It is hard to sit by while ego-centric, virtuous Virginia lawyers distort the truth about the judicial and legal systems in the Old Dominion. Here is my letter to the editor in response to one:
Editor:
I am responding to
an Irvington lawyer’s 29 October Open Letter to the citizens of Lancaster
County criticizing a candidate for Commonwealth’s Attorney.
He
wrote he “cares deeply about the integrity of our courts” and by inference the
judicial system. If so, he would not have turned his back on the family of a
Virginia school-shooting victim.
Following
the shooting at the Appalachian School of Law, we sought legal council to
answer questions such as why did the school president reject female faculty
members request for campus security saying, “Oh you women and your hormones, it
will be ok, nothing will happen.”
Within weeks,
three were killed and three wounded. We wanted to know why the mother of our
oldest grandchild was allowed to bleed to death when the hospital was less than
10 minutes away driving 30 m.p.h.
In
a phone conversation, the Irvington lawyer disregarded my questions.
We
found a Maryland lawyer, but his colleagues warned him not to take the case because
the Virginia Bar might call the Maryland Bar suggesting it is time to make life
difficult for him.
In
the research for my books on the Virginia school shootings I have found little
dignity in the Virginia legal or judicial systems. I found lawyers from the
Virginia Attorney General’s office who told parents of the dead Virginia Tech
students that unless they settled with the state, the hospital bills of the
wounded would not be paid.
I
found a Virginia Supreme Court Justice introduced false evidence into the
decision reversing a lower court’s jury verdict--apparently in order to protect
the Virginia Tech police chief. The introduction of any false evidence violates
the law.
The
Irvington lawyer’s words ring hollow for those of us who have dealt with the
Virginia legal system.
David Cariens
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