I heard the most disrespectful thing, A close friends daughter past away this week, she was only 9 years old, They were in the midst of going to the grave yard where they were going they had to go down 21. Well they had a road check, The officers stopped the funeral persession, And wouldnt allow them to continue until they had given 2 of the people attending the funeral that were on motorcycles a ticket, that is unbelievable to me! And i think it is very rude, even if they were giving them a ticket they should have pulled them aside and not stopped everyone else, the father of the child went to the cop and said hey im getting ready to bury my child and the cop couldnt even be sympathetic.

That is so disrespectful….but what more can you expect?

If this is true and there isn’t more to it, I really hope the family and those ticketed register a formal written complaint against the police that were involved - if I remember right, it is a crime for any person to interfere with a funeral procession - including police officers. Its bad enough that regular people and society in general dont respect funeral processions anymore; I truly hope the police actually didn’t do this or that there is more to it. I’m not saying that what you posted isn’t true, I’m just hoping that there was some explanation for their actions. Unbelieveable…

My sincere condolences to the family for their loss.

Why were the motor cycle riders given tickets?  The riders should have had more respect for the family than to be in violation to start with.  It must have been something very obvious or they would not have been pulled over.  If they were in violation of the law, then they could have been endangering themselves along with eveyone else on the road near them.  Yes, I believe that it is very sad that these officers could not have pulled these cycles aside and let the funeral procession continue, but they were doing their duty, even if they did lack respect for the family burying their child.  They definitely should have allowed the procession to continue without the motorcycles.

While this may be true as I have been wrong before I have a hard time believing it without more facts. I have never seen a funeral in Wythe County since I have lived here that was not escorted by a Sheriff’s car. Where I came from the police quit doing this but here they are always there. I attended a funeral a few years ago and as I walked in a Sheriff’s car pulled up. The funeral lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes because they had three…......longwinded….......preachers. The Deputy was still there escorted us and politely exited his vehicle with his hat on and saluted the hearse, I assume because the deceased was a veteren.
With that being said, if that did happen it must have been the state police and it must have been something very serious for them to do that. Even police officer’s have loved ones that die and they know how hard it is but on the same page you can’t expect them to totally look over something that is really severe. Just my take.

I was just wondering about a couple of things and would like to have them cleared up before I know this is true. I went into the Wytheville Enterprise Obits & looked up the obit where this young lady passed away. Let me first say to the family, I am so sorry for your loss. When I was reading the obit it was so confusing as to why the funeral prosession was on 21. Here is a line from the paper:  A graveside service will be held Wednesday, June 24, at the Black Lick Cemetery in Rural Retreat. Also it stated that Lindsey Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements. Why did they come all the way to 21 to go to Blacklick. I just need for someone to clairify this for me. It just seems confusing to me & apparently someone does not know Wythe County.

My deepest sympathy to the family.

Knowing Wythe County? If you know Wythe County you would know that 21/52 North will take you to Blacklick.

Another item. Don’t you think that an officer of the law would know the law regarding this type of situation?

Well im not sure what they were doing on 21 but members of my family were all there, and the reason they recieved a ticket was for not having insurance on the motorcycles.

I attended a funeral a couple weeks ago.  We were escorted from Wytheville to Fort Chiswell by a deputy, and an additional deputy was waiting at the exit 80 traffic light to hold traffic for us.  There’s got to be more to the story than this.  It has been many years since I’ve seen deputies doing a road-side check (DMV actually pays law enforcement agencies to perform the checks - that’s part of what your license fees / vehicle registration pays for), it is primarily the State Police that does the checks now.  Now I wouldn’t put it past the State Police.  Around 12 years ago they pulled over a brand new Lead Mines ambulance because of a sticker in the front window, which was the logo for the manufacturer of the ambulance (it came that way from the factory).  It’s good to see they are concentrating on the important things like funerals and stickers, when millions of dollars of drugs are flowing along the interstates weekly.

If you mean 21/52 say 21/52, if you mean 21 say 21. 21 goes on the west end of Wytheville toward Independence. I pulled up Google Earth & went from Rural Retreat to 21/52, I found the cemetary & it is on Blacklick Road, not 21/52. In fact it is a little ways from 21/52. Also I have never been to a funeral where a Police Officer didn’t lead the procession & since this one went across an intersection there would have been officers posted there also. I just cannot understand why the procession would have gone to 21/52 & then have to back track tpo the cemetary.

My heart goes out to the family.  I pray for comfort and peace for the loss of their child.

I think its amazing the people that complain on law enforcement..most of the ones complaining either have no clue of the law or are getting caught breaking the law. Watching Law and Order does not make you smarter than the law enforcers in our area, once you have been through the extensive training and continual training that they go through by all means post your hilarious trite remarks.  And as you or your loved one dials 911 remember to thank them…just curious most funeral processions have a hearse with them don’t they???

