Strange, wild ride ends for suspect

Tangled in charges of lying and thieving, Emil Steidel left town early last year but never stopped looking back.

With a son awaiting trial in a fatal wreck and his wife charged for obstructing authorities in the case, Steidel, 61, of Waynesboro, kept an eye on proceedings while felony charges mounted against him for dodging court.

Now, after a year, Steidel is finally in jail — put there by a bail bondsman — and authorities are serving arrest papers on the tax-evading, police-deceiving fugitive with a history of bankruptcies and fraud charges.

Steidel’s disappearance was just one of a series of hurdles set before prosecutors working the case against his son Jason Steidel, 20, charged in a Dec. 12, 2007, crash near Crimora that killed passenger Timothy Moran, 19.

Shortly after the crash, in which Virginia State Police estimated Steidel lost control of his Ford Mustang GT traveling at more than 113 mph, authorities said they uncovered a scheme by Emil and Gloria Steidel to pressure another passenger, Zachary Carpenter, to lie to a magistrate about who was driving — an effort to pin blame on Elizabeth Brooke Fogle, 18.

Carpenter recanted his story, leading to charges against the Steidels, and later took his own life before trial, perhaps because of stress over the case, an Augusta County prosecutor has said.

Other challenges piled up for prosecutors: an audio recording of Carpenter’s testimony disappeared, another witness who spoke with Carpenter burned 45 percent of his body and could not travel to the trial and Fogle claimed memory loss and never appeared in court.

Nor did Emil Steidel. More than a handful of times his charge of inducing another to commit perjury was moved along on the court docket. Eventually, authorities entered his name into the National Crime Information Center database as a fugitive.

“I hope he comes back and faces justice one of these days,” Augusta County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robin Boylan said.

This month, Steidel will.

His wife already has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of obstruction of justice and has spent 10 days in jail. His son is serving a one-year prison sentence for the wreck with detention to follow. The couple has long lived apart, authorities said.

“I was ready for trial in May of 2008,” said Emil Steidel’s defense attorney Mike Hallahan, who would not say if he’d been in contact with his client this year.

“I’m still just as ready as I was before,” Hallahan said.

Unknown is who will represent Emil Steidel in Waynesboro and Albemarle County courts, where he must answer to similar felony charges of failing to appear in court.

The perjury case put Emil Steidel into the news, where he pleaded his family’s case and alleged misdeeds by authorities, but it was not his first run-in with the law, nor his first attempt to deflect blame.

According to court records, he was convicted in 2007 of making a false tax statement in regard to a vehicle title in Waynesboro. Later that year he was convicted of embezzling $2,617 from Long John Silvers in Waynesboro, where he worked. Emil Steidel was caught on tape leaving the store with a deposit, then at the bank, but the money never ended up in the store’s account. His defense: a bank teller stole the deposit, not him.

By the time he was convicted in that case, Steidel had been charged for defrauding an Albemarle County resident of more than $40,000.

Albemarle police Lt. Greg Jenkins would not give details, as Steidel still awaits trial, but said the department has “a lot of involvements” with the man.

Then came the crash, charges of coercion and two no-shows at court hearings. On March 19, 2008, Emil Steidel did not appear for trial in Albemarle County and two months later skipped out on a perjury hearing in Augusta County.

Soon, a Waynesboro probation officer found Steidel had violated probation.

The officer said Steidel — whose name is spelled “Steidle” in Waynesboro records — changed addresses without notification and disconnected his phone. Those moves and the charges in other jurisdictions led a Waynesboro judge to issue another warrant for the Steidel’s arrest, according to a letter from the officer to the judge.

All the while, Emil Steidel tracked his son’s case, in part through inquiries in calls to The News Virginian, occasionally leaving messages with claiming “the truth will come out” and alleging a conspiracy.

In March 2009, Steidel wrote a letter to Augusta County magistrates and judges alleging misdeeds by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

He wanted charges brought against them, but officials could not say whether the letter reached them. It did reach The News Virginian and media partner NBC29, who learned from an area magistrate that a written letter would not suffice to bring charges.

Steidel would be required to appear before a magistrate to make his case.

By then, authorities guessed, he was in Pennsylvania, where he’d lived before. He’d been convicted of falsely summoning police in Clinton County. Steidel also previously lived in North Carolina, where he underwent bankruptcy proceedings, court records show.

He was ultimately found Oct. 14 about 130 miles from home near Dublin, southwest of Blacksburg, Augusta County authorities said.

The bail bondsmen who found Steidel declined to comment. Gloria Steidel could not be reached.

Emil Steidel remains in custody with his son at Middle River Regional Jail, where the father is receiving increased deliveries in the form of felony arrest warrants for his failures to appear in court. He faces three charges in Augusta, one in Waynesboro and two in Albemarle.

The family also faces a civil lawsuit filed by Moran’s father seeking $525,000 for funeral expenses and damages for sorrow and mental anguish.

Emil Steidel is scheduled to appear in court Monday, then Nov. 24, then Dec. 22 and so on.