A Maryland man faces up to life in prison after being convicted of severely injuring a young woman who mistook him for a rideshare driver.
An Arlington jury on Thursday convicted Willie James Clements Jr. of aggravated malicious wounding and hit and run for the May 15, 2022 incident.
Clements was driving a black SUV when Maryna Kapovska, then 25, tried to get in, mistaking it for her ride home from a night out in D.C. Clements drove Kapovska around the city, then to her house in Arlington, but kept driving and shoved her out of the moving vehicle onto Wilson Blvd, prosecutors say.
Kapovska, who is originally from Ukraine, suffered “severe head trauma” and is still recovering from a traumatic brain injury. A GoFundMe campaign raised just over $50,000 for her medical care.
Clements was arrested a few months later, after a dogged police investigation. The 61-year-old could face up to life in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for May 3, according to prosecutors.
No motive for the crime was given in the press release, below, from the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
Today, following four days of trial, Willie James Clements Jr., was convicted by a jury of aggravated malicious wounding and hit and run for throwing Maryna Kapovska from a moving car.
On May 15, 2022, around 2:30 a.m., Mr. Clements picked up Ms. Kapovska from a night out in Washington, D.C. All she wanted was to come home to Arlington, and called a ride share to pick her up. She tried the back door of Mr. Clements’ car, thinking it was her ride share, but the door was locked. Mr. Clements unlocked the front seat and welcomed her in. Instead of telling her she had the wrong car – that he was not there to pick her up – he drove around DC, then to her house, then away from her house, and onto Wilson Blvd., where he pushed her out of his moving car. She tumbled to the ground, and sustained severe head trauma. He drove away, without slowing down.
Witnesses had seen her being pushed out of a car, came to her aid, and called the police immediately. But police had no leads. Dogged and innovative investigative work – chasing down every possible lead and using every available technology – on the part of the Arlington County Police Department solved the mystery of who had done this.
The prosecution team, Nassir Aboreden and Abhi Mehta, handled novel issues of law and brought the pieces of the investigation together to tell a story that, because of her severe injuries, Ms. Kapovska could not remember.
Our victim witness advocates, led by Lydia Hatcher, stood by her side for nearly two years, including sitting on either side of her throughout the trial.
“Ms. Kapovska’s survival was nothing short of miraculous, and she continues to recover with the support of her family – and of course, she will always have the support of our team,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti. She has demonstrated strength and courage throughout her recovery and this case. We hope today’s verdict helps her on the path to healing. As always, regardless of what the verdict is, I am grateful to the jury for their service to the community.”
Sentencing is scheduled for May 3, 2024. Mr. Clements faces up to a life sentence for the aggravated malicious wounding and ten years for the hit and run.
(Updated 5:32 p.m.) A man accused of shooting wildly at law enforcement following a destructive, high-speed chase through Arlington and Fairfax County accepted a plea bargain on Wednesday.
Ricardo Singleton, 29, admitted in Arlington Circuit Court to firing a gun from his car while fleeing authorities — a pursuit that prosecutors claim ended after a gunfight in Fairfax County.
Singleton’s plea calls for him to spend no more than two years behind bars in exchange for pleading guilty to felony eluding and shooting a firearm from a vehicle. The 17 months he has already spent in jail following his Oct. 6, 2022 arrest would apply toward his total time behind bars.
Virginia sentencing ranges are between one and five years of imprisonment for felony eluding and one to 10 years in prison for shooting from a vehicle. Both crimes also come with an alternative penalty of one year behind bars or a $2,500 fine, or both.
However, the sentencing guidelines — a recommendation set by the Virginia Sentencing Commission based on factors such as criminal history — are more lenient in this case, Singleton’s attorney, Adam Krischer, said in an email. Singleton’s sentencing guidelines are between one day and six months of imprisonment.
There is no agreement regarding suspended time, the amount of time Singleton would serve if he violated the terms of his release. His sentencing is set for May 3.
Although Singleton may only have up to seven more months behind bars in Arlington, he still faces charges in Fairfax County. He is scheduled to appear for a four-day trial beginning on May 20 for several alleged crimes, including reportedly opening fire on officers in a foot pursuit at the intersection of Route 50 and Graham Road.
