The County Board has ordered the release of available footage from a fatal Columbia Pike police shooting earlier this year.
The Board announced this morning (Friday) that it has directed County Manager Mark Schwartz to release video of the incident that resulted in the death of 33-year-old Shawn Valn by Friday, Oct. 16. No footage accompanied the announcement and it is unclear what, specifically, will be released.
Arlington’s top prosecutor is asking for a special grand jury to investigate the police shooting that killed a man inside a Columbia Pike 7-Eleven.
The Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church announced Thursday afternoon that it will ask the court to convene the panel to look into the May 8 death of Shawn Valn, 33. The grand jury would determine whether there is probable cause to support criminal charges.
A former substitute teacher has been found guilty of engaging in a sexual relationship with a Washington-Liberty High School student.
Timothy Thomas McGhee was found guilty of taking indecent liberties with a minor after a three-day trial, the Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. The verdict followed a previous trial in December, where a mistrial was declared due to a hung jury.
County officials are defending local processes for handling complaints of dangerous dogs, despite criticisms from Arlington residents who say they’ve struggled to feel heard.
Those responsible for handling such complaints say they work to make the community safer while following strict guidelines set down in state law.
A pair of open-house-style events held over the weekend provided local residents an up-close look at the inner workings of the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.
The two Interactive Data Walks on Local Prosecution and Diversion Programs aimed to demystify the work of the prosecutor’s office, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti told ARLnow.
A new court filing alleges that federal investigators may have violated a court order shielding records from the cellphone of an activist who distributed flyers about Stephen Miller in his Arlington neighborhood last year.
The filing was submitted Tuesday by Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti. At more than 80 pages, it formally closes her office’s investigation of activist Barbara Wien without charges.
Arlington’s commonwealth attorney seeking higher pay for prosecutors this budget season, pointing to increased salaries for police officers and potentially better compensation in surrounding localities.
The proposed fiscal year 2027 budget calls for increasing funding for the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office by roughly 3%: from about $7.7 million to $7.9 million. But Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti told the Arlington County Board on Tuesday that prosecutors’ starting salary of $82,000 should be higher.
Victims of crime in Arlington will soon have a more soothing and intentionally designed space to speak with an attorney about their experiences.
A planned “soft interview room” from the Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is intended to create a greater sense of ease and safety during victim interviews. With pleasant art, a couch, blankets and a soothing color palette, the room — created in partnership with the nonprofit Project Beloved — will finish installation next week on the fifth floor of the courthouse.
A convicted sex offender accused of indecent exposure in multiple girls’ locker rooms in Arlington has been found guilty of possessing child pornography.
Richard Kenneth Cox — who is still awaiting trial for other instances of allegedly claiming to be transgender in order to access girls’ locker rooms at Arlington Public Schools pools and remain there while naked — was found guilty of two counts of possession of child pornography yesterday (Wednesday).
A coalition of progressive prosecutors including Arlington’s commonwealth’s attorney is promising to share strategies and pursue accountability for any illegal actions by federal agents.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti — alongside Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and prosecutors from Minneapolis, Philadelphia and other jurisdictions — announced the Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO) project yesterday (Wednesday). The initiative aims to “rein in unlawful conduct” amid a growing presence of federal immigration and law enforcement in communities across the country.
Arlington’s commonwealth’s attorney is returning fire to the House Judiciary Committee for questioning her handling of an ongoing criminal investigation, accusing it of overstepping its authority.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has declined to provide numerous documents that Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) requested regarding an investigation of a local activist critical of the Trump administration. Arguing that many of these documents are confidential, she suggested that the request is “an improper incursion” into Virginia’s sovereignty and her own authority over local cases.
A man has been convicted of breaking into multiple apartments in Courthouse and Virginia Square and sexually assaulting two women in April 2023.
A jury found Geremy Bridgeforth guilty of unlawfully entering three apartments in the middle of the night and, on two instances, sexually assaulting victims while they were sleeping, according to a press release from the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
