Author Archives: Liz Miller

What the heck does he do all day, anyway?

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Leesburg Today, Loudoun Times Mirror and Loudoun Insider are reporting that the Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office is losing Jim Fisher, resident of Fauquier – who is being appointed the the Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney, just in time for the election this fall.

Apparently this has the prosecutor’s office in a tizzy, since Fisher is the lead prosecutor on the the Bennett case. You will probably recall that they are the couple who were brutally attacked while out for a morning walk in Lansdowne. There are two codefendants, Jaime Ayala and Darwin Bowman, and a third named person, Anthony Roberts, who has yet to be charged (and what will happen with that now, I wonder?), and has been the lead on the most publicized cases in the county for the past several years.

Unconfirmed is the rumor that Fisher is not just the lead prosecutor, but the hand on the tiller of day-to-day operations of the office.

So, if he doesn’t run the office and he doesn’t try cases, what DOES Plowman do all day?

This coming November, let’s hire a REAL prosecutor. Vote Jennifer Wexton for Commonwealth’s Attorney.

This weekend was all about Valdis Ronis!

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I went canvassing with Valdis’s daughter, Shanyn on Sunday. I put my money on her being the Doorbell Queen for his campaign! She’s tireless, enthusiastic, and rings a mean doorbell.

On Monday, we met up again to celebrate Valdis’s 52nd birthday! There was a great crowd, including two elected officials, lots of familiar faces, and a crew of people I’d never met before. I love when a campaign gets people who are not normally involved in politics to join in the effort!

Speaking of familiar faces, Marlene Barney has a blog. Check it out!

Oops! We missed LP’s first anniversary!

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LP went live a year ago on May 11. And we totally missed the opportunity to thank you all for reading and commenting.

So I’m thanking you now. Thank you for your comments, thank you for your guest posts, thank you for your feed-back.

Thank you also, for sticking with us as we worked out the kinks of having a shared blog.

We’ve had 420 blog posts, 1,327 comments, and 16 guest posts. Not bad for a bit over a year! Thank you again for making this year one of great discussions.

Jennifer Wexton Wrote an Op-Ed Piece

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You may not have seen it, because it is only in the print edition of Loudoun Times Mirror (and in their e-edition, scroll to page A21). It’s a rather effective critique of Jim Plowman’s role in the scandal of the innocent Vice-Principal. Here’s an excerpt.

Though the summary facts are well known, there are key aspects of the case which have been forgotten, or never publicized, which reflect poorly on Mr. Plowman. First, the original charges against Mr. Oei said nothing about child pornography.
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Even the misdemeanor charge against Mr. Oei (punishable only by a fine of up to $500) was based on the mistaken belief that Mr. Oei had not reported the matter appropriately. After it was determined that Mr. Oei had, in fact, reported the incident to his Principal, the Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney assigned to the case agreed that the charge should not be prosecuted, and filed a motion with the court to officially drop the case.

It was at this point that Mr. Plowman became personally involved, ordering the Assistant C.A. to withdraw the motion and continue with the case. Mr. Plowman also communicated to Mr. Oei’s lawyer an ultimatum: plead guilty to the failure to report charge and resign from the school system, or be charged with felony possession of child pornography.

As Mr. Oei’s attorney later stated in a sworn affidavit, Mr. Plowman “threatened [his] intention to pursue a legally and factually unsupportable felony charge” if Mr. Oei did not resign. Mr. Plowman had taken it upon himself — without consulting the Loudoun County Public Schools and despite Mr. Oei’s 30 years as a teacher and school administrator — to determine that Mr. Oei was not fit to work in the schools, and decided to extort him into resigning.
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The Loudoun County School Board later voted to reimburse Mr. Oei for the legal fees he incurred defending himself from the baseless charges. Loudoun taxpayers were required to pick up the $167,000 tab for Jim Plowman’s witch hunt.

Mr. Plowman is an elected official, ultimately answering only to the voters of Loudoun County. In this election year, it is important to remember these egregious examples of Mr. Plowman’s poor judgment and abuse of power. – Jennifer Wexton

Since LTM wouldn’t put up a link (for reasons that are not yet known, there have been no new Letters to the Editor posted to the LTM site since February), you can read the full letter at Jennifer’s website!

And while you’re there, why not get involved? It’s time for a new Commonwealth’s Attorney.

(I provided some additional details and text from the letter to expand on this post -P13)

Dan Lloyd drops out of the Sterling race, throws his support to Al Nevarez

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May 18, 2011

All Loudoun County Democrats,

I have decided to end my campaign for Sterling Supervisor. During this amazing four-month learning process, I have met great people who care about their community and learned a lot about our local issues and the political process. However, given the pressures of running a small business in a down economy and keeping up with family responsibilities, I have realized that I don’t have the time to devote to beating the incumbent in the fall. Fortunately, Al Nevarez has the knowledge, communication skills and a team in place to take on Delgaudio, and I will help to fully mobilize Democrats and Independents around his campaign.

I thank you for all your advice and support and I will do whatever I can to help our local candidates and the LCDC succeed.

Sincerely,
Dan Lloyd

Thank you for stepping up, Dan, and thank you also for this gracious note about your departure from the race, which I received from a friend within the LCDC.