A Virginia State Police trooper was killed yesterday afternoon in a crash in Henry County. Trooper Ralph W. Carroll Sr. was riding a motorcycle along U.S. 220 in Henry County when a car driven by 20-year-old Christopher A. Cunningham turned in front of Carroll’s southbound motorcycle about 1 p.m., said state police Sgt. Bob Carpentieri.

Amanda Gibbs clung to a 9-foot-wide rock in a churning Clinch River on Wednesday, wondering if she would ever touch dry land again. Three hours earlier, the current overturned her canoe and nearly drowned her husband of 10 months, Jerry Gibbs. A poor swimmer, he emerged downstream battered, shoeless and ready to hike through the dense Castlewood forest for help.

A Danville man was killed Friday when his vehicle went off the side of a road in Pittsylvania County, hit a tree and overturned. Dallas McKenley Bowen, 71, wrecked while driving on state Route 724. Sandra Sue Waid, 61, of Lynchburg died Friday at Virginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg after being injured in a crash May 1. She was driving east in the westbound lane of U.S. 460 near state Route 645 when she struck a sport utility vehicle head-on, police said.

Heavy Memorial Day traffic on Virginia highways has sparked at least one incident of road rage. The drivers of two cars began arguing Friday afternoon and started to display “some type of road-rage behavior” while traveling south on Interstate 95 near milepost 157 in Woodbridge, said Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman.

The death Wednesday of a man injured May 13 in a two-vehicle crash in Henry County has raised the 2009 state highway death toll to 252. That is 50 fewer than the total at this time last year. Johnny O. Bond, 80, of Mayodan, N.C., was a passenger in a car that was leaving a business when it was struck by another car on U.S. 220, police said. He was wearing a seat belt, police said.

A Halifax County couple from Nathalie died in a single-vehicle crash Saturday when their Jeep left the road and struck a tree. State police reported that Gary V. Anderson, 47, and Rachel Terry Anderson, 49, died at the scene at 8:40 p.m. Both were wearing seat belts, police said. The crash occurred on U.S. 501, three-tenths of a mile south of state Route 795.

Virginia State Police dispatcher Michael P. Woods’ dream of being a contestant on “The Price is Right” came true last month.  Ashland resident Woods taped his appearance on the CBS game show April 14; it airs tomorrow at 11 a.m.  During his stint on the show, Woods, 29, got to spin the big wheel and bid on prizes, including a 2009 Ford Focus.

Authorities are investigating whether a man who pulled over a woman Friday in Henrico County was posing as a state trooper. The man was driving a silver or gray Dodge Intrepid when he stopped the 23-year-old woman on Etheridge Road near Horsepen Road and Glenside Drive shortly after 6 p.m., authorities said yesterday. The man activated a siren and a blue strobe light that was mounted beside his rear-view mirror, Henrico police Lt. Steve Sparagna said.

A 20-year-old man faces a DUI charge after police say he wrecked a car into a state police cruiser early yesterday morning, leaving a trooper with minor injuries. Alexander Patrick Weedon of Glen Allen was charged in the incident, which happened about 5:15 a.m. along Interstate 64 near the Shockoe Valley Bridge in Richmond. The car was eastbound when it ran off the left side of I-64, struck several barrels with sand in them and then slammed into the rear of the state police cruiser, which was stopped while trooper J.H. Lehman was conducting speed enforcement, authorities said.

Ex-officer facing 22 sex counts He’s jailed without bond as case now involves Chesterfield, Brunswick Former Virginia State Police Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr. was jailed without bond yesterday after being served with 22 new indictments that allege he sexually abused a young girl in Chesterfield and Brunswick counties. The former commander of the state police’s Information Technology Division surrendered to state po-
lice investigators at about 10 a.m. at the Chesterfield jail.

Ex-state policeman facing new counts In addition to January charge, he’ll face 12 more counts of sexual abuse A former Virginia State Police captain charged in January with sexually abusing a young girl was indicted yesterday on 12 new sex counts, including rape and sodomy. A Chesterfield County Circuit Court grand jury returned the additional charges against Edward L. Hope Jr., 52, of Goochland County. They include four counts each of rape, sodomy and object sexual penetration.

Virginia State Police is stepping up patrols along interstates in Hampton Roads as part of Operation Air, Land and Speed.

A special prosecutor concluded that a Virginia State Police trooper was justified in using deadly force earlier this year when he fatally shot a man in Floyd County.

A former Richmond-area branch manager for a mortgage firm has been charged with defrauding five mortgage companies and investors of up to $1.4 million. Stacy Lynn Chamberlain, 42, of Unionville has been charged with bank fraud, 18 counts of wire fraud and interstate transportation of money taken by fraud. Chamberlain was arrested today and faces a maximum of 360 years in prison and $5.25 million in fines if convicted. Her March 3 federal indictment was unsealed today.

Two former students from the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton who fantasized about an attack on teachers and fellow students never intended to carry out a plan, a judge ruled this week. The two boys “said some things they shouldn’t have. . . . What they said got taken out of context,“ defense attorney William W. Little said Tuesday.