By Brian Trompeter
Citing what he said is too much politics and too few experienced prosecutors in the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, trial attorney Ed Nuttall is challenging incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) in the June 20 primary.
Fairfax County gave Descano a “ton of money” three years ago to make improvements in that office, but 28 prosecutors have departed since then, Nuttall said.
“The prosecutors that remain are overwhelmed, under-trained and not supported by the chief prosecutor,” he said, adding Descano had not tried any cases during his tenure. “When you’re a prosecutor in that office, you lead by example. You go into the trenches and you try those difficult cases.”
Nuttall said, if elected, he would have veteran prosecutors train less-experienced ones, run the office more effectively, protect victims of violent crime and honor defendants’ constitutional rights.
He also pledged to foster better collaboration between public defenders, other attorneys, judges, probation officers and prosecutors. That legal ecosystem is endangered when one component does not do its job, he said.
Judges reluctantly have dismissed some felony cases because of errors made by “inexperienced and overwhelmed prosecutors” in Descano’s office, which in turn re-victimizes and traumatizes victims, Nuttall said.
Justice should not be one-size-fits-all, and non-violent defendants should be seen as whole people coping with mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, addictions and racial or age discrimination, Nuttall said.
“It’s time to end the Descano experiment and get back to the hard work of applying the laws to all people fairly and equitably,” he said. “It’s a hard job on the best of days and an impossible one when the current prosecutor is more focused on politics than doing his job.”
Two prominent Democrats are endorsing Nuttall.
“I know Ed will make a fantastic commonwealth’s attorney, because he’s an experienced trial lawyer that understands how the courtroom works, a lifelong Democrat committed to justice and equality in the law, and a respected member of the community that cares deeply for families in Fairfax County,” said state Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax-Vienna).
“I look forward to working with him in the legislature to make sure that Fairfax County government gets back to functioning correctly for all citizens,” Petersen said.
Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid (D), some of whose employees have had run-ins with Descano, said she could “state with absolute certainty that he has the experience and the integrity needed to do the job.”
“We are living in a time where criminal-justice reform is on everyone’s mind,” she said. “To make progress, you have to have the competence to get real things done. The criminal-justice system works best for victims, the accused and the community at large when people know how to do the job [and] collaborate toward the common goal of equity and justice.”
Descano’s campaign did not answer a request for comment. During the Fairfax County Democratic Committee’s Jan. 24 general meeting, Descano said Nuttall had supported Republican efforts to recall him and was “the attorney who represents bad cops in this county.”
“We have a real choice here: Continue with our values, continue to build on reforms and move us forward or go backwards and flush down the toilet all the work that this county has done on reform, on justice, on policing and building trust, and give it over to somebody who is literally on the police-union payroll,” Descano said.
Nuttall confirmed having defended “hundreds” of officers over the course of his career, but added, “there’s nothing more a good cop hates than a bad cop.”
“When I’m commonwealth’s attorney in Fairfax, whether a police officer commits a crime on-duty or off-duty, I will make sure that that officer is prosecuted,” Nuttall said.
Nuttall holds a law degree from Catholic University of America. From 1999 until 2002, he was an assistant commonwealth’s attorney working under the late Robert Horan.
Nuttall then worked for 12 and a half years for the law firm of BrigliaHundley, where he was a partner, and since August 2014 has been a partner with Carroll & Nuttall, P.C. He works pro-bono as a victim’s-rights attorney.
Descano graduated from the United States Military Academy, served as a U.S. Army aviation officer and earned a law degree from Temple University. He later was a federal prosecutor during the Obama administration and served as chief operating officer and general counsel for Paragon Autism Services before being elected to his current post.
Benefiting from enormous amounts of outside contributions funneled through left-leaning organizations, Descano defeated longtime incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh in the June 2019 Democratic primary, then fended off a challenge by independent candidate John Fahey to win the general election that November.
