worst kind of gunner...

15 - no. You just have to talk a lot. Usually, people who talk a lot don't know what they're talking about but they have a severe desire to make other people believe they do, hence the talking a lot.

Elie -- Uhh, isn't ATL policy not to name existing law students, as reflected in the summer associate policy? Why the difference here?

14 -

I don't know about that, she's quite attractive.

www.dailyprogress.com/.../34311/

I'm confused. What was she doing illegally in the first place? Was this somebody else's car? If she wasn't behaving illegally, what right did the cops have to smash a window and drag her from the car?

20,

Elie is a racist. black on black crime.

Whats up with Goodwin Procter? They keep losing partners to other firms

What a fucking hit job. Nice double standard on anonymity.

It's good to see students at peer schools show their idiocy. No one would stand for this type of behavior at the mill.

-GULC 3L

And in all candor, what does this have to do with UVA Law School? Clearly this was about her personal behavior, not something done either in class or at the behest of one of her profs.

Her character was formed (malformed?) well before she was admitted to UVA. Shame on them for not recognizing her, but this action is not of their making.

It's called Public Record. Annoymity is reserved for summer associates because their shenanigans aren't recorded in a police report. You do something dumb enough to involve the cops, you are up for the ATL firing squad.

GULC? that's funny. there is school named GULC. that's funny.

This is only news because Omar Epps is Black.

UVA dominates GULC. End of story.

3 if you loser dad was a Latham partner, you would have also kept your job despite failing the bar. Don't blame the game, blame the player, who in this case is your dad. Get over it.

This is just how a black woman gets treated in America. In HER OWN CAR. Whoever called the cops should go to prison, while Gates, Obama and Epps enjoy a devil's threeway and a case of Krispy Kreme.

- Elie Mystal

It's called editorial discretion. What would die as a local story and require lengthy explanation in an interview and on the bar application is now subject to the derision of everyone around. There is a big difference between having to explain your record and having to explain why you were a feature story on abovethelaw.

http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2009_spr/epps.htm

A 5.5, but a law school 8. I would hit that.

I've got a place where we can put Skip, Lizzy, Marc and everyone else who breaks the law... jail.

Each weekend, how many law students across the country do you think get drunk and have run ins with the police?
If we go down this road, there will be no room for any other stories on Monday and Tuesday--that's even if we limit coverage to top 50 schools. Really, this story should have been out of bounds.

This chick is a total loser. She only did well on the LSAT because she gamed it more than probably anyone else in the country. I bet she gets terrible grades and will suck as a lawyer.

ATL crossed the line with this one. The circumstances surrounding this are very unclear, but there is a strong likelihood that this was an instance of police abusing their power against a woman who was not doing anything wrong. A felony charge and the consequences of that charge on her future career are extremely disproportionate to the conduct, and ATL should recognize this as a problem with the law, not the student.

To #16, I thought she gave consistently interesting opinions and insight, which is more than I can say for 99% of our class. Comments like #16's are exactly what makes the supposed "congeniality" at UVA a farce. Furthermore, that attitude is much more harmful to society than what she did.

-UVA Classmate and supporter.

So how long until Elie goes on a rant about this saying that it only happened because she is black (it doesn't say that she is, but pregnant at 17, and dying to bring her kid to Obama's inauguration, you know she is.) and that the police had no business draging her out of her OWN car. Tick Tock Elie the race war is not going to start itself.

The sad part of this story (that I am surprised nobody has commented on) is that she is a mother and was apparently wasted.

“The LSAT is an opportunity for a fresh start. It is your friend. A 180 erases all blemishes. It says, ‘Who cares about that ‘C’ you got your freshman year?’”

After the smackdown from Mr. Lat for Elie's tenuous (and that's a generous characterization of it) argument regarding good samaritan laws in MA as a sword (gag me now), it's amazing that this guy still has a job. Pathetique.

35 - You've clearly never been to visit UVA Law, she is a UVA Law School 3.3.

39, I get what your saying, but this would have been a complete non-story if not for everything she allegedly did after the police "abused their power." That's a problem with the student, and not the law.

Comment removed by moderator.

It's good to see students at peer schools show their idiocy. No one would stand for this type of behavior at the mill.

-Suffolk 3L, soon to be para

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. Number two, that the Charlottesville police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own car and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. And that's just a fact."
-- Barack Obama
Change we can believe in

39 - What is unclear about her being combative with a police officer and spitting in his face? Being passed out drunk in a car gives her free license to break the law and abuse a cop? Bullshit.