In Fairfax, Singleton faces two counts of assault of a law enforcement officer, one count of attempted maiming and one count of using a firearm in commission of a felony.
Singleton’s confrontations with law enforcement began many hours before his eventual arrest, according to a timeline of events compiled by the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
A sheriff’s deputy approached the suspect after he reportedly made an illegal U-turn outside the Arlington County courthouse around 8:45 a.m. The timeline describes Singleton then pointing a firearm at the ceiling of his vehicle before speeding away, disregarding orders to stop and striking another vehicle. That evening, police spotted the suspect and pursued him through Arlington — a chase during which Singleton, by his own admission, fired multiple shots from his driver’s side window.
Law enforcement caught up to the suspect along Route 50 in Fairfax County after he reportedly struck so many vehicles, authorities were still tallying up the number when they hosted a press briefing several hours later.
Bystander footage released by the Fairfax County Police Department shows a man running out of a vehicle and turning backwards with a gun as police pursue him. The muzzle flashes and gunshots can be heard.
A Fairfax officer returned fire and was legally justified in doing so, a use-of-force review found.
Singleton was arrested after his gun reportedly jammed.
The suspect originally faced a slew of charges for his actions in Arlington: three counts of assault on law enforcement, two counts of eluding police, brandishing, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, reckless handling, endangerment and damage exceeding $1,000.
A judge dismissed most of these allegations after not finding probable cause, sources previously told ARLnow. The Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office altered Singleton’s charges in response to this ruling and a grand jury returned an indictment in December.
Prior to the plea bargain, Singleton faced an additional charge of shooting a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Prosecutors dropped this charge as a condition of the agreement.
An Arlington man accused of sexually assaulting women he lured into his car in Clarendon has been found guilty on all counts.
Julio Basurto was convicted on four criminal counts after a three-day trial, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington and Falls Church announced Wednesday evening.
The prosecutor’s office noted that Basurto recorded video of one of his attacks.
Police said Basurto would drive up to Clarendon’s nightlife district early in the morning and offer women a ride, then would sexually assault the victim in his car. Detectives are still seeking potential victims from multiple other possible incidents ranging from September 2021 to September 2022.
Basurto was arrested last June, after an assault that occurred on May 21, 2023.
Prior to his arrest, Basurto was frequently quoted by local news outlets as a community activist, often going by his church title, “Elder Julio Basurto.” He was outspoken on local issues from drug overdoses in schools to conditions in affordable apartment complexes.
Basurto also previously worked as an interpreter, including for Arlington Public Schools, according to his LinkedIn profile. He served on an APS advisory committee, received an award from a prominent local nonprofit for his tenant advocacy, and was highlighted by a County Board member on his website’s endorsements page.
More on the trial and conviction, below, from a press release.
Today, following three days of trial and about two hours of deliberation, a jury found Julio Basurto guilty on all charges brought by this office. Mr. Basurto was convicted of two counts of abduction with intent to defile, one count of object of sexual penetration, and one count of forcible sodomy.
These charges stemmed from two separate incidents in the Clarendon area, one on October 10, 2021, and another on May 21, 2023, in which he lured two different women into his car, and sexually assaulted each of them.
During the investigation, it came to light that Mr. Basurto recorded one of the sexual assaults and saved the video on his mobile phone in a file that was double encrypted.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Nassir Aboreden successfully tried the case and obtained the guilty verdicts from the jury. Our Victim Witness team provided essential support and helped the victims navigate the legal system. The Office is grateful to the ACPD, who doggedly investigated this case since the first reported instance, in 2021, and the Special Victims Unit detectives for their care in preparing the case and sensitivity toward the victims.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said, “I’m grateful the jury came to the right verdict here. It’s hard to say that this is justice because the victims will always have to live with the trauma they have endured in these violent sexual assaults – but this is a win for public safety, so no woman trying to enjoy a night out with her friends has to fear that Mr. Basurto will do the same to them.”
Sadly, based on information obtained during the criminal investigation, detectives believe there may be additional incidents that occurred during the early morning hours on the following dates:
- September 20, 2021
- October 3, 2021
- October 14, 2021
- September 4, 2022
We urge anyone who may have experienced a similar incident or who has had past inappropriate encounters with Mr. Basurto to contact the Arlington County Police Department’s tip line at 703-228-4180 or [email protected]. Information may also be provided anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).
