Virginia's Assistant Attorney General Arrested

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/site_elements/tags/tag/steven+f.+lederman/

By APPublished: February 20, 2009
NORFOLK — A Virginia assistant attorney general has been suspended after being arrested on drug and weapon charges.
Norfolk police charged Steven F. Lederman yesterday with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, a felony, and carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor.
A search warrant affidavit filed in Norfolk Circuit Court said police found marijuana in Lederman’s van after a drug-sniffing dog alerted on a bag. The affidavit said the marijuana was inside the bag, wrapped as a Christmas present.
Norfolk police spokesman Chris Amos said investigators were acting on a tip when they arrested Lederman.
Lederman, 46, has been with the agency since 1997 and works in the Division of Child Support Enforcement. He has been suspending pending further investigation, said David Clementon, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office.

Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Publius ) on February 21, 2009 at 1:08 am
While it is just as likely the prosecutors will want to make an example of this guy and show no mercy, the final result will more likely be determined by how much representation he can afford to buy.

Posted by ( Legal American ) on February 21, 2009 at 12:43 am
SAY IT ISN’T SO! Wow, this entire state needs glasses! I don’t think anyone in this state’s government is working they are all corporate welfare personnel just sitting idly by waiting for their “PAYCHECKS”


Posted by ( vamelungeon ) on February 20, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Sounds like a set up.


Posted by ( rukiddin ) on February 20, 2009 at 8:41 pm
You know he is part of the “good old boys network”. He will probably only have to do some community work and a short probation… or he will get off on some technicality. I wonder how much bond he had to post. If this were the average citizen they would still be in jail until the trial comes up. I am sure he is out tonight having dinner with his family tonight. Special treatment for Special people.

Posted by ( J-Reb ) on February 20, 2009 at 8:28 pm
So the gun charge is a misdemeanor and the pot charge is a felony.
What a messed-up state.


Posted by ( Crimediver ) on February 20, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I he he gets hammered on the felony and they don’t plead it down to a misdemeanor first offender status. He ought to get the max.


Posted by ( OCM09 ) on February 20, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Now I understand why the Dept of Child Support Enf Agency is such a pathetic agency! Maybe they are all stoned!

Jailing Judges

When will Virginia start holding their corrupt judges accountable?

Pa. Judges Accused of Jailing Kids for Cash
Thursday, February 12, 2009
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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.
The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.
In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.
"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.
Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.
The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles' records expunged.
Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.
Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.
The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.
Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County's juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, "I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame." Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.
Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.
Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.
In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.
One of the contracts — a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million — was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.
The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.
Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.
"Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands," he said. "These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies."
For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters' constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.
The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups' worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.
Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.
Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.
"I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?" said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.
Laurene Transue said Ciavarella "was playing God. And not only was he doing that, he was getting money for it. He was betraying the trust put in him to do what is best for children."
Kurt Kruger, now 22, had never been in trouble with the law until the day police accused him of acting as a lookout while his friend shoplifted less than $200 worth of DVDs from Wal-Mart. He said he didn't know his friend was going to steal anything.
Kruger pleaded guilty before Ciavarella and spent three days in a company-run juvenile detention center, plus four months at a youth wilderness camp run by a different operator.
"Never in a million years did I think that I would actually get sent away. I was completely destroyed," said Kruger, who later dropped out of school. He said he wants to get his record expunged, earn his high school equivalency diploma and go to college.
"I got a raw deal, and yeah, it's not fair," he said, "but now it's 100 times bigger than me."

The Virginia State Bar Condone's Judicial Misconduct

The VSB allowing their members, attorneys who are to be held to professional rules of conduct, to commit fraud. The link below is a complaint to the VSB against Tandy B. Rinehart. She knowingly filed a fraudulent document with the Stafford County J & DR court along with her client Timothy Stohler to cause an unnecessary delay in our case.

http://www.box.net/shared/nq240bjyql

Julian Johnson allowed this barratrous attorney to act criminally in his courtroom. James C Bodie of the VSB say's these "tactics" are acceptable.
View that response http://www.box.net/shared/5o6qabfs2i

Judge Julian Johnson Disregards Law

Once again, another of Stafford counties judges, this time Judge Julian Johnson blatantly disregards the laws he was sworn to uphold. He has allowed the sleazy Tandy B. Rinehart to file this motion of continuance #1. without notifying all parties involved as stated at the top of this notice. #2 without my signature which is also required and stated at the top of this notice. I only received this notice posted to my front door the day of my hearing Feb. 25Th as I was leaving for court. She has also stated along with my ex husband Timothy Stohler that he is an instructor for the FBI and would be on assignment. Timothy Stohler does not and has never worked for the FBI and certainly wasn't on assignment. Judge Julian Johnson ignored and denied my repeated motions to move my court date forward as 5 months was extreme for a simple child support hearing, not to mention they purjured themselves to get that continuance. Judge Julian Johnson has endorsed these two con artists by allowing them to lie and not only get away with it but to actually grant their wishes based on that lie.

