Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is responding to a comment by Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj imploring the AG to "stay in your lane." The comments came after her office was removed from prosecuting a criminal case after a judge said she was "deliberately misleading" the court and the public in an effort to sell the plea agreement.
"This is a specific message to Attorney General Jason Miyares, 'Stay in your lane," Biberaj said. "Your lane is in Richmond. Your lane is being the Attorney General of Virginia. You are not the elected council attorney and definitely not for Loudoun County. Since his election, he's been wanting to undermine the good work that we do as progressive prosecutors."
But Miyares says it is his lane.
"Well, the lane I want to stay in is safe schools, safe kids, safe communities and listening to the victims," Miyares told 7News' Nick Minock. "So that's the lane I'm proud to stay in."
"I think my number one interest as Attorney General is obviously the safety of all Virginians and Loudoun is a significant part of our beloved Commonwealth," he said. "So when I see kind of these far-left, criminal-first prosecutors that veer into this lane where they're not listening to victims are more concerned about the rights of the criminal than the voices of those that are harmed by criminal acts. I'm going to be concerned."
"What happened in this situation was such an extraordinary step. I don't recall ever hearing of a judge ever saying we have lost confidence in a Commonwealth's Attorney's office because of misleading or misrepresentation that's been made to the court," he added. " That's why I decided to send this communication saying my office is ready, willing and able if the court says choose to assist and be part of this case, and actually listen to the victims."
The case centers around the case of 20-year-old Kevin Valle, who was arrested on multiple charges, including two felonies for burglary.
Circuit County Judge James Plowman filed the order removing Biberaj’s office from the case last week.
Plowman said the Commonwealth had entered into a plea agreement absent a full review of the facts and the Commonwealth is deliberately misleading the Court and the public in an effort to sell the plea agreement.
One glaring omission of facts, according to the Judge’s order, was that the Commonwealth made no mention that the two burglaries Valle is charged with are part of an alleged 10-day crime spree by the defendant, which included another possible ten burglaries over four counties.
She said that her office is lowering crime in our communities, contrary to the stories Miyares chooses to tell.
Biberaj said her office is also lowering the rate of incarceration in our community.
"So we are not unnecessarily keeping people locked up in jail, in a box, in a cage, if they are not a threat to our community," she said.
It’s true that the total amount of crimes in Loudoun County has declined since Biberaj took office – but that trend started years before she became the county’s CA, according to data from MWCOG.
Plowman also doesn’t like the Commonwealth’s assessment of Valle’s past adult criminal record, saying he had just pled guilty to three felonies and had pending criminal charges and a juvenile record.
But Biberaj said the teen "made some knucklehead decisions" and he was looking at felony time after he was caught up in the wrong crowd, broke business windows and took items from inside. The total cash loss was around $2,900.
She said as a convicted felon he would have served 6 months, a month less than the minimum of seven months, for the crime.
"Our office agreed to one month shy of that, so that we can acknowledge the fact that when he was arrested, he's he acknowledged and was fully accountable for what his actions were," Biberaj added. "There's a lot to be said by somebody who accepts accountability understands that what they did is wrong, and moves forward to also assist law enforcement into the prosecution of other matters."