Jo DeVoe contributed to this report
Fairfax County prosecutors are taking a step back from pursuing the embezzlement charges levied against former Arlington teachers union president, Ingrid Gant.
That decision, however, does not mean the case against Gant — who was ousted in the spring of 2022 after a 6-year tenure — is closed. The Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney says Gant’s case is serious and they are keeping their options open.
“Due to the scale of this alleged embezzlement, prosecutors are continuing to investigate the facts of this case and potential steps forward,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff Laura Birnbaum tells ARLnow.
Gant, 54, of Woodbridge, was arrested earlier this year and charged with embezzling more than $400,000 from the Arlington Education Association (AEA). An accounting firm discovered the alleged mishandlings after a 6-month audit and notified Fairfax County police detectives. They found Gant provided herself with multiple bonuses and used debit cards for unauthorized purchases.
Prosecutors dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they can refile charges at any time, explains June Prakash, the Arlington Education Association president who replaced Gant, noting Virginia does not have a statute of limitations for felonies.
“Nevertheless, this dismissal shows up as ‘final’ on the court docket because, when later charges are filed, it will be assigned a new case number in the court’s system,” she said.
Sources familiar with financial cases say that investigations are often time-consuming because prosecutors have to sort through a high volume of bank records and other documents to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a defendant committed a crime. This standard of proof is higher than what is required to arrest or charge someone with a crime.
With so many records to review, gathering evidence can take longer than court proceedings afford prosecutors. To avoid missing court deadlines, prosecutors will sometimes decline to prosecute in the short term, leaving open the option to re-file the same charges later, once all the necessary preparation is completed.
Prior to Gant’s ouster, union members said the organization had effectively stopped operating as the collective bargaining process was gaining speed. No one answered the phone, the website was down for two months and a key meeting leading up to an executive board election was canceled, raising doubts among members about the election’s fairness.
An attorney for the Virginia Education Association said in a memo that the Arlington union’s finances were in disarray and not communicated to members. Local leaders admitted the disorganization in a memo to members, saying AEA began the 2021-22 fiscal year without a budget and owed $732,000 in dues to the state and national unions.
Fairfax is handling Gant’s case because AEA headquarters is located in the Bailey’s Crossroads neighborhood of Fairfax County, just over the Arlington border.
Widespread speed cameras and more funding for prosecutors are two emerging priorities for Arlington County during the upcoming legislative session.
The Arlington County Board got a first look at its legislative priorities during a meeting last night (Tuesday). They cover a range of topics, from funding for improving public transportation to tackling the behavioral health crisis crippling Arlington and the state.
The new priorities come one week after elections for both chambers of the state legislature. Democrats retained control of the Virginia State Senate and obtained a slim majority in the House of Delegates, previously controlled by Republicans. Still, policymakers — who will meet with the Board on Tuesday, Nov. 28 to discuss their priorities — will have to contend with a divided government, as the GOP controls the executive branch.
Going into the session, which begins Jan. 10, 2024, Arlington County is looking to state legislators to introduce bills granting local authority for automated speed enforcement beyond work and school zones, per a county report.
More speed cameras are part of the county’s Vision Zero initiative to reduce serious injury and fatal crashes, as well as a recommended way to reduce potentially adverse interactions between officers and civilians during traffic stops. In January 2022, the County Board approved their installation in school and work areas to reduce speed-related crashes in these areas.
Since then, however, the process of installing these cameras in these zones has stalled. In March, Police Chief Andy Penn said a contract could be ready this spring but, nine months later, police and Vision Zero Coordinator Christine Baker told ARLnow this week that the contract is still in the “procurement” phase and tied up in negotiations.
Moving from the streets to the county courthouse, Arlington County says it would like legislation to “ensure there is adequate funding for the prosecution of misdemeanors, civil duties, and the creation of diversion services.”
This responds to several issues that have arisen within the local criminal-legal system and others across the state, with the introduction of body-worn cameras, contracted staffing levels and mounting pressure for programs diverting from jail people who commit nuisance crimes or have an addiction or serious mental illnesses.
“The work of prosecution has changed considerably over the past years, and arguably decades, and in some respects, our office has failed to keep pace or appropriately adjust expectations about the services our office could reasonably provide with limited resources,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said in a 2020 memo to County Manager Mark Schwartz.
