Apache mod_rewrite, htaccess and virtual host

Question

Does not appear that the htaccess file is doing anything at all; I tested with a 301 redirect and even put some random nonsense in it in hopes to provoke a server error and nothing.
httpd.conf : http://pastebin.com/36qFCg5q
httpd-vhosts.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/Users/jwindhall/Railo/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/dentist_app"
    ServerName xxx.com
    ServerAlias www.xxx.com
<Directory "/Users/jwindhall/Railo/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/dentist_app">
    Options All Includes Indexes
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>
ProxyRequests Off
<Proxy *>
Options All Includes Indexes
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AllowOverride All
</Proxy>
ProxyPass / http://www.xxx.com:8080/
ProxyPassReverse / http://www.xxx.com:8080/
</VirtualHost>
jwindhall.conf:
<Directory "/Users/jwindhall/Railo/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/dentist_app">
Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Answer 1

The question etresoft was asking was around what goal or end or configuration you were trying to achieve here, and not who you might be.  With some background on the problem and on the particular goal, we might be able to provide you with a more direct solution, or debug the error. 
It looks like you're trying to run some Tomcat stuff.  Something like this?
Though that articile doesn't indicate it, the provided set-up there looks to be specific to OS X client.  Are you running OS X Server, or OS X client.  And in either case, which version?   (The management user interfaces do vary here, both by client and server, and by version.)
The article also looks to be for 10.6 or earlier, or it presumes that you have Java installed.  That's not the default, so that's something you'll need to establish.
Apache redirects do work on OS X and OS X Server.  If you're just testing that, get rid of Java and Tomcat and the rest (from your configuration test) and test just the URL redirects.
Apache is also sensitive to file protections and ownerships, as it strives to avoid allowing an attacker at your whole system (by default), though those protections can be overridden.
As a first step toward troubleshooting your current configuration, invoke the Apache configuration test on your system and see if it tosses any errors, and also check the Apache server logs for relevant errors.  The logs are usually in the /var/log/apache2 directory, though that can be changed.  This'll make sure the core giblets are working.  The next steps would usually then involve checking the protections on the web directories, and then testing Java and Tomcat individually.
OS X Server is a little more simple to set up and (mostly) avoids needing to access the configuration files, and the directories and related are IMO a little easier to deal with; you're using Server Admin.app or Server.app (depending on the OS X Server version) to manage all that, and not a text editor.
And you may already be aware of this; do not try to use a GUI editor to edit the configuration files.  TextWrangler will work here, but most other GUI editors won't.  Using a command-line editor is more common; nano or vim or emacs or such.  FWIW.