Wednesday, March 26, 2008; B06

STATE POLITICS

Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) said yesterday that he will launch his campaign for governor next year, a day after Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) announced he will seek reelection instead of seeking the Republican nomination for governor.

Also yesterday, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said that he will not run for lieutenant governor next year now that Bolling has announced his intentions. Bolling said Monday that he will support McDonnell.

"I was surprised. I had no idea it was coming," Stewart said of Bolling's announcement. "I really want to be lieutenant governor, but this is the strongest ticket. It's the best thing for the party."

Bolling's decision also upset the political futures of Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax) and former state senator James K. "Jay" O'Brien (R-Fairfax), former contenders who have also said they will not seek the nomination for lieutenant governor.

McDonnell plans to run with Bolling as a team. McDonnell, who is unopposed for the GOP nomination, said yesterday that "it's almost unprecedented" to have an apparently unified GOP ticket so far ahead of the election.

-- Kristen Mack and Tim Craig

Fairfax County police said yesterday that they have arrested five boys ages 12 to 14 suspected of gang activity at Mark Twain Middle School in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County in recent months.

Police said gang-related graffiti were scribbled in a boys' bathroom at the school in January. A 12-year-old and a 13-year-old were charged with destruction of a public building.

Upon further investigation, police said, they found additional gang activity. This month, two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old were charged with gang participation and gang recruitment. Police said the recruitment occurred at the school.

In a separate case, graffiti were sprayed on buildings at Robert E. Lee High School in early December, shortly after a homicide occurred outside a nearby Springfield Mall restaurant. In late February, police said they charged three men and one juvenile with felony property destruction and gang participation. The men are Tarim Najimi, 28, of Springfield, Harold Guanilo, 21, of Alexandria, and Carlos Perea, 22, of Arlington County. No one has been charged in the homicide.

-- Tom Jackman

A former Fairfax City and College Park restaurant owner accused of sexually assaulting a woman in an ice cream shop last fall was convicted yesterday of two misdemeanor charges.

The plea deal enabled Peter V. Lupo, 35, to avoid jail. He was arrested after being accused of drinking alcohol in the Sweet Life Cafe with a 19-year-old employee and then molesting her after the cafe was closed. He was charged with two felonies, aggravated sexual battery and animate object sexual penetration, and two misdemeanors, providing alcohol to a minor and keeping alcoholic beverages without a license.

Lupo co-owned the now-defunct Il Lupo restaurant in Fairfax City and Lupo's Chophouse in College Park. He did not contest the facts in the case, and Fairfax General District Court Judge Stewart P. Davis found him guilty of misdemeanor assault and battery and the illegal alcohol charge as part of a plea agreement that dismissed the two felony sex charges. Davis imposed but suspended 180-day jail sentences on each misdemeanor, fined Lupo $250 and placed him on one year of probation.

-- Tom Jackman