Her friends were trying to get her out of the car, the cop was trying to get her out of the car. She was wasted and out of control.

How is the person's attitude about not liking someone who behaves badly bad for society?

William and Mary surpassed UVA as the top law school in the Commonwealth quite some time ago. William and Mary for education, UVA for softball.

NWA said it best

I don't understand why people claim she was doing nothing wrong. You are not entitled to pass out in a drunken stupor in your car in a publicly accessible parking garage. If the police attempt to question you while you are doing so and you do not respond, they are allowed to take further action. If the choose to do so, you certainly should certainly not respond with assault and/or battery. Learn to hold your liquor. Better yet, don't be so damned cheap and just get a cab home and pick up your car in the morning.

Are the people who called the police liable under good samaritan statutes for the damage to Epps's car window? The article implies that it was Epps's friends who called the police. Unlike the caller in the Gates story, it was clear that these people *knew* Epps was black. They therefore should have predicted property damage and adverse publicity to Epps. Someone find me that good samaritan statute and Epps's "friends" will be pulling out their checkbooks in no time.

Come on, Elie. You've invented a new legal doctrine. You have to assert its relevance at every opportunity if you want it to stick.

Comment removed by moderator.

41 - That's an excellent point, overlooked likely because so few of the commenters here are parents.

Getting shitfaced, unless the kid was with her parents for the night, or something like that, should be out of the question. Way to be responsible.

Law students get arrested for similar things all the time (DUI, public urination, etc.), but she gets a feature story because of an old blurb on the UVA law website? Doesn't seem fair.

56 - life isn't fair.

What is it with the commenters on ATL and kissing the police's ass?

Seriously? The police do NOT have free reign to drag people out of cars when they aren't breaking the law, they do NOT have a right to arrest people for disorderly conduct on their own property when no crime has been committed, they do NOT have a right to walk around like the kings of society.

This isn't about the race of the student, but it is about someone standing up to police abuse of power and its about goddamn time people started doing that more often. They are meant to PROTECT the community, not harass it.

She was SITTING in a parked car - what were they protecting anyone from? Nothing. They were just messing with someone because they could.

GOOD FOR HER. More people should make enough of a ruckus to get noticed when they're being mistreated by asshole policemen.

56 - Life's not fair. Plus, how many DUIs end in an assault charge for spitting in the cop's face and a broken window? This is news, and its also juicy gossip.

32 for the win!

"Easy: she's too much of a genius to deal with something as mundane as being respectful to the police."
- from 6

Prof. Gates anyone?

58/59 - Nobody said "ruckus" since 1996. And nobody has brought it since 1998.

59 - Epps

63 EPMD brought the ruckus

I'd sent my child to Richmond law before UVA, and THAT is saying something.

39 and all the other supporters.

This woman represents everything wrong with law school admissions and even America. She's a gunner and a social reject. She's taken advantage oh her minority status to gain admission to a fairly respectable school. Now after her arrogance landed her in trouble she will use her ethnicity as a crutch and pull the "race card."

This girl clearly is getting was she deserved and I'm glad to see it. She's no longer miss high and mighty now. She can always go back to popping out more babies And live off the new welfare state Obama is creating for her and other irresponsible miscreants like her

58- Did she have the keys in the ignition? Cause then you have DUI and an absolute reason to do this to her. Coming from someone who had a friend killed by a drunk driver, if someone was this drunk the only place she belonged in a car was in the back seat of a cab.

I'm a UVA 2L summering with the Charlottesville Police Department... should I be worried about this?

(32 with a gigantic reading comprehension fail. Don't go taking an exam anytime soon buddy)

Today's quiz:

Facts: 29 year old law sutdent. Had a child at 18. Obama supporter. Spits in face of plice officer. Supports Professor Gates in his recent run-in with the long arm of the law.

Question: what race is she?

Answer: ______

Followup qustion: was she a AA admit?

58 - agree with your theory, but not your command of the facts here. she was in a parking garage, where she probably was not supposed to be. Anybody would have been asked to leave. She was not responding due to too much booze. Who knows if the police were worried about alcohol poisioning or other danger.

When I was there, they had something called the Honor Code, which was "honored" in the breach. She needs to go before the Honor Committee and if found guilty, thrown out of the law school for at least two semesters. Otherwise, all students get blamed for the piggish behavior of one.

