Tipsheet

Local VA Judge Pulls a Move That Most Legal Observers Say Never Happens

Legal experts and lawyers have said this never happens. The prosecutor’s office has been removed and disqualified from a burglary case. Is this the nuclear option in the legal world? Maybe. It appears as if a Loudoun County judge had it up to here with the local prosecutor’s antics in trying to get a plea deal hashed out for Kevin Enrique Valle, who is facing a slew of charges, including two felony burglaries. The prosecutor’s office, led by Buta Biberaj, seems to have misled the court, omitting key details about the suspect, including past criminal history. Valle appears to have gone on a ten-day burglary spree over four different Virginia counties. Yeah, you can’t hide that from the court (via Fox5DC):

A Loudoun County judge has removed the county’s Commonwealth’s Attorney office from a criminal case saying the office has shown an inability to prosecute the case with professional standards, and is "deliberately misleading the Court and the public" in effort to "sell" a plea agreement.

It’s a move that some seasoned attorneys and prosecutors say they have never seen in their career.

The order was issued by Loudoun Co. Circuit Court Judge James Plowman who was the county’s Commonwealth’s Attorney prior to the election of Buta Biberaj in 2020.

According to the order, obtained by FOX 5’s Lindsay Watts, Plowman says the Commonwealth’s Attorney office sought a plea deal for a serial burglary suspect while downplaying and even omitting his prior criminal past and current charges in other jurisdictions.

[…]

Kevin Enrique Valle was arrested on five warrants charging him with three misdemeanors for destruction of property and false identification, and two felonies for burglary.

Plowman writes that the plea agreement by Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Michele Burton states that the crimes occurred within hours of each other, not over the course of days or weeks. Plowman calls the assessment "entirely inaccurate," because the defendant is accused of "a possible 12 burglary crime spree spanning four counties over ten days."

[…]

Plowman calls it "an overt misrepresentation by omission" by the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.

He goes on to excoriate the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office for its assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the case writing: "The explanation highlights a lack of knowledge of the facts of the case or the ability to apply basic legal principals."

[…]

According to Plowman's order, "the Commonwealth's Attorney's office agreed to a 6-month sentence, and the low end of the sentencing guidelines was 7 months." He goes on to write, "once the Fauquier County conviction was factored, the low end of the guidelines was 1 year and 7 months."

Fauquier County’s office is now taking over the case. Fox 5 added that Biberaj had faced criticism from within her own office about how she’s handled cases, even pushing to bond out domestic abusers. She generally wants to let everyone out and not lock anyone up. It’s ‘woke’ justice. It’s how ‘woke’ lawyers operate. It’s soft on crime. It’s pro-anarchy. And everyone has had it. When San Francisco fires their district attorney because he’s too cozy with criminal scum, that’s how you know the Left has lost the plot on how to maintain law and order.