Reviewing body-worn camera footage, for instance, became a deciding factor for Dehghani-Tafti to pull prosecutors from jailable misdemeanor offenses such as driving without a valid operator’s license, driving on a suspended license, reckless speeding and numerous registration offenses.
In the memo to Schwartz, the top prosecutor said she did not come to this decision lightly. Rather, she first sought counsel from a state agency that trains prosecutors and the Virginia State Bar Ethics Counsel. Both said prosecutors would need to review thousands of hours of body-worn camera footage to meet their obligations to share all exculpating or incriminating evidence.
“Unfortunately, at present we have neither the staff nor resources to review, process and disclose camera footage and other evidence from 40,000 cases,” Dehghani-Tafti said in the memo.
To that end, Arlington County says it is also wants to see state funding for additional positions to review body-worn camera footage “to increase transparency and accountability with law enforcement.”
Prosecutors secured felony convictions earlier this month against two men in separate sexual battery cases.
In one case, a man was convicted of secually abusing “a mentally incapacitated or physically helpless individual” in a public park in Arlington in July 2020.
In the other case, a man was found guilty of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in her Arlington home in November 2019.
More on the convictions, below, via a press release from the Arlington and Falls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney Office.
On July 13, 2023, an Arlington County jury found Matthew Coble guilty of Aggravated Sexual Battery of a mentally incapacitated or physically helpless individual. The evidence presented at trial proved that Mr. Coble sexually abused the victim at a public park in Arlington County on July 24, 2020. The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 29, 2023. The statutory range of punishment in Virginia for Aggravated Sexual Battery is a period of incarceration between one and twenty years and a fine of up to $100,000.
On July 25, 2023, an Arlington County jury found Dylan Veitch guilty of Aggravated Sexual Battery of a minor under the age of 13 years old. The evidence presented at trial proved that Mr. Veitch sexually abused the twelve-year-old victim at her home in Arlington County in November of 2019. The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 29, 2023. Following the guilty verdict, a motion by the Commonwealth to revoke Mr. Veitch’s bond was granted by The Honorable Daniel S. Fiore, II. The statutory range of punishment in Virginia for Aggravated Sexual Battery is a period of incarceration between one and twenty years and a fine of up to $100,000.
Both cases were prosecuted by Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Nassir Aboreden. The Commonwealth’s Attorney Office would like to thank all members of the participating juries for their thoughtful consideration of the facts, evidence, and the law in each of these cases. The verdicts in each case provide the victims with a level of closure. Our thoughts are with the victims as they embark on their healing journey.
(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) Commonwealth’s Attorney incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has defeated challenger Josh Katcher in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Dehghani-Tafti has 56% of the vote to 44% for Katcher, her former deputy, in the heated race for the top prosecutor of Arlington and Falls Church. That’s as of 8:40 p.m., with all but a few hundred provisional and late-arriving mailed ballots counted in Arlington. Polls closed at 7 p.m.
Katcher, standing outside of his watch party at Lost Dog Cafe in Westover, called Dehghani-Tafti shortly before 8:50 p.m. to concede the race.
The contentious — and expensive — contest has been seen as something of a referendum on the incumbent’s brand of vocal justice reform advocacy. Katcher, while billing himself as also in favor of justice reform, put a spotlight on Dehghani-Tafti’s leadership, which he linked to departures of deputy prosecutors amid a reported rise in crime.
“Right now we’re going to celebrate what we were able to accomplish with this campaign and thank the volunteers,” Katcher told ARLnow before heading back into his event.
“Over the course of the last six months, we’ve had an important debate in our community over the future of criminal justice reform,” he said in a subsequent written statement. “Our team left it all on the field, as we sought to have a debate about what real reform and real justice could mean for our community… I stand ready to continue my commitment to this community, to its safety and to the goal of ensuring that we are balancing the need for both justice and compassion.”
Dehghani-Tafti also thanked her supporters. Gesturing to the crowd gathered at her event at Fire Works Pizza in Courthouse (held with County Board candidate JD Spain) she said those present reflect a tiny fraction of the people who donated, volunteered, “held my hand,” and knocked on doors.
