Reply to Is there any excuse for Loudon not caring about misdemeanors anymore?

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Reply to "Is there any excuse for Loudon not caring about misdemeanors anymore?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele]You are misrepresenting or not understanding what the article says. The office doesn't have enough staff to prosecute everything, so they are prioritizing. That doesn't mean that nothing will happen in regard to the crimes that they won't prosecute. Those charged will still go to court and the police will present evidence. I don't think it will require a prosecutor to explain to a judge that police radar shows you going 88 mph because you lacked reading comprehension and didn't think that you would end up in court.

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The article also seems to indicate that the staffing issues are of Biberaj’s making, as everyone that was there when she started left and she has been unable to retain the new staff she hired. It is also not the responsibility of the police to act as prosecutors. There is a difference between officers presenting evidence for civil traffic offenses and being responsible for presenting the evidence needed to prosecute the criminal offenses Loudoun County is now refusing to prosecute. Who responds to the motions that defense counsel files in these criminal matters, who deals with the discovery requests? [/quote]
Yeah, she gave a live press conference where she was pretty clear that misdemeanors were not a priority for her and that she thought it was perfectly fine for them to be treated akin to traffic stops. The outcome is that either the police act as prosecutor, which is constitutionally inappropriate in our system were so much power and discretion is awarded to prosecutors or more likely, you will get two scenarios. One: police up charge every offense to a felony and let the commonwealths attorney deal with the indictment, which would only increase her office’s case load. Other, where defendants get charged with misdemeanors to can afford lawyers to won’t waive their right to a jury trial which would probably meant that they won’t get prosecuted at all while those that cannot afford an attorney will. None of these outcomes serve justice.[/quote]

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