Felony assault for spitting on a cop?

In New York, cops have to put up with that kind of shit every day. Big whoop.

"“The LSAT is an opportunity for a fresh start. It is your friend. A 180 erases all blemishes. It says, ‘Who cares about that ‘C’ you got your freshman year?’”"

....and there's the answer to our question about why she opted for law school instead of med school.

Jesus people are stupid, yeah its legal to sleep on your own property, it is NOT necessarily legal to sleep on your own property, that happens to be located on someone else's property.

This happened early Thursday morning (apparently the student likes to get her goose on Wednesday nights) at the Market Street garage, which is a privately owned garage. It has been a while since I've parked there, but I don't think it is a 24 hour attended garage, particularly in the middle of the week. There are numerous reasons why a garage would not want someone sleeping in their car at that time of the morning, not the least being fear of liability in case something happened to them.

I don't know if the cop was correct in breaking the window, but her friends seemed pretty concerned about her and unlike other cities, there aren't 24-hour locksmiths on call early Thursday mornings in Charlottesville, at any rate to say she's done nothing wrong is just nutty.

39: "thought she gave consistently interesting opinions and insight"

That's just funny. She gave the least interesting opinions and insight in my opinion...

I too hoped this wouldn't make ATL, mostly for the sake of her child, but don't try to make up stuff about how insightful she was.

"She was SITTING in a parked car - what were they protecting anyone from?"

The owner of the garage? The attendant who's shift just ended and wondered why the hell a car was still in the garage?

56 - Life ain't fair. Get used to it.

I think the problem is that she was in the car alone. Had there been more individuals in there she totally could have logic gamed her way to lawful safety.

The officer should have said:

"Drunk 1 please get out of the car after Drunk 4 but before Drunk 3. Drunk 3 please get out of the car before Drunk 5. Drunk 5, use the sunroof."

Not to mention how hot it gets in VA. Her friends were probably worried she'd pass out in the car and dehydrate.

# 78, hahahahaha

58 - The car was in a parking garage, not on her private property.

76 - She does not have the right to be drunk in public. D'oh.

Anderson, Brown, Cooper, Denton and Epps like to go drinking in Charlottesville.

Each goes drinking two nights per week.

Each night, exactly two people are out drinking.

After drinking, each likes to pass out somewhere other than his/her own home. It is the same place on both nights of drinking.

No one drinks on Monday or Tuesday nights.

Anderson passes out on the steps of the Rotunda.

Cooper and Denton drink on Fridays.

Brown does not drink on Sundays and passes out in the library stacks when drunk.

One of the drinkers passes out in a parked car on Market Street.

One of the Wednesday drinkers passes out on the front lawn of a fraternity.

Anderson and Brown drink together both nights.

Where and when can Epps be found passed out?

Has any criticizing the police considered that perhaps the cops thought she was a danger to herself from a mental health perspective?

78 for comment of the year. The only time logic games, or any reference thereto, have ever made me laugh.

I shit on UVA every year during the softball tournament.

Female law student from Boston

85 is clearly a lesbian who goes home by noon on Sunday.

this would never happen at Duke

"She was SITTING in a parked car - what were they protecting anyone from? Nothing."

If the cops had NOT dragged her out and she ended up driving, there'd be a HUGE shitstorm over why the cops acted so irresponsibly to let an obviously intoxicated woman remain in her car, and probably a lawsuit.

Kinda looks like a drag queen:

http://media.dailyprogress.com/dailyprogress/img-story/images/uploads/INAUGURATION_A1_art_thumb.jpg

87,

youre right. because duke doesnt let black people in.

Betcha Lat is pissed because it wasn't a guy spitting cum all over his face...Spread your cheeks and lick your sack.

Was this the same student who spearheaded the campaign to get the UVA Professor banned from teaching 1L classes this coming term because of his allegedly racist comments?

Betcha Lat is pissed because it wasn't a guy spitting cum all over his face...Spread your cheeks and lick your sack.

Betcha Lat is pissed because it wasn't a guy spitting cum all over his face...Spread your cheeks and lick your sack.

92-

yes, one in the same.

i'd like to think that prof. is enjoying this.

Was this the same student who spearheaded the campaign to get the UVA Professor banned from teaching 1L classes this coming term because of his allegedly discriminatory behavior (i.e., didn't call on African Americans enough)?