“A campaign based on love, dignity and respect prevailed,” she said. “I’m grateful for the trust everybody has placed in me.”
In the other two closely watched local races, for County Board and Sheriff, leads were slim.
The three-way county sheriff race has Jose Quiroz with a widening lead compared to earlier in the night, with 40% to 34% for former deputy sheriff Wanda Younger and 27% for Arlington police corporal James Herring.
Quiroz was appointed Acting Sheriff after the departure of long-time Sheriff Beth Arthur earlier this year. The position is primarily responsible for running the county jail in Courthouse, with the Sheriff’s Office also handling court security, civil process serving, and some law and traffic enforcement responsibilities.
The Arlington County Board primary, meanwhile, is being conducted for the first time using ranked choice voting, which means final tabulation will not take place until Friday at the earliest. Results of “first choice” votes are being posted, however, showing Susan Cunningham with 25%, Natalie Roy with 24%, Maureen Coffey with 22%, and JD Spain with 20%.
In the race to pick the next Democratic candidate for Arlington and Falls Church’s top prosecutor, incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has topped her opponent, Josh Katcher, in fundraising.
A campaign financing report released yesterday (Monday) says she netted $356,220 in cash donations for her re-election bid from April 1-June 8. She raced ahead after falling behind Katcher in the last filing period. The Democratic primary is on June 20 and early voting started last month.
Most of the cash Dehghani-Tafti received — $295,000 — came from one progressive political action committee (PAC) founded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. She also received nearly $75,000 in in-kind donations from a handful of other liberal groups, including $45,992 from New Virginia Majority and $23,435 from Justice and Public Safety PAC.
Katcher’s largest donation this round, $15,000, comes from the Arlington Coalition of Police. He still bests his opponent when it comes to number of donors above and below $100. He also has loaned himself $30,000, whereas Dehghani-Tafti reported no loans during this period.
Fundraising has yet to reach the nearly $1 million seen ahead of the June 2019 primary, when Dehghani-Tafti bested incumbent Theo Stamos and in one filing period received $515,492 in cash and in-kind donations from a Soros-funded group.
In a statement this morning, the campaign to elect Dehghani-Tafti celebrated these donations and went after Katcher for trying to discredit them.
There are those, like our opponent, who will seek to sow distrust in these upstanding organizations, who have already aimed to diminish their right to bring together the voices of those who are normally disenfranchised, and support both democracy and Democratic values; those who utilize Republican scare tactics, demonizing the hard work of members of these American institutions.
We do not agree with our opponent. We embrace not only the right these groups have to support our campaign, but we celebrate this support, accepting these contributions of time, money, and labor by hard-working Americans who are invested that ALL people in Arlington be treated equally under the law, that ALL people can expect justice under the law, and that ALL people here can expect a safe community for their families to grow, love, and prosper.
Katcher’s campaign lambasted his opponent today for omitting the $295,000 in what it says is “dark PAC money.” His campaign manager, Ben Jones, said the following:
Over the past month, our campaign has pointed to a clear pattern of behavior by Parisa Dehghani-Tafti where she refuses to tell the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth to our community, even on the most elementary matters. Whether it is relating to information on crime statistics, how many vacancies are open in her office, how her office operates or even just an hour ago when talking about her campaign contributions, she has shown over and over again that she is incapable of transparency or even fidelity to the truth.
Jones argued that Katcher has more broad support from Democrats than his opponent, with 1,151 individual contributions in the past six months compared to the 822 contributions to Dehghani-Tafti over the last two years.
Echoes of the fundraising rhetoric can be heard in the ads for the two candidates. Some highlight their experience and high-profile endorsements while others demonstrate their Democrat bona fides and undermine those of their opponent.
(Updated at 5:45 p.m.) When Braylon Meade died in a car crash, a juvenile court judge handed down a sentence of one year of incarceration and two years of probation to the 17-year-old who crashed into him.
Prosecutors asked for a longer confinement term.
Had the crash happened just two months later, however, the driver would have been 18, would have been tried as an adult in circuit court, and likely would have received a stronger sentence.
Meade’s mother, Rose Kehoe, argued last month that this case should have been transferred to Arlington County Circuit Court, which handles felonies, given the age of the young man who killed her son and the severity of the crime. The then-17-year-old was driving 95 mph, had a blood-alcohol content of under 0.08%, according to Chief Public Defender Brad Haywood, who spoke with multiple people familiar with the case.
