The VLW Blog

A police officer is talking to a criminal defendant when the defendant offers some information and asks about a plea deal. The officer calls the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and asks if he can talk to the defendant about some horse trading.
The request should set off ethical alarm bells for the prosecutor who takes that call, [...]

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A lawyer in the Spotsylvania County commonwealth’s attorney’s office is charged with driving under the influence after being involved in a three-vehicle accident.
The Free Lance-Star reports Amy Marie Harper, 38, of Fredericksburg has been suspended by boss Bill Neely, the Spotsylvania County commonwealth’s attorney, after the Friday night accident. Harper also was charged with following [...]

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A veteran prosecutor may have to run for re-election as a write-in candidate after a judge rejected his bid for a court order to get his name on the ballot Thursday.
Richmond County Circuit Judge Harry Taliaferro dissolved his temporary injunction and allowed the county registrar to report the names of qualified candidates to the State [...]

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Update: (9/8/11, 3:50 p.m.) Judge Harry Taliaferro has upheld the local electoral board’s decision invalidating Wayne Emery’s petition. According to the Northern Neck News, Emery plans to file further injunctions immediately.
A 16-year Virginia prosecutor could be unseated this year because his election paperwork was found to be defective after the registration deadline passed.
Richmond County [...]

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Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert denies he violated the law or the Rules of Professional Conduct in the capital murder prosecution of Justin Wolfe.
Wolfe was convicted of arranging the murder of a drug dealer, but his case now is subject to habeas corpus review based on a July opinion from U.S. [...]

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Virginia House Majority Leader Bill Janis, R-Glen Allen, is said to be planning a run as an independent for Henrico County commonwealth’s attorney in the wake of the Republican Party’s public rejection of its nominated candidate.
WWBT references several sources who say Janis will run.
GOP leaders have called on Matt Geary to quit the race in [...]

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Gloucester County Commonwealth’s Attorney Bob Hicks issued a formal apology today to four current or former county supervisors who have sued him for libel.
Hicks also announced that he will not seek reelection to a post that he has held for 17 years. He had run as an independent in earlier races but unsuccessfully sought [...]

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Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert and an assistant came in for scathing criticism Tuesday as a Norfolk federal judge overturned the death sentence of a man convicted in a 2002 drug-related killing.
U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson accused Ebert and assistant Richard Conway of “stifling” a search for truth by supporting the use [...]

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Winchester lawyer Paul H. Thomson, a former commonwealth’s attorney, pleaded guilty Monday to five criminal charges, most involving efforts to hide his relationship with a man who supplied him with cocaine.
Thomson, 56, signed a plea deal Sunday that calls for three years in prison and a $5,000 restitution payment, apparently a client’s fee refund. A [...]

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Jim Fisher has been appointed Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney by the judges of the 20th Judicial Circuit, effective July 1.
Fisher, currently the chief deputy attorney in Loudoun County, will serve the balance of a term that ends Dec. 31. He has filed papers to be on the ballot this November for a full four-year [...]

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