Is there even a point to her interviewing this fall?

She was definitely a gunner with wild comments. She once quoted Tupac in Evidence class in support of her comment that a lot of black men ("Gs" as she put it) were in jail because of racial profiling / race relations with cops. Seriously, who quotes Tupac in law school??

In a lot of states you can be arrested for a DUI for sitting in a car with the keys in your ignition, even if the car isn't running, if you are drunk. The cops possibly (rightfully so) expected that she was drunk. Attempted to speak with her and/or have her step out of the vehicle. When this did not work, they broke the window to get at her and arrest her.

Contrary to what some of the people on this site think, you can't just do what you want when a cop is questionning you. You certainly have rights, but
you cant do whatever you want.

Remember how you have a reduced expectation of privacy when you are in your vehicle? You people need to spend some more time studying

Maybe the girl needed to go to detox and that's why they got her out of the car. Depending on how belligerent she was being and how worried her friends were, the cops may have been trying to, oh, I dunno, save her life.

-2L not at UVA

98 - that day, I realized I probably should have aimed a little higher in terms of law schools...

Obviously her conduct, particularly as a parent, was less than ideal. It appears the punishment (from all the attention) will far outweigh her crime.

I'm more concerned about the intimation that she must be African American just because she supported Obama and had a child at 18. Really? Really?

i think ATL should start publishing the names of the individuals laid off from each law firm. please include the school and graduation year as well.

this way ATL can ruin more lives

haha Elie and ATL def. sold out here...

My impression of this woman was that she was ridiculously overconfident. Nice out of class, but overconfident. She made odd, off-beat remarks in torts, where we had a vaguely frightening prof (nobody at UVa is very scary, but if anyone is going to make a student cry, it's him), and if I remember correctly, said "woohoo!" out loud when he announced class cancellations (or shorter reading? something like that). Which led him to glare at her and ask if she had something to say. It's not a terrible trait, but no wonder she didn't worry about repercussions from ignoring police instructions.

-102
40 here. Well, was I wrong?

Didn't ATL protect the identity of the Washington & Lee students that were involved in an altercation? Why not in this instance?

# 105--agreed. A life-altering moment of poor judgment could happen to anyone; the form just depends on the person.

72 - In Soviet Russia, cop spits on YOU!

I should probably know the answer to this, but is UVA an accredited law school?

99 - This is correct. I knew a guy in college who got a DUI because he passed out drunk in his car with the engine running (because it was January in Illinois and was 10 degrees outside). He even got to spend a couple weeks as a guest of the county as a result.

-40
102 here. You had a 50/50 shot--with those odds, I'd play every game in Vegas.

The point is that these preconceived notions undermine the equality so frequently trumpeted when talking about race relations in our country.

what if the cops had refused to break into the car and she was just left there - and 6 hours later someone found that she had drowned in her own aspirated .....well, you get the picture...

There but for the grace of god go I.

#102 - you wouldn't get it if it were shoved up your ***.

There was no "intimation" in my prior comment - I knew she was black/African American when I made the comment to which you are referring.

106- You're not wrong, Walter, you're just an asshole!

charlottesville townies = TRASH

-112/102

Remind me never to go to Vegas with you. I did not have 50/50 odds. In the United States there is a large variety of races, Hispanics, Whites, Blacks, Asians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and so on and so forth. It is not just white and black (50/50) Maybe at best I had a 20% chance.

Besides 90% of black voters voted for Obama and the majority of people requesting tickets to Obama's inauguration were also black. Also Blacks have a higher tendency to have underage pregnancies (i.e. to be pregnant before the age of 18)

So if you wish to go back to your Vegas allegory, you are incorrect that I was playing the odds but I was definitely "counting cards" in that I knew off of those facts that there was a very high probability that she was black. It is important that we remember that these preconceived notions usually come from some place, due to their hint of truth. Therefore we should not just dismiss them as "undermining equality" since I never said she is not equal to me or entitled to the same things as me.

What is the big deal about ATL running with this btw? It's a news story of sorts. It's out of bounds because she's a student and they gave her name? Give me a break. The damage here is self-inflicted and withholding her name somehow changes that?

If you don't want to end up on ATL, don't spit on cops. Is that really so hard? A buddy of mine at an equally respected school got himself an open container in NYC just last October of his 1L. Yet, that didn't end up on ATL because he's not a jackass and took his stupid summons and just went into court and got it thrown out.

