2011 Annual Report - Virginia Attorney General

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2011 REPORT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Board of Accountancy and the Department of Charitable Gaming in what can be
referred to as “administrative prosecutions.”
The Unit representings DCJS in administrative hearings involving individuals
licensed or certified by the agency such as law enforcement officers, bail bondsmen,
bail enforcement agents, and private security guards. The Unit also provides legal
advice to DCJS involving a number of issues, including FOIA requests, updating and
implementation of regulations, and interpretation of state code. Attorneys have
represented the State Police in various courts around the Commonwealth throughout
2011. The scope of representation varied from motions to vacate improperly granted
expungements to motions to quash subpoenas duces tecum. Also in 2011, attorneys
from CPEU represented State Police in several cases filed by registered sex offenders
petitioning the court to be relieved of their registration requirements.
In addition to serving as counsel to the above-noted agencies, members of CPEU
also represent the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s (ABC) Bureau of Law
Enforcement Operations at administrative hearings involving the revocation or
suspension of ABC licenses, and routinely consult with Enforcement agents about
their investigations. The bulk of the administrative hearings handled by CPEU
involved licensees with establishments that constituted public safety concerns. In
2011, ABC did not refer many cases to the Unit, which is a significant decline from
past years.
Assisting Virginia’s Commonwealth’s Attorneys is a staple of the Unit’s agenda.
In 2011, the Unit assisted Commonwealth’s Attorneys in numerous prosecutions from
all over Virginia, resulting in significant periods of incarceration. Attorneys from
CPEU prosecuted cases in Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, and all throughout the
Shenandoah Valley. Prosecutions ranged from theft and embezzlement of state
property to gang participation to trafficking in untaxed cigarettes. The Office’s
commitment to the Richmond Community Violence Reduction Partnership (CVRP)
afforded the opportunity to prosecute several robberies assigned to a multi-agency
task force. All of the attorneys assigned to CPEU have open investigations and
prosecutions in various jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth.
A number of these open investigations involve the theft of hundreds of thousands
of dollars of state funds. For example, in 2011 a member of CPEU prosecuted three
defendants identified from a 2010 case involving Iris Allen, a former employee of the
Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Fund (BIF). In 2010, Allen
pled guilty to embezzling more than $800,000 from BIF. The total amount of
fraudulent claims alleged in the indictment is $819,111.48. She was sentenced to ten
years imprisonment and ordered to pay full restitution. As a result of the Unit’s
involvement with this case, three additional people were identified as participating in
similar schemes to defraud BIF, including a doctor and a nurse. Two of those people
were charged and eventually pled guilty to misdemeanor theft from a health care
program. The doctor pled guilty to felony theft from a health care program in 2012
and is awaiting sentencing. Restitution to BIF from these three defendants is over
$83,000, and almost $400,000 will be forfeited.
The three SAUSA in the Unit handled several cases last year involving violent
criminals. For example, one SAUSA prosecuted a defendant for a rash of armed
robberies in Virginia and North Carolina netting a 97 year sentence. In what the Unit
calls the “Pants on Fire” case, another SAUSA prosecuted a Northern Virginia bank