Despite pending legal challenges at the state and local level, Arlington prosecutors still consider Virginia’s new assault weapons ban the law of the land.
“Yes, we plan to prosecute cases under the assault weapons ban if they are brought to us by the police,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti told ARLnow, taking a position that tracks with the view of Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones.
House Republicans are compelling Arlington’s top prosecutor to testify next week in a pair of ongoing disputes over politically charged topics.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is requiring Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti to appear for a deposition on Thursday, July 16. This caps months of written clashes between the two officials — first over Dehghani-Tafti’s handling of a criminal case involving a political activist, and later over her policies restricting contact with immigration enforcement.
A Virginia law going into effect on July 1 will seal the criminal records of many people convicted of low-level offenses.
The commonwealth’s “Clean Slate” law is expected to automatically seal over 100,000 criminal records of Virginians who were once convicted of misdemeanors such as shoplifting, trespassing and distributing marijuana, but who haven’t reoffended in the past seven years. This will make make housing providers and many employers unable to access such records via criminal background checks.
The Virginia Court of Appeals will review some of the many charges against a convicted sex offender accused of indecent exposure in multiple girls’ locker rooms.
Richard Kenneth Cox, who is accused of entering public changing areas at Arlington Public Schools pools in order to undress and remain there while naked, has successfully challenged indictments on charges of illegal loitering near a school, WJLA reported this week. The rest of Cox’s charges are currently on hold pending an appeal of the Arlington County Circuit Court decision.
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.
The House Judiciary Committee is targeting all three of Arlington’s main criminal justice agencies over local policies that restrict contact with immigration enforcement.
In separate letters to the Arlington County Police Department, Arlington County Sheriff’s Office and Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, the committee took issue with the limits that these agencies have placed on their cooperation with immigration officers, arguing that such policies endanger the public.
Frequent County Board candidate Audrey Clement has taken issue with the amount of time her assailant was sentenced to serve for attacking her and a bystander outside a library in March.
The man, 47-year-old Jonathan Rogers, pleaded guilty to striking Clement in the back of the head and hitting a bystander in the eye when he intervened in the apparently unprovoked attack. Rogers was released from jail on Sunday after spending just 50 days behind bars — an amount of time that Clement believes is unacceptable.
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.
The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Arlington’s commonwealth’s attorney, the latest escalation in a months-long dispute over her handling of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has filed a subpoena seeking to compel Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti to release numerous documents related to a case involving the search and seizure of an activist’s cellphone.
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.