This is the mother of the child who’s funeral procession was interrupted. First it is very important to understand that we live at the four way inbetween Wytheville and Speedwell on Cripple Creek Rd. We were not traveling down 21 but crossing it. The second thing that is important to understand is that we had just pulled out of the driveway that is in view of the fourway when the officer decided to start the road check. He waited until he saw us leave!! He stopped no one else but our party and let several more motorcycles pass while this was going on. This same officer had no compassion for my husband who was on his motorcycle in the lead or for me. He was down right hateful to me and I am not happy over this situation. The owner of Stoots corner called the State and told them what was going on. The other officer found out that we were on our way to the funeral and gave his condolances and walked to another car and told that officer what was happening. The officer that demanded that he write tickets was also the same officer that pulled a group of motorcycles over last summer and made us, yes we were included in that one as well, be set as examples to what he thinks of motorcycle riders in the community. He was not able to write my husband a ticket either time because we are always legal. We were not horseplaying either time, and we are upstanding members of the community. The gentleman that recieved the ticket had not had his bike out all year and was riding it for the first time this season. The inspection sticker had gone dead the month before and he was not thinking that he needed to forgo the funeral to get his bike inspected that day. He didn’t even know about the sticker until the officer pointed it out. As for this officer not only was he told by my husband first, he was told by every member of the group that we were heading to the funeral. He just shrugged his shoulders to them. When I made my introduction, and I was very nice to him and polite, he was very rude and glared at me and said “OK, so!“ I walked off at that point and this is when Ms. Stoots made her phone call. For the other questions, there was no hurse with us, we had just left our house, and we had not asked for an escort because we were doing nothing illegal except letting my daughter see her motorcycles for the last time. Each rider had a stuffy on the back of thier bike in her memory so that she could ride along. I am very upset at this officer and not to happy about the ridicule that this news is recieving. How would you feel if you were on the way to a loved ones funeral and an officer pulled your group over and detained you for nothing more than just plain meaness. Atleast this is how I took it, as soon as we left so did he. What does that say for him? Any other questions?

Marni Dutton

I think the officer`s name should be called out in an instance like this..I believe everybody should know who it was.

This should teach us all to be careful what we say in our posts if we’re not sure we have all the facts.  The original post referred to the “funeral procession”.  This was NOT the “Funeral Procession”, but the family leaving from their home and were on the way to the funeral home.  The “Funeral Procession” does not start until it leaves the funeral home or church traveling with the family and the deceased.  I was picturing this officer stopping the entire procession!  And, as Marni stated, they were not traveling on 21, but crossing it heading toward Lindsey Funeral Home in Rural Retreat. 

It does sound like this officer was very much out of line in his behavior.  I know Mrs. Stoots that runs Stoots Corner.  She is a pretty layed back lady.  She would not have called anyone on this officer if she did not feel it was warranted.  I am so sorry that the family had to endure this before ever getting to the funeral home.  I think we all owe Marni and her family a big appology for jumping to conclusions, even if we were coming to those conclusions because of incorrect information….

Here’s mine!  I am SO Sorry Marni!  I know you miss your little angel terribly.  Please know that you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers! 

Pam

I would like to comment about the what a shame messages….I am Dottie’s grandmother…..On Weds. June 24,2009 Dottie,age 9,  was to be buried at Blacklick Cemetery at 11:00 AM. Her parent’s live at the 4 way in the direction going to cripple creek. Dottie loved her daddy’s motorcycle so her daddy and several friends were leading the funeral procession from her parent’s home to the cemetery. They did not have a police escort, because you don’t need one if you are not going from the funeral home to the cemetery. They were going from their home to the cemetery at Blacklick. They had just pulled out of their drive way and were approaching the 4 ways (which is in sight of their home) when the troopers began setting up a road check. The trooper, Trooper Pruitt, pulled the funeral procession over and wanted to check their licenses etc. Dottie’s father went to the Trooper and told him that they were on the way to bury his daughter. Trooper Pruitt said he did not care and noticed that one of the motorcycles had an out of date inspection sticker on it. Trooper Pruitt began writing a ticket. Dottie’s mother, went to the trooper and told him they were on the way to the burial and he said, SO! and was going to contiue writing tickets. At this time the lady that owns Stoots Corner called the trooper headquarters and they were told they were allowed to continue.

My concern in all this is the disrespect and thoughtlessness of the entire situation. There was a time when common decency and courtesy would have had the trooper either offering to escort them to the cemetery or simply letting the procession go on. Obviously Trooper Pruitt has alot on his mind and is taking his job a bit too far. The death of this child was a terribly stressful situation for this family to begin with, but then to be pulled over and have the trooper start checking everyone’s registrations etc. and writing a ticket is very callous to say the least.  I know other State Troopers and respect them and am sure that they would not have handled this situation in this way. This trooper also was letting other people go by without checking them at all and as soon as the funeral procession was allowed to go on he left.

I would also like to reply to the stop whining person….the only one I hear whining is you…and you don’t have all the facts, so you really need to find out what you are whining about before you start.

I am very saddened that this situation occurred and almost made Dottie’s parent’s late for her burial. I hope I have cleared up some of the confusion….Jeanne Hart