Virginia’s new Republican Attorney General blasted the state’s liberal prosecutors on the campaign trail, saying they weren’t seeking stiff enough sentences and were failing to charge certain crimes. Jason Miyares made a bold promise: if they didn’t enforce the law, he would.
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The pitch was central to his platform to approach the job as a tough-on-crime “top cop,” but his bid to expand the limited powers of the attorney general’s office to address violent offenses was dealt a serious setback Monday.
A Senate committee controlled by Democrats put an indefinite hold on a bill that would have allowed the attorney general’s office to prosecute sex assaults against children, meaning the legislation is all but certain to die this session.
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The legislation was already a scaled-back version of a bill that would have given the office broad powers to prosecute violent crimes. The defeat means Miyares, who called himself the “new sheriff in town,” won’t have critical tools to tackle a top priority — public safety — in the way he had set out to do.
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State Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) said in a statement he felt the legislation went against the wishes of voters who cast ballots for prosecutors seeking to refashion the criminal justice system two years ago. They include residents in the trio of bluer Northern Virginia jurisdictions of Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties. Surovell voted to table the bill.
“In 2019, many Virginia localities chose a new direction in the administration of prosecutorial decisions and aren’t interested in aspiring statewide officials injecting themselves into these local decisions to politicize prosecutions,” Surovell said.
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Under Virginia law, most violent offenses are handled by local prosecutors, known as Commonwealth’s attorneys. The attorney general’s office gives legal advice to state government, handles appeals and prosecutes a narrower band of criminal offenses such as child pornography, identity theft, computer crimes and some gang offenses.
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Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Miyares, said in a statement the office was disappointed by the outcome.
“Young sexual assault victims deserve a backup plan to ensure justice is served, and the attorney general’s office will continue to fight for and defend victims whose voices are being ignored,” LaCivita said.
Miyares promised to make violent crime an overriding focus during the November election. He highlighted his experience as state prosecutor in Virginia Beach and said Virginia’s surging homicide rate needed to be brought under control.
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One of Miyares’s most frequent targets were a wave of new progressive prosecutors, who had won office in recent years on promises to reduce mass incarceration and root out racial bias in the criminal justice system.
Miyares said they were making their communities less safe by being too soft on crime. Miyares was particularly critical of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, often pointing to a judge’s sharp criticism of the way Fairfax prosecutors handled the case of a young girl who suffered years of sex abuse by a relative.
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The judge told the girl in court “your government has failed you” after Descano’s office agreed to a plea deal that sentenced the abuser to 17 years in prison. Miyares said the sentence was too light, but Descano said it was stiffer than most and sufficient for the purposes of public safety given the man was 53 years old.
Judge tells young victim of sex abuse: 'Your government has failed you'
Miyares said the case was the inspiration for a bill that would have allowed his office to prosecute violent crimes when asked to by local police or sheriff’s offices. But the bill drew blowback from local prosecutors, some of whom saw it as a power grab.
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Miyares and his legislative allies were forced to rewrite the bill to be much narrower, only addressing sex assault cases involving children. But local prosecutors remained skeptical of the legislation.
Amanda Howie, a legislative liaison with the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, said the bill did not provide the “needed partnership” between the attorney general’s office and local prosecutors.
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Descano said in a statement it was fitting the bill appeared headed toward defeat.
“I’m glad the Senate saw this bill for what it is,” Descano said. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Miyares — the Commonwealth’s self-professed ‘top cop’ — continues to lie about crime in jurisdictions that reject his ideology.”
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LaCivita said the attorney general’s office will remain focused on violent crime. She said the office has supported Project Ceasefire, an initiative to combat gun violence, and pushed for two pieces of legislation that address human trafficking.
She said Miyares also supported legislation to increase penalties for drug dealers whose drugs result in the deaths of users and a bill that would require that local prosecutors are notified when someone accused of a violent crime is released on bail.
In February, Miyares’s office withdrew support from a bid by two men to have their convictions in the killing a police officer overturned. The move was supported by Miyares’s Democratic predecessor, Mark R. Herring.