Ex-lawyer Conrad gets 11 years
Published: November 24, 2008
Brushing aside pleas for leniency, U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton this month ordered an 11-year prison sentence for a former Woodbridge lawyer blamed for stealing more than $4 million from clients and others in a “broad criminal enterprise” over the course of four years of practice.
Stephen T. Conrad, 40, of Purcellville, admitted to “settling” [...]
LEO on guardian’s duties seeks to answer legislative concerns
Published: November 24, 2008
A new Legal Ethics Opinion from the Virginia State Bar lays out the ethical duties of a guardian ad litem to report suspected child abuse or neglect.
The LEO is a response to an effort in the 2008 General Assembly to add guardians to the statutory list of persons who must report such activity.
Sen. Stephen H. [...]
Man sentenced for attack in Albemarle courtroom
Published: November 24, 2008
CHARLOTTESVILLE—A Fluvanna man accused of attacking a witness in a courtroom has pleaded guilty to assault and battery and threatening a witness.
Mark Wayne Shifflett was sentenced last week to 12 months on each charge after entering his plea. Albemarle County General District Court Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. then suspended all but 15 months of [...]
Scientist pleads guilty to tech sales to China
Published: November 24, 2008
NORFOLK—A Virginia scientist pleaded guilty last week to selling rocket technology to China and bribing Chinese officials to secure a lucrative contract for his high-tech company.
Quan-Sheng Shu, 68, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribery at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
Shu is [...]
ICE rejects training for Fairfax deputies
Published: November 24, 2008
FAIRFAX—Fairfax County’s sheriff says federal immigration authorities have denied his bid to enroll deputies in a program that trains local officers to detain criminal illegal immigrants.
Sheriff Stan Barry says the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told him last month that it would not place 12 deputies in the program.
The program has been touted by other [...]
Justice takes over challenge to late military absentee votes
Published: November 24, 2008
The U.S. Justice Department replaced John McCain’s presidential campaign last week as the plaintiff in a lawsuit demanding that Virginia election officials count late absentee ballots from military personnel serving outside the state.
U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams ruled that the Republican ticket lacked standing to sue and approved the Justice Department’s motion to intervene. [...]
Lobbyist spending available on public access project
Published: November 24, 2008
Lobbyists’ activities and spending in Virginia are now available online in a database based on annual disclosure documents.
The database was created by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project and can be accessed on the group’s campaign finance Web site, www.vpap.org
Information in the database is based on the most recent annual lobbyist disclosures covering May 2007 [...]
Court of Appeals to hear actual innocence writ
Published: November 24, 2008
The Virginia Court of Appeals has decided to hear oral arguments in a former Navy SEAL trainee’s bid to be exonerated after spending 13 years in prison for a murder he claims he didn’t commit.
Dustin Turner is seeking a “writ of actual innocence” based on a fellow trainee’s sworn testimony that he alone killed college [...]
Budget woes detailed for house committee
Published: November 24, 2008
ROANOKE—In dismaying detail, legislative budget writers got their fullest look last week at a darkening fiscal crisis that will soon force them to cut government priorities once held harmless.
“You are at the juncture where all the low-hanging fruit is gone,” members of the House Appropriations Committee learned from the chief of the committee staff, Robert [...]
VSB Disciplinary Actions
Published: November 24, 2008
On October 24, 2008, a Virginia State Bar Third District Subcommittee publicly reprimanded Kristina Marie K. Fitzgerald with terms for violating professional rules that govern diligence, communication, declining or terminating representation, candor toward the tribunal, and misconduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation that reflects adversely on fitness to practice law. The violations occurred in [...]
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