Jackassery+Public News Story= I don't feel bad when you go out of your way to get your name plastered on ATL.

110, you screwed up the phrasing of the joke AND someone else already made it upthread. (See #11)

MemeFAIL.

27: The Honor Code at Mr. Jefferson's University (oh yes, people call it that) is purportedly taken very seriously -- when violated publicly. Meaning you can do very very bad things, just make sure UVA's name doesn't come into it (the example the 2L gave our section first year was if you're, say, rioting, and you decide to break a window and make off with a flat screen, make sure you're not wearing a UVA sweatshirt when you do it. Seriously.) Given the media attention, I agree that the Honor Committee is going to make life unpleasant for her.

-118
102 here.

Point taken about odds... I was thinking more in the white/non-white dichotomy, but you're right--you had less than a 50% chance. Doesn't change the fact that preconceptions get in the way of unity in our country.

Lat, please give Elie a strong lecture on discretion, and sticking to the policy of not outing law student and young associates by name. I understand ATL is a "legal tabloid," but this is the first time I've seen it torpedo a career so casually. This girl is a rising 2L who had a fighting chance at employers not hearing about this until Elie broadcast it to the entire legal community. That crosses the line.

"In Soviet Russia, cop spits on YOU!"

Actually, in Soviet Russia, cop beats the crap out of you and locks you up for two weeks w/o trial, during which time you contract tuberculosis and suffer further beatings. So I heard.

- Russian Immigrant

So, employers should only hear about this after giving her 30k for a summer and her possibly not passing C&F?????

The ship really be sinking....

-122
the real 40 here (please ignore 115)

I agree that preconceptions can get in the way of unity in our country, but I do not believe preconceptions are necessarily a bad thing.

I'll got $100 and a season pass to Heavenly in Lake Tahoe that says not only will lil' mama prevail, but she'll be the C'ville mayor in 2020. Peep game.

.com

Why did ATL protect the identity of the Washington & Lee students but is perfectly happy to disclose the identity of this Virginia Law student?

It's truly amazing how stupid people can be on this blog.

Wait, so Epps also accused a professor of racism earlier this year and tried to have him fired from the law school???

Her name lands on the news, she's fair-game for a blog posting. If future updates appear that exonerate her actions, then I would expect ATL to post those as well.

Until then, whether or not this is a "career ender" is not Elie's fault.

Why the hell did the cops break the window?

Please. Nothing is going to happen to her because everyone will fear a racially motivated lawsuit. She'll graduate,get admitted to the BAR and will probably get picked up in some nice top-tier firm, where she will occupy a desk and the cover of various recruiting materials, all while the firm cuts the pay of its other associates so that it can continue paying the salary of its AA trophy. Get real people. This is the world we live in.

First of all, her picture is linked in the original post. Those interested in her race need not guess based on the age of her child or her political leanings.

Second, this is not an Honor offense. Honor covers lying, cheating and stealing only. This is the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee, which covers other conduct, including, I guess, felony assault on a cop.

How embarrassing for the school for touting her as an asset rather than the huge detriment she turned out to be.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Elie has a little bit of UVA envy. He seems obsessed with everything that happens at UVA. Do things never happen at any other law school?

@135, his UVA envy started when Aquagirl got all the attention for diving into the Hudson. In fact, Elie had done the same thing two years prior, but no one had noticed except the Fish & Wildlife people, who wondered how a humpback whale could have gotten so lost.

134, you are dead wrong. This could easily be picked up by the Honor Committee, depending on how she represented herself and/or whether any of the cops were UVA pd.

137 - no. If she lied, then yes, that is an honor offense. But spitting on a cop is not lying, cheating or stealing, and therefore not an honor offense.

The incident happened in Cville, so Honor has jurisdiction if in fact an honor offense was committed - whether it's CPD or UPD is irrelevant.

Maybe Elie Mystal's political connections in the Northeast were insufficient to get him admitted to law schools elsewhere, like Virginia Law.

Would the police have broken the window of the car if she had been white?

138, you clearly did not go there for undergrad. you have a superficial understanding of how the honor code affects you.

best part is that she is still the main feature on the Kaplan LSAT webpage.

Just another racist cop.

This is just another case of "parking while drunk, disorderly, unfit for motherhood and black." Racist.

