Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney delivers 'State of Justice' address
LOUDON COUNTY, Va. - Days after FOX 5’s exclusive report on concerns from inside Loudoun County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, top prosecutor Buta Biberaj held a "State of Justice" address Wednesday night.
The virtual address was supposed to be posted on Facebook Live but was not, and FOX 5 staff was not sent a link to the meeting until after it had been in progress for 20 minutes.
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Biberaj spoke briefly about the student sex assault case that’s gotten so much attention, where a teen sexually assaulted a girl at one Loudoun County high school and then went on to do it again at another school.
"We’ve had a national case, which everyone is aware of, where we were involved in a juvenile manner where initially the stories that were told were all false," Biberaj said. "And because the cases are ongoing, we don’t have the ability nor should we engage in talking about facts of the case for a political process."
Beyond that case, some of Biberaj’s former staff have raised serious concerns about high turnover in the office, lack of experience, and failure to hold criminals accountable. Those issues have been raised by some prosecutors Biberaj hired herself.
Former prosecutor Jason Faw and three staffers met with Loudoun County Board of Supervisor’s Chair Phyllis Randall about their concerns. Faw wrote a follow-up email stating that as a 16-year employee, he believed the office was failing the community, writing," Ms. Biberaj cannot be salvaged."
Biberaj is proudly a progressive prosecutor. On Wednesday, she said that she came to office to reimagine what justice looks like and focus on rehabilitation over detention.
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"We collectively have been able to successfully reduce the daily jail population from a number of 425 to about 250 on regular basis," she said. "And that $166 a day, that is a net saving to Loudoun County over $110 million a year."
She noted this was the first time a Loudoun commonwealth’s attorney has ever done a public address like this one.
"And that’s a commitment we made to the community, that we were going to have transparency, and we were going to be accessible," Biberaj said.
FOX 5’s Lindsay Watts has been requesting an interview with Biberaj since October to talk about concerns from former staff.
On Monday she committed to scheduling an interview, but as of Wednesday, it has still not been scheduled.