LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va.\u2014Loudoun County<\/a> Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney (CA) Buta Biberaj has announced that her office will no longer automatically be involved in prosecuting certain misdemeanor crimes, including trespassing, petty larceny, underage possession of alcohol, and being drunk in public.<\/p>\n The announcement came on Friday, a day after ABC7<\/a> reported a letter that Biberaj wrote to Loudoun County judges on Dec. 30 announcing the change, which will be effective from Jan. 16.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to have the opportunity to present to you changes that are occurring in the Office of the Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney that may impact your courts,\u201d Biberaj began in the letter. The change was based on the decision to prioritize resources for prosecuting \u201cthe more egregious cases that are being charged by law enforcement and threaten the safety of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Friday morning, Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman released a statement stating that his office hadn\u2019t received any official correspondence from Biberaj\u2019s office. \u201cWhile we are disappointed in this action by the Office of the Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney, we are doing everything in our power to support our deputies through this transition and will make every effort to ensure that we continue to partner with the community to provide the same great service to the everyone in Loudoun County.\u201d<\/p>\n At the press conference on Friday afternoon, Biberaj said the letter to the judges was \u201cprematurely released.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t know because it wasn\u2019t your time to know,\u201d she responded to a reporter\u2019s question that law enforcement and others were surprised by the change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe invited our general court judges to have a conversation: how can we do this and best serve you and best serve our community?\u201d she said of the process. \u201cAnd from that conversation, the next step would be to talk to our law enforcement partners. The next step is to talk out to our defense bar in our community and then to be able to share that with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n At the press conference, Biberaj said that misdemeanor crimes will still be prosecuted after Jan. 16.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anyone reads the letter, there\u2019s a portion in it as such talking about the fact that these cases are prosecuted, and they\u2019re presented to the court by law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n She said no one should read her letter and interpret it as, \u201cThis is an open season; go commit a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cWe would still prosecute those if we\u2019re needed. So that\u2019s the point I\u2019m trying to make: all those cases will continue to be prosecuted. What we\u2019re doing is we are extending the opportunity to our law enforcement officers to take the lead and making those presentations, but the prosecution has not changed. They will all be prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Kachouroff, a criminal defense lawyer and a former police officer, said crime open season was what the letter sounded like because Sheriff\u2019s deputies were not trained lawyers and could not play the role of a prosecutor. \u201cI think people here are not ready for that,\u201d he told The Epoch Times. \u201cAnd I think she [Biberaj] is getting a little bit of backlash.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that the CA\u2019s office policy change would effectively lead to those misdemeanor cases not being prosecuted. According to his experience, law enforcement officers wouldn\u2019t make the arrests if certain charges weren\u2019t prosecuted.<\/p>\n Loudoun County Sheriff\u2019s Office hasn\u2019t responded to The Epoch Times\u2019 inquiry about whether the office will still arrest misdemeanor offenders who the CA\u2019s office won\u2019t prosecute.<\/p>\n Kachouroff gave an example: Virginia\u2019s petty larceny involves crimes of up to $1,000 value. \u201cIf you don\u2019t take the bad guys, know that they do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if these people aren\u2019t even going to be arrested by the sheriff, they\u2019re going to walk into all the retail stores, take clothes off the rack, and walk out. There\u2019s nothing that anybody can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n But charges are made per offense and are not cumulative. Therefore, stealing $980 each time would allow a criminal to face no consequences, Kachouroff said, unless a conspiracy, which involves evidence of two people conspiring together, could be proven.<\/p>\n He said people might think that an officer could also be a prosecutor from their traffic court experience, but that\u2019s not the norm.<\/p>\n According to him, the law requires a company to be represented by a lawyer in court, so the local government also needs a lawyer. If not, the local government is getting a legal exception, and that\u2019s not right, Kachouroff said.<\/p>\n Kachouroff added that the officer\u2019s role in court is more like a witness answering questions posed by the prosecutor so a judge can identify defendants who are guilty.<\/p>\n When a prosecutor is missing from the picture, the judge shouldn\u2019t fill that role, Kachouroff added. If a judge plays the part of the prosecutor, then one person would simultaneously exercise the powers of the judicial and executive branches, which violates Article III of the Constitution of Virginia,<\/a> entitled \u201cdivision of power.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in the week, Elizabeth Lancaster\u2014a Democrat, criminal defense lawyer, and former deputy public defender\u2014announced to run against Biberaj in the primary for the next CA in Loudoun County. The next general re-election for the\u00a0county\u2019s leading criminal justice officer position is in November 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who works in the justice system knows that the types of misdemeanor crimes Ms. Biberaj is refusing to be involved with are most often committed by our most vulnerable populations; folks with substance abuse disorders or those experiencing a mental health crisis,\u201d Lancaster told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n \u201cCharges like trespass and drunk in public are often brought against our homeless population. These populations are already struggling to advocate for themselves for their basic needs, and yet we are going to ask them to do this in Court?\u201d she added. \u201cIt is a dereliction of duty generally. It is an abomination for an elected official who ran on a platform of criminal justice reform.\u201d<\/p>\n Lancaster had represented the family of the victim in the infamous\u00a0high school bathroom rape<\/a>\u00a0in Loudoun County.<\/p>\nWill Loudoun See Crime \u2018Open Season?\u2019<\/h2>\n
Biberaj Challenged in Re-Election<\/h2>\n
CA Personally Prosecuted Recent Trespassing Case<\/h2>\n
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