Elie,

Do you think she was treated differently because of her skin color?

She seems par for the course. UVA grads are idiots. I've had the misfortune of working with many of them.

102 - It's not very hard to "intimate" a person's race when you have A PICTURE OF THEM linked in frickin story that clearly depicts Ms. Epps as black.

It's ridiculous how quick paranoia about racial inferences set in. Instead of reading the actual story and the relevant links, you jump to a conclusion that there was racism involved. REALLY? REALLY?

Maybe next time when you are presented with the two options that there might be actual knowledge of her race or that somebody made a deduction based on the random facts of political support and age at child birth, try stopping and considering why one option is far more incredible than the other.

141, read the bylaws.

You pale, slack-jawed Gaultian Onanists can all go hump a picture of your mommies*

*poor weak-kneed dribblers, no matter how hard you pump it, your mommy is never going to love you.

Wankers.

147--have you ever tried yoga?

150 -- I tried yo-grandma last night. It was gross. Never doing that again. Are we talking about the same thing?

UVA Law needs to adopt a student conduct policy. Does anyone remember the UVA Law student who accosted former VA Governor Allen about his previous divorce? Despite the school's blatant reluctance to "impose" itself on its students outside of the law school, this type of crap damages the student's and the institution's reputation.

UVA Law Grad '08

UVA Law needs to adopt a student conduct policy. Does anyone remember the UVA Law student who accosted former VA Governor Allen about his previous divorce? Despite the school's blatant reluctance to "impose" itself on its students outside of the law school, this type of crap damages both the student's and the institution's reputation.

UVA Law Grad '08

150 - no kidding. You'd think no one would take this sort of AA jump the gun paranoia seriously anymore, much less get upset and respond to it. I mean, how many took it seriously last week when the Prez did the same thing.

Would the cops have broken the window if she was a hot white sorority girl?

hear hear 152-3, instead of that ridiculous "diversity pledge" (thank God I graduated well before then, back when it was routine #7 or tied for it in USNews) they should have students pledge they won't act like d-bags.

partners at quinn kick and scream and then spit in associate's faces all the time. it is no big deal.

quinn stud

98: That is incredible. I went to a school ranked far below UVA and can't think of a single person who would've piped-up with that comment.

155 - sure, its what they would have done to her next that would have differed....

This incident pales next to the shooting at Harvard earlier this year (to which a Harvard student was linked) and to the controversy between the black Harvard professor and the white Cambridge police officer.

is this gonna turn out like Gates and most DC local cases where race is an immediate issue and no one notices most of the cops involved were not white...

78 FTW.

158 - I agree with the spirit of your remark. I am a rising 3L at UVA and can probably rattle off two dozen names off the top of my head of people who I think are capable of making that comment in an anonymous capacity.

@98/158/163- The Tupac comment in Evidence class had nothing to do with racial profiling/ race relations/ black men: it had to do with unsubstantiated claims of sexual assault. The lyric laments the fate of young men being accused of rape when a woman (groupie or otherwise) later calls a consensual sexual encounter an assault.

As for quoting rappers (the poster asked "Who quotes Tupac?"), one of the most popular professors at Virginia began class by reading two Jay-Z stanzas to the class on Day 1. Then again, to be fair, Hov and Pac really are in two different leagues entirely...

@127- See you on the slopes my long-legged friend...

Justices of the Supreme Court now quote pop singers in their published opinions. What is so inappropriate about quoting Tupac?

The police probably intervened because she was intoxicated and had care and control of a motor vehicle. Although she had not operated the vehicle, it was foreseeable that she may. Smashing the window may have been a bit extreme, but had she driven off somewhere and had an "accident", the police would have been criticized for not going far enough. It's not a racial issue.

How has the E-Ticket story not been posted yet?

What E-ticket story?

if you don't want to be spit on, don't be a cop. Tase self, then kill self.

"As for quoting rappers (the poster asked "Who quotes Tupac?"), one of the most popular professors at Virginia began class by reading two Jay-Z stanzas to the class on Day 1."

....and everybody cringed inside?

#26...

What is the only thing that GULC Law students and UVA Law students have in common?

They both got accepted to GULC.

I was there for the Tupac quote. I'll just say that quite frankly, her holier than thou attitude getting shot to shit is really why this story ended up on ATL.

(In a related note, I don't think anybody has a problem with said Professor opening with a brief moment of levity before a lecture on Search & Seizure in a Crim. Investigation class...)

