News

A Fairfax County police officer will not face criminal charges for shooting and killing a Reston woman after she struck him with a knife and cornered him in a dead-end hallway last September.

After telling Sydney Wilson numerous times to “back up” while she pursued him with a knife, Police Officer First Class (PFC) Peter Liu fired five gunshots in her direction — an adequate response on Liu’s part, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said yesterday (Tuesday).


News

A one-time Virginia Senate candidate will have to spend time in jail and pay restitution to her victims after fraudulently posing as an immigration lawyer.

Jasmine Moawad, a 49-year-old woman originally from Bolivia, was sentenced to five years in jail for fraud on Friday, March 7, with all but six months suspended, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced.


News

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano slammed Gov. Glenn Youngkin today (Monday), accusing the Republican executive of commuting a former police officer’s prison sentence without regard for “the law or the facts.”

The governor’s office announced late Sunday that Youngkin had commuted the sentence of former Sgt. Wesley Shifflett only two days after it was handed down by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows.


News

A former Fairfax County police officer who shot and killed a man in Tysons had his prison sentence commuted tonight (Sunday) by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Former Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was sentenced to serve three years in state prison on Friday (Feb. 28) after being convicted of recklessly handling a firearm.


News

The former Fairfax County police officer who fatally shot Timothy McCree Johnson outside Tysons Corner Center in February 2023 has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows sentenced former sergeant Wesley Shifflett to five years of incarceration today (Friday) with two years suspended, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced.


News

Virginia’s attorney general is apparently seeking to revive a Fairfax indecent exposure case against a person who was subsequently charged with allegedly exposing himself in a girls’ locker room at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington.

In a Feb. 11 letter to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, Attorney General Jason Miyares accused the county’s top prosecutor of undermining public safety after a case charging Richard Kenneth Cox with indecent exposure at a Planet Fitness in Fairfax City was dismissed last summer.


Countywide

Individuals who believe they have been wrongfully convicted in Fairfax County now have a new way forward.

The county’s Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP), announced today (Monday) the creation of a Conviction Integrity Unit that will review challenged cases, establishing a process to potentially “secure more just outcomes.”


News

Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano is seeking a protective order against a man allegedly making threats against him and his family, WJLA first reported.

The man, whose name was redacted, was prosecuted by Descano’s office for other incidents of harassment and violating protective orders.


News

A man convicted of killing a woman at her Seven Corners condominium and setting her body on fire has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge handed down two consecutive life sentences to Richard Montano, 48, today (Friday) after a jury convicted him last October of murdering Silvia “Kelly” Vaca Abacay on Aug. 10, 2022, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced.


Countywide

Instead of jail-time, a restaurant job could be waiting for some individuals facing non-violent criminal charges in Fairfax County if they finish a newly launched job training program.

The Pathfinder Kitchen initiative unveiled Monday (Jan. 8) by the Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney builds on the office’s nascent Taking Root diversion program, which offers case management, mental health and substance use assessments, affordable housing and other services to people accused of non-violent crimes in lieu of incarceration.


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