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.
The House Judiciary Committee continued a war of words with many of Arlington’s local leaders in a new report slamming attempts to shield undocumented immigrants.
Building on aggressive letters to several local agencies earlier this year and an ongoing public dispute with Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, the committee took aim at policies at the Arlington County Police Department, Arlington County Sheriff’s Office and Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in a 23-page interim staff report reviewed by ARLnow.
A town hall on Arlington voters’ rights and responsibilities in the upcoming election is taking place next month.
A “voter safety community town hall,” hosted by Arlington’s Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and Office of Voter Registration and Elections, will happen on Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (4444 Arlington Blvd).
A man who says he was badly injured during an immigration arrest on Columbia Pike is demanding a criminal investigation.
Protesters gathered outside the Arlington County Justice Center this morning (Friday) in support of Jose Mejia Hernandez, who says he suffered a brain bleed and other injuries after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers reportedly chased him and shot him with a Taser earlier this month.
A man’s account of being badly injured in an encounter with immigration agents in Arlington has prompted condemnation from local elected officials and Arlington’s congressman.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti have all released statements on the case of José Mejía Hernandez. The Mexican immigrant has told multiple media outlets that immigration enforcement approached him on his way to a bus stop last week and shocked him with a stun gun when he tried to run.
A man who fatally stabbed his wife and seriously wounded their 1-year-old daughter in Pentagon City has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Leonardo Antonio Reyes was sentenced today (Friday) to 40 years with 15 suspended for second-degree murder and 20 years with 15 suspended for aggravated malicious wounding — 30 years to serve, followed by 10 years of probation, according to the Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.
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.
