Residents will unofficially bid farewell to the summer season during Labor Day weekend, which will also bring some closures and schedule changes to services in Alexandria.
Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 7, resulting in an extended holiday weekend for many employees and students. All City of Alexandria government offices will be closed for the Labor Day observance on Sept. 7.
As a number of undocumented immigrants have been arrested in Alexandria this month, nonprofit affordable housing developer Housing Alexandria recently advised its residents to stay indoors due to ICE activity.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on Wednesday (Aug. 26), announced 1,328 “illegal alien offenders” were arrested throughout Virginia and Maryland between Aug. 1 and Aug. 14. Those arrested as part of ICE’s Operation Safe Community include at least four people in Alexandria. ICE said of the 1,328, nearly 400 had faced charges or been convicted.
The owner of a dog that died after being abused at an award-winning dog daycare in Del Ray has sued the business owner for $585,000.
Earlier this month, Andrew Cheslock filed a civil suit against Paul Haire, the owner of Your Dog’s Best Friends (2000 Richmond Highway). It’s been two years since Cheslock’s 14-month-old golden retriever Abigail died after being strangled by Kevin Malik Sanders, a former groomer who pleaded guilty to one count of felony animal cruelty and four misdemeanor counts of animal abuse. Cheslock’s suit was filed soon after Sanders surrendered to authorities to serve a two-year prison sentence.
Alexandria’s Clerk of the Court just launched an e-filing system for non-attorneys representing themselves in civil and criminal case filings.
Clerk Greg Parks launched the portal on July 20, reversing a decades-long practice where only Virginia attorneys have been able to file cases and look at court records remotely. The new system allows people who aren’t lawyers to register in the court’s e-filing portal and file documents via the Virginia Judiciary eFiling System.
An Alexandria man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, and a Falls Church man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after their convictions for rape and robbery at a hotel in the city’s West End in 2022.
Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Heidi E. Meinzer, on July 9, sentenced 37-year-old Ja’Real Wilkins, of Alexandria, to 40 years of active incarceration on two felony counts of rape and one felony count of forcible sodomy. Less than a week later, on July 14, Judge Kathleen Uston sentenced Wilkins’ partner in crime, 27-year-old Tysheem Boykins of Falls Church to 16 years of active incarceration on one felony count of forcible sodomy and one felony count of robbery by threat.
A 68-year-old Fredericksburg man was found guilty today (Tuesday) of reckless driving for causing a five-vehicle crash that killed a 69-year-old Massachusetts woman on Interstate 495 in Alexandria on Nov. 5, 2024.
In a two-day bench trial, Circuit Court Judge Katie Uston found Lee Allen MacKall guilty of reckless driving, and sentenced him to a year in prison, all suspended on the condition of his uniform good behavior. MacKall tearfully apologized to the family and friends of the victim, Lauren Johnson-Lavender, who died at the scene.
The former vice president of finance for Alexandria-based cybersecurity firm Invictus has been indicted for allegedly embezzling $4.5 million.
On May 18, a grand jury returned an indictment for Sharon Geok-Lian Lee, 47, of Loudoun County, charging her with 12 counts of felony embezzlement. An Alexandria Police Department investigation concluded that Lee allegedly used the company’s American Express credit cards, which were in her name, to make large amounts of unauthorized purchases that were billed to the company and not reimbursed, according to a release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter. Lee was finance director and later VP of finance at Invictus during the scheme.
A new temporary art installation commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was recently unveiled outside the Alexandria Courthouse in Old Town, featuring a reading of the document by prominent Alexandria women.
A driver has been sentenced for a fatal crash that killed a pedestrian walking on a sidewalk in April 2025, according to the Alexandria Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
Jilmar Doria Medina, 43, of Accokeek, Md., was sentenced April 9 in Alexandria Circuit Court to six years in prison. Medina was convicted on a felony charge of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol content of 0.15-0.20 after a four-day jury trial in December 2025. He is being held without bail at the Alexandria jail pending his transfer to prison.
The landlords of a popular beer garden in Del Ray have dropped their eviction lawsuit against their tenants.
Despite the win, Jeremy Barber and Justus Frank, the owners of The Garden (1503 Mount Vernon Avenue), are still suing their landlords at Twenty-Third Street Corridor LLC, and plan to go back to Alexandria Circuit Court in October.
The plaintiffs in Alexandria’s Zoning for Housing/Housing for All lawsuit say they have raised the $28,000 required to pay for attorneys in their appeal against the Circuit Court’s November dismissal.
The plaintiff group, the Coalition for a Livable Alexandria, announced this morning (Friday) that it raised the funds for a fee agreement to move forward with attorneys at Dunn, Craig and Francuzenko. Last month, members of the group asked for donations in their continuing effort to reverse the city’s 2023 zoning overhaul, setting a Feb. 27 deadline.
