There has been a backlash nationally over prosecutors who were recently elected in a push by far left groups with support from billionaire George Soros. One of those is Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj, who is now in middle of a controversy over an alleged misrepresentation of the criminal record of a felon in order to secure a lower sentence in a plea deal. Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James Plowman removed Biberaj and her office from the case. After Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote the court offering to prosecute the case, Biberaj (who described herself as a “progressive prosecutor”) lashed out at Miyares and told him to “stay in your lane.”
At issue is the plea agreement given burglary suspect Kevin Enrique Valle, who was charged with three misdemeanors for destruction of property and false identification, and two felonies for burglary. Prosecutor Michele Burton offered a six-month plea deal that Plowman said downplayed his criminal record. The judge said that he was told that the crimes occurred within a matter of hours last year. Instead, the crimes were alleged to have occurred over “a possible 12 burglary crime spree spanning four counties over 10 days.”
Valle reportedly has more than 40 cases that have been brought against him in various counties throughout Virginia. However, it was the record in Loudoun that drew the ire of the court.
Judge Plowman accused Biberaj’s office of “deliberately misleading the Court and the public.” He, therefore, ordered “Biberaj and the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is hereby REMOVED AND DISQUALIFIED from further prosecution as counsel of record in this matter.”
Biberaj held a press conference in response to the order and letter, declaring “This is a specific message to Attorney General Jason Miyares, ‘Stay in your lane’ Your lane is in Richmond. Your lane is being the attorney general of Virginia. You are not the elected council attorney and definitely nor for Loudoun County. Since his election, he’s been wanting to undermine the good work that we do as progressive prosecutors.” She further questioned Plowman’s authority to remove her office.
The court did not exactly view this as “good work.” Judge Plowman removed himself from the case.
The omission in this case is deeply disturbing. This appears a habitual offender and the specifics on this criminal record is key to any court in deciding whether to approve a plea. This was a very generous plea for someone with such a long record, particularly for someone who is only 19 years old. That does not mean that a court could not consider his age in erring on the side of leniency. However, the court must be fully and accurately informed of the defendant’s prior criminal record.
There is a recall effort targeting Biberaj.
Stay in your lane? What organizational chart does Biberaj believe her office resides in? Her brazen defiance of AG Miyares authority and her sworn duty as an officer of the court to not withhold evidence from the court should have her removed from office and disbarred. It would be poetic justice if ultimately she was left wonting for a plea bargain.
I’m not a lawyer but it would seem to me that her behavior would at the least be a cause for her disbarment. Of her conduct was intentional to mislead the court would n’t that in itself be criminal in nature?
This is why I oppose the very concept of Plea Bargains. If you are unwilling to go to trial, or think you have less than an excellent chance of prevailing, don’t charge in the first place in the hopes you can bully someone into a lower sentence that would have never cut it in front of a jury. There is no justice when oftentimes the only two choices a person faces is utter financial ruin them them and their family, or jail. It’s a wonder more people just don’t eat a bullet.
It looks to me like this guy was getting off way too easy. It looks like he was probably guilty. However, as a general rule, it has become impossible to tell if someone is guilty or innocent because they plead guilty in a plea deal.
I don’t really know what to make of the liberal community. On the one hand, they enjoy saddling people with criminal records who haven’t done much if anything — using the plea bargain process to intimidate while doing so. Then they turn around and use the plea bargain process to let someone like this off the hook. I don’t exempt Republicans from the former, but at least they’re consistent in that they tend not to engage in the latter.
Ironically, in addition to the kind of incident in this column, liberal city governments have combined the abuse of the plea bargain as a way to intimidate with overcriminalization to keep themselves busy — mainly against poor people disproportionately minority. I am reasonably confident that the liberal D.C. government would have targeted poor black people had the D.C. handgun ban gone into effect. That is what liberal city governments do. But the Supreme Court struck it down.
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/456243-actually-gun-restrictions-will-target-the-black-community/
I couldn’t have said it better. I think the plea system lets the truly guilty get off light if you are a member of an aggrieved group while targeting those least able to defend themselves. I’ve been there myself. 14 years ago I pled to a DUI I didn’t commit after running off of a road a mile from home to miss a deer and walking home. I was so shook up while trying to find a tow that two hours after I walked the mile after my wife poured a stiff drink into to me when the police showed up to ask about the vehicle they decided to haul me in. At the time of the accident I had done nothing wrong but the cost of defending was just out of reach even though I had plenty of evidence from the phone records that I had been home for hours.
It’s all water over the dam today but at the time I was beyond livid at a system that was far less interested in justice than it was in revenue.
Doctor heal thy self!
Her Lane is Loudon County….the State Attorney General’s lane is the entire state of Virginia to include that Democrat Utopia called Loudon County.
Where is the State Bar Association Professional Standards Committee…why are they not enforcing Ethical Standards on their profession?
Exactly. People have either forgotten or were never taught that state government is intended to provide oversight to local and county/parish governments, especially in law-enforcement matters.
AG Miyares was RIGHT, he is the AG for Virginia he is in his lane. Biberaj was wrong, a radical Soros type Prosecutor, she should be recalled, she should be punished for her misleading actions. Its time to CLEAN HOUSE of all the SOROS RADICAL Prosecutors. ITS TIME for LAW AND ORDER
AG Miyares is doing and EXCELLENT JOB its about time Virginia has a Strong and LAW and ORDER AG
It would be demeaning to horses to call this article horse itShay.
“. . . progressive prosecutors.” = defense attorneys
This is a specific message to Attorney General Jason Miyares, ‘Stay in your lane’ Your lane is in Richmond. Your lane is being the attorney general of Virginia. You are not the elected council attorney and definitely nor for Loudoun County. Since his election, he’s been wanting to undermine the good work that we do as progressive prosecutors.