Last month, Kehoe backed Josh Katcher, who is running against incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, citing the judgment call and how she was treated as by Dehghani-Tafti’s office.
“Meaningful reform requires nuanced thinking regarding the facts of each individual case and applying the law fairly and appropriately,” Kehoe wrote in a letter to State Sen. Barbara Favola, who endorsed the sitting Commonwealth’s Attorney. “In the case of Braylon Meade, we have no doubt that Ms. Dehghani-Tafti’s political rigidity on the issue of refusing to charge juveniles as adults is what governed this case.”
Kehoe also recorded a campaign video ad for Katcher.
Justice for victims … or the lack thereof has become a defining storyline in this election. We are up with our first ad and I am grateful that Rose Kehoe is willing to share her family's experience with my opponent. pic.twitter.com/e33HdBzHRi
— Josh for Arlington (@Josh4Arlington) May 23, 2023
One of Dehghani-Tafti’s campaign promises was to not try children as adults where it was in her power to decide. In this case, she said the rehabilitative services provided by the juvenile system would be better for holding the defendant accountable than potentially incarcerating him in an adult prison.
The politicization over whether to try this one juvenile as an adult posed questions about whether it ever makes sense to try a juvenile as an adult and whether Arlingtonians want a top prosecutor to take a discretionary approach to trying juveniles as adults, or to never do it all.
Arguments for and against the practice
Dehghani-Tafti’s resolve reflects a trend in prosecutorial reform to advocate against trying children as adults. Proponents argue children are not mini-adults and their brains work differently and that keeping juveniles plugged into developmentally appropriate services improves their outcomes later in life.
Fair and Just Prosecution nonprofit executive director Miriam Krinsky takes this view. Her organization advocates for a evidence-based, rehabilitative approaches to juvenile justice and, in a statement to ARLnow, she said cases like this one are hard but prosecutors should follow the science.
“Science shows that young people under the age of 25 are developmentally different from adults and should be treated differently by the system,” she said. “The science also shows that young people have a greater capacity for rehabilitation, are more responsive to treatment than adults because their brains are still developing, and are more likely to age out of criminal behavior.”
ARLnow also heard from lawyers who agree with the starting point that children should not be in adult prison — but who have a different view about trying a case in circuit court, which operates differently than a juvenile court.
“The Commonwealth’s Attorney has tons of discretion on every bit of it and can pursue plea deals, deferred dispositions, all kinds of things that could have been done and it would have given everybody involved the superior resources of the circuit court,” says Greg Hunter, a local defense attorney.
In short, if, after a hearing, a juvenile is transferred to circuit court for trial, adult prison is not a guarantee and a sentence can come with more oversight and a broader range of services.
They say this makes sense for older juveniles, who age out of the supervision of juvenile court after they turn 21 and thus have a shorter probation period in which reoffending has greater consequences. Judges can blend juvenile and adult sentences, which one study says did not impact recidivism outcomes.
The discussion unfolds, however, in a county where children are rarely tried in circuit court to begin with. One notable recent exception is when Maxwell Adams was tried as an adult for murdering his father, for which he received a 32-year prison sentence.
A Cambodian-American college student partied too hard one night and lived in fear of deportation for decades.
A man whose right to a fair trial was trampled on because, an Arlington County Circuit Court judge said, prosecutors withheld evidence that would have helped his case.
The race to determine the next Democrat-backed Commonwealth’s Attorney has unearthed stories of people whose lives have been impacted by the candidates. They are incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, who recently picked up an endorsement from the Arlington teachers union, and challenger Josh Katcher, who nabbed the support of the Arlington police union.
These stories, identified and amplified by the respective political campaigns, reveal the power of the office to determine the course of someone’s life based on the judgment calls they make.
The Cambodian-American woman who got bad legal advice
Rebelling against her sheltered childhood, Cambodian refugee Lundy Khoy went out partying one night in Ballston in 2000 and was arrested for drug possession.
