The VLW Blog

A robbery suspect allegedly tried to hire a hit man to kill a Virginia Beach judge who rejected a proposed plea bargain.
David Hugh Hance, already in jail on an attempted bank robbery charge, has been accused of soliciting for capital murder, reports The Virginian-Pilot.
Virginia Beach Circuit Judge Les Lilley was the intended target. [...]

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A former attorney who was disbarred after he paid his son’s school tuition directly from his trust account now has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion in connection with misuse of his law practice finances.
Steven F. Helm of Salem faces up to 23 years in prison on the charges, although prosecutors have agreed [...]

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Leesburg lawyer Christopher J. Agresto has acknowledged in court his role in a scheme to help a man pocket insurance proceeds from his wife’s death, even though the man was deemed a “person of interest” in the death.
According to authorities, James Cilenti of Leesburg was barred from receiving $500,000 in life insurance proceeds because he [...]

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A Los Angeles jury has found Dr. Conrad Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of pop icon Michael Jackson.
The personal physician to the musician had acknowledged he administered a powerful surgical anesthetic as Jackson sought to get to sleep. Murray was accused of careless administration of propofol in an unmonitored setting, reports [...]

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It may be just a tiff over dog poop left behind on a neighbor’s yard, but the case is going to a Fairfax County jury. Kimberly Zakrzewski stands accused of letting her four-legged friend, Baxter, leave his business behind at a condominium development.
Zakrzewski claims it wasn’t her. According to The Washington Post, the jury may [...]

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The case of North Carolina defendant Torrell Vann has spawned a weighty decision by a fractured 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, released yesterday.
After a January 2008 “domestic altercation,” Vann was arrested and charged with handgun possession in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924. The indictment also charged three prior convictions that allegedly [...]

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Shenandoah County lawyer and substitute judge James H. Allamong Jr. has been arrested after authorities found marijuana plants growing on his property.
The plants were discovered while firefighters were responding to a nearby shed fire, according to the Northern Virginia Daily. The marijuana is believed to have a street value of more than $150,000.
Allamong was [...]

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A federal appeals court finds it a “close question” whether a lawyer can be convicted of obstruction of justice for conveniently omitting his prior disciplinary record in seeking pro hac vice status in a Virginia case.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the omission alone was not sufficient to prove [...]

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Is it proper for a judge to reveal a jury verdict to lawyers before it is announced in open court?
The Daily Press puts this practice into question after a recent criminal trial in Hampton Circuit Court.
After the verdict was handed down in Deshawn Goodwin-Godfrey’s second-degree murder trial, a reporter observed the deputy commonwealth’s [...]

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A defendant who spoke no English and relied on a telephone translation to explain the felony charges against him has been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.
Harrisonburg U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski allowed Raul Tronco-Ramirez to withdraw his guilty plea to gun and drug charges after reviewing a transcript that revealed “numerous [...]

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