Henrico man calls for his own arrest at board of supervisors meeting

In a bizarre but calculated and composed address nearly two hours into Tuesday’s Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting, Henrico resident John Owens demanded his own arrest on charges of solicitation of prostitution.

Owens, wearing a Captain America t-shirt, approached the podium at the back of the board room during the public comment portion of the meeting and announced, “Tonight’s goal is to get arrested for solicitation of prostitution.”

Owens said that he had left a written “confession” in the online comments section of a Richmond-Times Dispatch article and that the Henrico Division of Police was aware of his comment. In it, he claimed to have frequented a massage parlor where he paid for sexual favors.

In the comment, left on the website Aug. 6, Owens claimed a masseuse at the parlor had asked for his help escaping people who had been starving her.

“A crime is a crime, and I must be brought to trial for the crime of solicitation of prostitution,” Owens said.

He then began to explain how the trial would unfold, claiming that he would represent himself, possibly with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, in a jury trial.

“I intend to explain why I’ve committed these acts by calling witnesses I will subpoena to testify at the court, in particular, my former boss,” he said.

Owens accused that former boss, a department chair at the University of Maryland, of “initiating” him into solicitation by taking him on a "NASA-funded Thailand sex tour” with underage girls, then accused the former boss of using the trip as blackmail to get Owens to leave the science field.

County Manager John Vithoulkas interrupted and told Owens, who had registered to speak about “bus station infrastructure,” that he couldn’t see how his comments were relevant to Henrico government.

“I fail to see how this is germane to anything, and this is not the proper venue for these comments,” Vithoulkas said.

“This is important, Mr. County Manager,” Owens responded.

Tuckahoe Supervisor Pat O’Bannon asked Owens if he had gone to the police, and he said that he had sent them on Monday the same statement that he delivered to the board Tuesday, then called and spoke to someone in the department afterwards.

After Vithoulkas allowed him to continue speaking, Owens repeated the allegations against his former boss, then urged supervisors to encourage the police to “enforce the law of Henrico County” by arresting him immediately after he was finished speaking.

“I will be smoking cigarettes outside the building for an hour if you want to save the car ride to take me to jail,” Owens said.

Before leaving, he provided the supervisors with the make and model of his car and details about his license plate, which he said was some abbreviation of the words “Captain Salamander.”

This was not the first time Owens had addressed the board about prostitution.

Two weeks ago at the board's July 26 meeting, Owens argued that Richmond and Henrico police division’s sting-operations – designed to catch child-predators who find victims online – discriminated against, in his words, “the awkward, ugly, old, disabled, and or lonely.”

Owens, a self-described overweight and awkward person, took issue with the fact police were targeting men who exchange compensation for sexual favors.

“Many relationships in the world involve some sort of compensation, whether [it be] fame, wealth, prestige or one or two night's dinners,” Owens said at that meeting. “I suggest pity is more appropriate than scorn for these folks.”

He said police should instead focus their resources on protecting sex workers who are actively being exploited and abused. Both his confession and speech at the last meeting contained themes of sex workers seeking help.

As of Wednesday morning, Henrico Police digital public arrest records did not show any arrest reports involving Owens.