She agreed to plead guilty because her lawyer said she had no defense and no alternative, and he said doing so would not impact her goal of becoming a U.S. citizen. She got off with probation but the plea led to her arrest in 2003 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Until two years ago, Khoy — who was born in a Thai refugee camp — lived in fear of deportation to Cambodia, a country in which she had never lived. The 42-year-old woman became a citizen last year after her case was resolved, for which she thanks Dehghani-Tafti.
“She literally saved my life and my family’s life,” she said. “For the longest time, we were living in this constant fear of me being separated from my child and husband. It wasn’t something that I ever wanted to have happen.”
Her lawyers asked the court to withdraw the guilty plea because Khoy relied on incorrect information. They argued the court should be consistent, pointing to when the court revoked a guilty plea made after the same lawyer provided the same advice to another immigrant defendant.
“I’d like to think we still could’ve won but having us present a united front to the court made it that much easier for the court to say, ‘We’re going to grant this,'” said Sterling Marchand, Khoy’s new lawyer.
But it was Dehghani-Tafti’s judgment call in a different case that created fuel for Katcher’s campaign.
A slighted mother grieving the death of her son
Braylon Meade was killed by a young man who was driving 95 mph, with weed and some alcohol in his system.
Just shy of his 18th birthday, the defendant was tried as a juvenile. Meade’s mother, Rose Kehoe, denounced this move two months ago and, more recently, in a new ad supporting Katcher. In it, she says Dehghani-Tafti dwelt longer on the future of the young man who killed her son than on justice for the family.
(Updated at 12:30 p.m.) A year ago, Arlington County launched a diversion program for youth and young adults who commit certain misdemeanor and felony crimes.
Heart of Safety is a voluntary program facilitated by Restorative Arlington, a nonprofit that facilitates meetings between victims who choose this approach and the people who committed crimes against them.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney or the local court services unit — which provides services to juvenile court-involved youth and their families — refers victims of crimes who want to stay out of court proceedings to the program.
There, victims and the people who harmed them meet with facilitators and each other to discuss what happened and why, the results of that crime and how the perpetrator can make amends — typically by adhering to a restoration plan to which both parties agree. This approach borrows from longstanding indigenous traditions that have been implemented and studied in some U.S. communities.
The Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney has referred eight cases to the program as of November. That figure comes from a Freedom of Information Act request filed last fall by the campaign to elect Josh Katcher, challenger to Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti in the Democratic primary on June 20. His campaign released its findings on Friday.
Program Executive Director Kimiko Lighty says that the number of cases that have gone through the program is higher. It does not include cases referred from court services unit, those completed in 2022, ongoing cases, or those on who are on a six-month waitlist that she would take if the program had more capacity.
“Heart of Safety is working at capacity right now and has a waitlist,” Lighty says. “There are people who are saying, ‘We would rather wait to have a restorative option than go to court.'”
Participants include people from middle school through 26 years old who committed a fairly broad range of crimes, though Lighty did not elaborate on what kind, citing privacy.
“What they have in common, every single one, is that the person harmed asked for a restorative process,” Lighty said.
Dehghani-Tafti, elected in 2019 on a platform of prosecutorial reform, has said on the campaign trail that Heart of Safety is an avenue for victims to heal and for people who committed crimes to reckon with their actions, demonstrate remorse and commit to making amends.
She tells ARLnow the cases that went through the program “have gone really well” and been consistent with a memorandum of understanding and referral policies governing the program, both of which were provided to ARLnow.
Katcher and his team take issue with how the program has been promoted and how much credit Dehghani-Tafti can take for it, maintaining that people should be skeptical about why Dehghani-Tafti is not more forthright about program outcomes.
His team requested the number and types of cases that have gone through Heart of Safety, the number referred back to the courts, the memorandum of understanding and referral criteria governing the program, and a definition of recidivism.
In response, his campaign says it received the number of cases, eight, and the same documents Dehghani-Tafti’s campaign provided to ARLnow.
“Parisa Dehghani-Tafti wants the community to think of her as a reformer. However, when pressed for information to prove that she’s living up to our community’s expectations for what that means, her office refuses to answer basic questions around the efficacy of her highly-touted commitment to restorative justice,” the campaign manager for Katcher, Ben Jones, said in a statement.
“Her refusal to answer simple questions about a program that she has touted as being one of her signature promises is another sign that she’s not the right person to be trusted with ensuring our community’s safety and security,” he continued.