Her vitriolic changing the subject leitmotif mimics the sabotaging by Act Blue hired trolls on this blog: Natacha, Jeff, Dennis, Fishwings, et al. Predictable and limp.
Her projection in the following quote provided confirmation on our suspicions of the SCOTUS draft memo leak.
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/loudoun-prosecutor-buta-biberaj-breaks-silence-after-case-removal
Another problem with the proceedings is as follows. On June 10, this matter somehow or another was leaked to FOX 5 news with Lindsay Watts, and all of a sudden it becomes a Friday story that gets traction over the weekend so that we are at a political disadvantage as to what is happening.” Biberaj theorized without evidence that the court clerk’s office was linked to a leak of the public court order. “Who else would have knowledge except someone associated with the clerk’s office,” Biberaj said.
Imagine that: someone leaking a court document to exert political influence. Astonishing! This George Soros installed DA gave away the Left’s playbook. Well done Biberaj.
Congrats to VA AG Jason Miyares, a son of Cuban blood. Would that he ascend to be the US AG soon!
There’s an old saying, “Give them an inch & they’ll take a mile”
One such outlaw was narco-terrorist, Pablo Escobar. This one man ruled Colombia until 1993. Checkout the statement of then Senator John Kerry who was chair of terrorism & narcotics in 1993. Bill Clinton was President at this time.
Two things:
1) Why isn’t the PROSECUTOR disbarred for lying to the court. As a member of the Bar she is duty bound to tell the truth and she LIED.
2) Having these PROSECUTORS in office ostensibly PROSECUTING is tantamount to having a defense attorney arguing for longer sentences for their clients. “No your honor and the jury, my client did commit the crime and therefore needs to be punished”.
These prosecutors and especially their backers should be thoroughly vetted so the community knows what their getting.
In the airline industry, when an airline crew is involved in a critical incident (defined as an event that actually or had a proximate possibility of endangering life), a Critical Incident Review is usually called. The review looks at all the factors but for the purposes of this discussion, the crew is interviewed as to their actions, the reasons thereof, adherence to company, regulatory, and professional practice standards.
Their actions and rationale for their decisions are then minutely reviewed by a panel of company experts and recommendations for action are tendered. These can range from pats on the back, to counseling, to remedial training, suspension, or if the crew has a history, termination. On a broader level, recommendations for changes to policy or procedures are tendered. This level of oversight is what makes airline travel in the United States the safest mode of travel.
Until the judicial system, prosecutors, and judges are held to the same level of oversight and accountability for the effects of their actions on public safety, the law profession and the ABA cannot be considered to be a professional organization and until that time must be relegated to a Medieval guild.
” . . . the good work that we do as progressive prosecutors.”
That says it all right there.
Well, that and willingly misleading the court/judge.
So, being a “progressive prosecutor” means never prosecuting anyone of color?
I can certainly get behind removing prosecutors like these. But this has become an atypical use of the plea bargain. The general use of the plea bargain nowadays it to hit somebody with a couple of felonies and a couple of misdemeanors and allow the defendant to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor. It’s used as an inducement to get the defendant to plead guilty whether he’s guilty or not. Goes on all the time — mainly against poor people.
One of the “refreshing” things about the Special Council or Prosecutor with unlimited funds is that just about everybody is poor by comparison. So you get to see middle to upper income people subjected to it, and on a public stage.
For example, Judge Walsh did this multiple times. One of the times involved Casper Weinberger. He told Weinberger he would charge him with 5 felonies or he could plead guilty to a single misdemeanor. Had Weinberger been merely upper income, he would have had to have taken the deal — if not for himself for his family’s financial security. However, Weinberger was independently wealthy — so he turned it down.
Poor people in counties across the country don’t have that luxury.
What happens when the people, no longer believe the government is enforcing he laws?
In truth, the police and prosecutors, are in place to protect the criminal from the people. That is about to become demonstrated across a wide spectrum of criminal activity, and geography.
Uvalde showed the police have no desire to protect children. That requires more citizens carrying guns, not less. Same happened in Parkland. Days after Uvalde a person with a pistol shot and killed a potential mass shooter. More people are saved by guns than killed by guns. Take all the guns away from the people, and murdes go up, not down.
Biden is going to punish the mounted Border Patrol agents, cleared of all charges, for some administrative faux paus. The left has effectively de funded the police, because the police are under attack by criminals on the Street, and criminals in the DA offices and Attorney General offices. No sane person is going into police work where following your training will often get you put in jail.
The left is getting the govt they demanded. Let’s make sure they get it good and hard.
The rest of us sane people will be carrying much more often now. Criminals have free run, police and Prosecutors are not our protectors.
Oooh, the George Soros buggy man. Give it up.
I’d more guns made people safer then the US would be the safest nation in the world.
LOL, when you release felons on the street they don’t do less crime they do more. You are a scream.
I can’t wait for one of these “progressive” prosecutors to be the victim of one of their proteges.
While irritating, I am delighted that lefties are showing their true colors.
Allows thinking Americans to make informed choices.
Soros is spending millions to elect Prosecutors just like this. If this does not stop, our system of justice in America and our democracy, will soon cease to exist, and we will be living in what we have always regarded as a “third world country.”
We seem to be well on our way already……
these Democrat Shadow groups by Soros and I suppose foreign entities appear to be backing people who wish to destroy America
The question is why Democrats ACTUAL vote for people who WANT DEATH, Violence and Crime
If you don’t Republican…you Hate America