The plea agreement in a criminal burglary case is set to move forward after Virginia’s Supreme Court reversed a circuit court judge’s removal of county prosecutors from the case, WTOP has learned.
Court records show the defendant in the case, Kevin Valle, is scheduled to enter a plea on March 9, in circuit court, to a string of felonies and misdemeanors, including entering a structure with intent to commit assault and battery.
Previously, in June 2022, Circuit Court Judge James Plowman, a Republican who preceded Democrat Buta Biberaj as the Commonwealth’s attorney before taking the bench, was dissatisfied with the plea deal Biberaj’s office struck in the burglary case involving Valle. That agreement called for a six-month sentence.
At the time, Plowman said he was aware of earlier charges against Valle in a neighboring county and questioned why prosecutors failed to mention them in their plea paperwork. He suggested they were trying to sanitize Valle’s record in order to make the deal more palatable.
Days before the plea was to be entered, Plowman issued an order disqualifying Biberaj and her entire office from the case. Plowman then appointed a prosecutor in neighboring Fauquier County to take over the case.
However, in December 2022, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated Biberaj’s office, stating that “Judge Plowman disqualified Biberaj’s office without affording her or her subordinates adequate notice or opportunity to be heard.”
The case is indicative of tensions that have arisen in northern Virginia courthouses after Biberaj and other reform-minded prosecutors won office in 2019. Conservative activists have launched efforts to have Biberaj and other prosecutors in the region removed from office.
The defense and Loudoun County prosecutors will present the Valle plea agreement to a new judge for consideration on March 9, since Plowman was required to recuse himself when he rejected the plea offer, initially. Sources say the plea is identical to the one Plowman rejected.
In addition to Valle’s case, Plowman also removed Biberaj and her office from a misdemeanor disorderly conduct case against a man whose daughter was sexually assaulted at a Loudoun County high school in 2021. Handling of that assault became a high-profile issue in last year’s gubernatorial election after Republicans claimed the school system showed a disregard for safety.
Court records obtained by WTOP show Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen, who had been appointed special prosecutor by Plowman, determined there were sufficient grounds to charge the man. The next motions hearing for that case is scheduled for May.
WTOP is not naming the father, to avoid indirectly identifying the teenage victim.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
