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In article <t0g562$2e9li$108@news.freedyn.de>
governor.swill@gmail.com wrote:

The DA should be fired.

A Virginia judge has booted liberal Loudoun County
Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj from an appeal case citing
“concerns” over “impartiality.” The case involves a Virginia
father who was arrested last year while speaking out at a school
board meeting after his daughter was sexually assaulted in a
public school bathroom by a male student.

“All that Scott Smith and his family have ever asked for is that
the Loudoun County school system protect their daughter and
treat them fairly; it has not,” Bill Stanley, the attorney for
Virginia father Scott Smith, said in a press release Monday
provided to Fox News Digital.

“The Court’s Order today has corrected, in some measure, the
injustice created by Ms. Biberaj’s bias against Mr. Smith, and
the Court has restored his hope for a fair trial on the
remaining charge against him in his quest to protect his beloved
daughter. We are very grateful for the Court’s ruling,” Stanley
added.

Smith attended the school board meeting last year and railed
against the school’s failure to protect his daughter after she
was sexually assaulted in a girl’s bathroom in May 2021 by a
male student at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn. The board
meeting soon made national headlines – and became a focal point
of the Virginia gubernatorial election last year – when video
and images showed Smith being dragged out of the meeting by law
enforcement officials, and the dad said the school board was
engaging in a cover-up of the assault.

The unidentified male student was ultimately charged with sexual
assault at two separate high schools and was found guilty
earlier this year.

Smith was arrested and convicted of two misdemeanors following
the school board meeting: disorderly conduct and obstruction of
justice during the school board meeting. Circuit Court Judge
James Plowman previously dismissed Smith’s count of obstruction
of justice, and the Virginia dad is now trying to appeal the
disorderly conduct count.

A Sept. 2 order from Judge Plowman detailed that he appointed a
special prosecutor in Smith’s appeal, and booted Soros-backed
prosecutor Biberaj and her office from the case.

“There is insufficient evidence to determine whether or not a
direct conflict exists that would mandate removal and/or
disqualification of the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s
Office,” Plowman’s order states.

Plowman said that he found Smith’s lawyer persuasive during oral
arguments and granted Smith’s motion to recuse the Loudoun
County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. Stafford County
Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen will now handle the
disorderly conduct count appeal.

“The concerns about the public confidence in the integrity of
the prosecution as well as the Defendant’s concerns regarding
the impartiality of the Commonwealth’s Attorney are sufficiently
grounded. As a result, the integrity of the Defendant’s due
process rights is in jeopardy and must be protected,” Plowman
wrote.

Smith welcomed the news, according to a press release from his
attorney’s office.

“A fair system of criminal justice that is void of both bias and
political agendas is the cornerstone of a free society,” Smith
said in comment provided to Fox News Digital. “From the
beginning, Ms. Biberaj has sought to make an example of me for
simply standing up to defend my daughter at the now infamous
Loudoun County School Board meeting. Buta Biberaj has
demonstrated a bias against me throughout the court proceedings,
and she has continued to fan the flames of those who would label
parents like me who stand in protection of their kids against
dangerous school policies as being ‘domestic terrorists.’”

“Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Biberaj’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News
Digital’s request for comment on the matter. She did express
surprise over the removal of her office in comment to WTOP.

“I’m surprised by the court’s decision, since I was never given
the opportunity to come back and have conversations about the
disorderly conduct,” Biberaj told the outlet.

Olsen, the longest-serving incumbent prosecutor in Northern
Virginia and a Republican, said Judge Plowman had called him
about the change, according to WTOP.

“Judge Plowman called me to ask if I was available,” Olsen told
WTOP. “As is often the case, a special prosecutor can be
necessary because of potential conflict of interest.”

Stanley told Fox News Digital on Monday afternoon that Smith has
a “right for fair trial” and lamented the political nature of
Biberaj’s office during the case.

“Believe it or not, prosecutors are supposed to be impartial.
They’re supposed to look at the facts, apply the law and if so,
then prosecute. This seemed to turn very political, very
quickly, in the battle in Loudoun County, between this
prosecutor who had been funded by George Soros,” the attorney
said, noting that Biberaj “took it upon herself to personally
prosecute” the case.

This is not the first time Plowman has booted Biberaj’s office
from a case. He removed the county’s Commonwealth’s Attorney
Office from a serial burglary case in June for “deliberately
misleading the Court and the public.”

“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,” Plowman said of that case,
which involved a man charged with three misdemeanors for
destruction of property and false identification, and two
felonies for burglary.

“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 judge wrote.

The state’s Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares sent a
letter to the chief judge shortly after that order, saying the
court “has rightfully lost confidence” in Biberaj and her
office. He added that his office was ready to assist and even
prosecute the case “considering this unprecedented development,”
according to the letter which was provided to Fox News Digital
in June.

Stanley told Fox News Digital that though the judge and the
prosecutor were the same in Smith’s legal battle and the serial
burglary case, “these are two different cases” and “one has
nothing to do with the other.”

Plowman is a Republican who previously served as the Loudoun
commonwealth’s attorney before Biberaj’s election in 2019.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/13/buta-biberaj-dismissed-from-scott- smith-case-over-impartiality-concerns/

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