Dear Members of the Virginia House of Delegates, Members of the Senate of Virginia, and Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia Timothy Kaine:

Letter Sent Jan. 7th 2009

Dear Members of the Virginia House of Delegates, Members of the Senate of Virginia, and Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia Timothy Kaine:

I write to you all seeking your assistance, guidance, answers and solutions. As you all are aware Virginia's Juvenile and Domestic Relations court is severely broken, which is why I suspect the judicial interviews went about two hours over schedule. Not that this process of reappointment was highly publicized but people still seemed to come out of the woodwork to speak in opposition of these judges being reappointed to the bench. I agree with all of you, this was an extremely long day and for most of us who came to speak and observe, a mentally exhausting one. We too had two plus hours of driving time ahead us. Delegate Albo, I too would have preferred to be at home with my spouse, however, this process was just too important to miss, as it was for the many others who made that long trip to Richmond. As those of you who attended all saw this is not just a small handful of people, but many who are and have had the misfortune of experiencing the blatant judicial misconduct by Virginia judges. Who knows how many there really are. It shouldn't really matter how many or how few for someone to stand up and put a stop to this injustice. Many victims are unaware of who and where to go for help. Many more are so severely beaten down and maimed by these judges and barratrous attorneys that they have simply given up. They have lost all faith in this system. I ask you, How could this system that was put in place to protect destroy and shatter so many? Protective, non offending parents are being slaughtered everyday in Virginia's courtrooms.
I have to question a parent's true love for their child when that parent alienates and severs all contact with the other parent and is willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so. Shouldn't a well-educated judge question the same? Shouldn't you all question the judgment of that presumably well-educated judge who does not?
I read in Virginia Code Section 20-124.3, Paragraph 6, where it is stated: "The propensity of each parent to actively support the child's contact and relationship with the other parent, including whether a parent has unreasonably denied the other access to or visitation with the child." When a judge pretends to not see the obvious and allows one parent to, without evidence, viciously attack the other parent time and time again in the courtroom as an attempt to slander that parent, is that judge not ignoring Paragraph 6? I ask you, Is such a judge really acting in the best interest of an innocent child? I realize the financial motivation in attorneys who repeatedly orchestrate these ambushes of the other side, the financially weakest side that often has no attorney and therefore cannot properly defend against the false accusations and outright barratry.
Enough is enough! Innocent children are being destroyed and protective parents are being slaughtered and Virginia judges are allowing it to happen. These judges are jailing innocent, honorable parents who are simply unable to pay the absurd amounts of child support imposed on them. They are being jailed for not having enough money to pay the awarded attorneys fees, fees of up to one thousand dollars for five minutes in a courtroom, imposed on them. I have seen bail money seized to pay attorney fees. These people are not criminals, they're just parents. Parents fighting for their children, fighting for their right to just be a parent. Who would have ever thought that in this "GREAT NATION" anyone would have to fight for that. Our Virginia state flag, displayed in all of our courtrooms and in so many of our government agencies, proudly bears the message: "Sic Semper Tyrannis." I ask you, Who are the real tyrants here?
I lost my right to be a parent five years ago in front of Circuit Court Judge Ann Hunter Simpson, a cohort of the sleazy Tandy B. Rinehart of Rinehart, Lowery, Strentz and Butler, PLC, based on nothing but false allegations about my parenting ability and slanderous fabrications made by both the father of my child and his attorney Tandy Rinehart. I have fought since then, not to deprive my daughter of her father but to simply have equal parenting time. At one point in my fight I even lost my right to work and in the same hearing Judge Gerald F. Dalton increased my child support by more than three times. I ask you, Does $ 477.00 per month sound right for someone earning $ 29,000.00 per year. Not to mention I still had another child at home to care for. Yes, a sixteen-year-old whose own world, by the way, came crashing down with the emotional trauma from losing her baby sister. Since Judge Simpson's decision, in 2004, to remove my youngest from my care, transfering custody to her narcissistic father and the 65-year-old nanny hired by him, my once well-adjusted, bright, happy child now struggles in school and has had to attend summer school just to pass elementary school. Now that she is in middle school, she has deteriorated even more. She currently has four Fs and one C. She has been prescribed a wide variety of ADD drugs, but, despite this, she continues to fail. Five of her friends were just expelled from school for drugs. These are 7th graders, these are 12-year-olds! I think you can see where I'm going. Something has to change before it's too late. Despite my efforts, I see my child four days a month only during the school year because judges have placed her with a father they deem "the better parent." A trial eighteen-months-ago to modify custody due to changed circumstances failed. In that trial, my judge, Stafford County Judge Daltan, did not apply the law in the same way that Fairfax County Judge Finch did not apply the law in the custody modification case of Ms. Liz Haring. Ms. Haring is one mother who testified on December 11, 2008, during the interviews of judges up for re-appointment conducted by house and senate members of the Courts of Justice.
Nor do the lawyers I hire thoroughly and aggressively apply the law. For example, I only recently became aware of "§ 18.2-49.1. Violation of court order regarding custody and visitation; penalty":
A. Any person who knowingly, wrongfully and intentionally withholds a child from either of a child's parents or other legal guardian in a clear and significant violation of a court order respecting the custody or visitation of such child, provided such child is withheld outside of the Commonwealth, is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
B. Any person who knowingly, wrongfully and intentionally engages in conduct that constitutes a clear and significant violation of a court order respecting the custody or visitation of a child is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor upon conviction of a first offense. Any person who commits a second violation of this section within 12 months of a first conviction is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor, and any person who commits a third violation occurring within 24 months of the first conviction is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
A friend who is not a lawyer told me about § 18.2-49.1. My own attorney had never even mentioned it, prefering instead to file civil show causes that really are worse than useless and very expensive. Whereas, a criminal filing for the same offense is free and, I understand, very effective.
The father of my child is guilty of numerous violations of the visitation order. The father of my child is guilty of derelict and defective parenting: my daughter has become dangerously withdrawn. Her grades are down. I have married again. But in the eyes of the court it would appear nothing is enough to qualify as "material changes in circumstances." Here, where I live in Stafford County, where barratrous substitute judge and trial lawyer Tandy Rinehart and friends reign, justice is nothing short of tyrannical.
Again, I write you all and ask for guidance, answers and solutions. I ask for intervention. Specifically, What do you need from me that will help you change these outcomes and help you fix the problem? What do you need from me to help you investigate my case and the cases of all the other mothers similarly aggrieved? What can I do to help?

Respectivly
Sherry Hayward
703-655-2223