Suspect denied bond in Accomack Circuit Court

By Linda Cicoira

A former Onancock man, who is accused of sex crimes, was denied an amendment to his bond Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court that would have allowed him to move to Nevada for a better job.

Fifty-four-year-old Richard Victor Arvidson was previously permitted to move to Newport News for work. He is being supervised via an app that allows an officer to check on his whereabouts. Arvidson is facing charges of attempted sodomy, object sexual penetration, creating an unlawful image of another, and assault. A trial date has not yet been set. The offenses are alleged to have occurred last October.

Judge W. Revell Lewis denied the Nevada request due to the “seriousness of the charges. I understand the opportunity but being that far away has concerns that he will not come back for trial,” said Lewis. The judge was also concerned about Arvidson testing positive for marijuana despite that it is prohibited in the defendant’s bond agreement.

Arvidson was given a drug test Thursday and tested positive of opioids and marijuana.

The result for opioids was from the poppyseed bagel he had eaten at his mother’s house the previous night, his lawyer contended. “It’s a very real thing,” said Tucker Watson. There is “a trace amount of morphine in poppyseed.”

Arvidson admitted to ingesting a marijuana-laced brownie that was given to him by a coworker. Growing up in the country, he said he finds it hard to sleep in the bustling city of Newport News and hoped the brownie would help.

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