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A judge in Loudoun County, Va., has taken action against a prosecutor whose campaign was funded by an organization linked to left-wing billionaire George Soros.
According to Fox5DC, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office was taken off a criminal case by Loudoun Co. Circuit Court Judge James Plowman after the office demonstrated an inability to prosecute a case within professional standards.
In addition, Plowman — who was the county’s Commonwealth’s Attorney prior to the election of Buta Biberaj in 2020 — said the office is “deliberately misleading the Court and the public” in a bid to “sell” a plea agreement.
The move is one that veteran prosecutors and attorneys say they have never seen before.
The outlet further reports:
According to the order, obtained by FOX 5’s Lindsay Watts, Plowman says the Commonwealth’s Attorney office sought a plea deal for a serial burglary suspect while downplaying and even omitting his prior criminal past and current charges in other jurisdictions.
Kevin Enrique Valle was arrested on five warrants charging him with three misdemeanors for destruction of property and false identification, and two felonies for burglary.
Plowman writes that the plea agreement by Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Michele Burton states that the crimes occurred within hours of each other, not over the course of days or weeks. Plowman calls the assessment “entirely inaccurate,” because the defendant is accused of “a possible 12 burglary crime spree spanning four counties over ten days.”
Far-left prosecutor who was backed by billionaire financier George Soros has been removed from a case in Loudoun County, Va. Circuit Court Judge James Plowman removed Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj’s office for “deliberately misleading the Court." https://t.co/GwVJTw2h0Z pic.twitter.com/bfAbSx1rGv
— Jim Person (@JimPerson) June 14, 2022
In addition, the order noted that the offenses that allegedly occurred in Loudoun County took place on May 18, 2021, but noted that the suspect is also accused of committing a trio of burglaries on the same day in Fairfax County as well as two more burglaries in Fauquier County and four in Prince William County on May 14. Plowman wrote that Valle is also named as taking part in another burglary in Loudoun County on May 8.
The judge was critical of the prosecutor’s assessment of Valle’s lack of previous adult convictions and felony convictions, saying the suspect had pleaded guilty to three felonies, had pending felony charges, and hadn’t been convicted of any charges that would result in felonies if he had been an adult during the commission of those crimes.
The judge called it “an overt misrepresentation by omission” by the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office before blasting prosecutors for their assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the case, writing, “The explanation highlights a lack of knowledge of the facts of the case or the ability to apply basic legal principles.”
He went on to order the Fauquier Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office to prosecute the case, writing that “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.”
“The Commonwealth is deliberately misleading the Court, and the public, in an effort to ‘sell’ the plea agreement for some reason that has yet to be explained,” wrote Plowman, noting that while Burton could have filed supplemental explanations with the court, she had not done so to date.
According to the order, “the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office agreed to a 6-month sentence, and the low end of the sentencing guidelines was 7 months.” The judge also wrote that “once the Fauquier County conviction was factored, the low end of the guidelines was 1 year and 7 months.”
Plowman then recused himself from the case “unless the parties agree otherwise.”
Biberaj has faced criticism in the past, including from her former employees, for how she is handling cases and running her office.
One former prosecutor speaking on the condition of anonymity because of continued work in the legal field said they were “pushed to bond people out in domestic violence cases,” and that “Buta pushes to let people out generally.”
As The Daily Wire noted, Biberaj did push for jail time for Loudoun County parent Scott Smith who was arrested at a Loudon County school board meeting in 2021 and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Smith went to the meeting because he said a boy dressed as a girl sexually assaulted his ninth-grade daughter Stone Bridge High School in Loudon County. He said he got into a heated discussion with a woman who said she did not believe his daughter. When his arm was then grabbed by a police officer, he pulled it away, was then struck in the face and handcuffed. Biberaj showed up in court to prosecute the case herself, which Smith’s attorney had never seen before in the case of a misdemeanor.
Soros donated $845,000 to support Biberaj during the campaign, The Daily Wire reported.