E-Ticket story: at orientation at UVA, there's this stupid activity called "the island game" designed to help you remember your section-mates' names, where you have to bring something to the "island" that begins with the first letter of you name. Anyway, Epps said, "I'm Elisabeth and I'm bringing an E-ticket so I can fly away from all of you." Needless to say, she wasn't all that popular with her section.

174 - Former PA here. If an advisee says that on day one, sectionmates think they're crazy and PAs mostly write them off. One or two PAs reach out unsuccessfully, and everyone ultimately concludes the person is a lost cause. Bottom line: should never have been admitted.

BTW, it may be a stupid game, but I am now quite a few years out and can remember what 2/3 of my section brought to the fucking island.

175, I'm more than quite a few years out and remember what 9/10 of my section brought to school (apparently this was pre-Survivor).

This was also back when people chose UVA over Harvard, Columbia, etc. for social reasons. I don't know what the hell happened, but I stopped donating this year. When did it become the second coming of Berkeley or Ann Arbor?

@ 164 - even with correction on the use of the Tupac quote, it was still ridiculous. It was rolled off in a semi-rap in smug, holier (and hipper) than thou manner (I agree with 173), confused/distracted the class and professor and didn't add anything to the discussion. Other "fun" comments by Epps included a claim that there was no absolute standard of guilt or innocence ~ you were whatever the justice system found you to be. I'm wondering what she thinks now about that statement.

I wasn't the one paying the most attention, but I'm pretty sure the e-ticket was just to get off the desert island and not die in exile; getting away from all the smothering faux collegiality and feigned camaraderie of classmates was probably just a bonus.

You're really overestimating your importance if you think the plane ticket was any deeper than escaping to safety and civilization; people in other sections/years had motorboats and GPS-enabled cellphones for just the same reason.

I think the e-ticket comment was noted for its vitriol more than the substance, as I have heard airplane, etc. before.

Someone who reacts that strongly to the mailboxes in Scott Commons definitely does not mind attracting attention.

I appreciate how this was handled fairly. I find it curious that so many douche bags criticize Mystal for being slanted on race, but so few give him credit here. You guys have a policy and you're following it strictly. Well done.

"Epps said, 'I'm Elisabeth and I'm bringing an E-ticket so I can fly away from all of you.' "

She is clearly a graduate of the Gates school of being an a-hole. Surprising she had drinking buddies who cared about her well being enough to have the cops roust her from the car.

The e-ticket story should be clarified: what she said was something to the effect of, I'm brining an e-ticket because there's no way I'm going to be stuck on an island with you people. This was the first time anyone in her section met her--not a great start and her behavior and demeanor through the year didn't help. Frankly, I'm not surprised that someone who thinks they are god's gift to earth thought it was acceptable to spit on cops, maybe this arrest will put her in her place.

She'll be fine. You al lcan keep hating her, but she'll be fine. You feel like now she's been put 'in her place'? Wow. Like she had no right or cause to be confident? That's rich.

wait... she's 29 and has an 11-year-old son?

i love me some WHITE castle but i always order too much
so i throw in the TRASH whatever i don't eat, ya know?

184, you're not clever.

69, you're a joke. Grow up.

183 - She can be confident, that's fine, that's a lot different than thinking you are better than everyone around you and treating your classmates, who are equally, if not more intelligent in many cases, like they are beneath you.

And yes she is the law student that tried to get a professor fired because she claimed he was racist and did not call on black students enough.

Wow. A lot of you oveprivileged Asperger sufferers can't stand the fact that a Black single mother is more intelligent, wittier and more accomplished than you, can you? It hurts. lol

She sounds like a cool chick, and it is too bad this happened, but the story seems to have quite a number of holes, and I'm sure she'll be fine by its conclusion.

Do law students think people are guilty until proven innocent or innocent until proven guilty? I'm not a law student but I don't think this case been to trial and a guilty verdict rendered.

Do you know whether she passed or failed the sobriety test? As lawyers and as students, should you know before you call her drunk?

From the meaness of these comments, concerning her race, her child, etc., I don't think UVA is a very nice place to be.

The court will decide her guilt or innocence. I'd rather be guilty of being drunk than be guilty of being hateful. In a few hours a person who is drunk will be sober. Hatefulness is harder to shake, and is the reason for the turmoil in the world today.