Miyares calls for Fairfax County prosecutor Descano to step down

[mahatmakanejeeves]

For an AG, Miyares spends an awful lot of time tweeting and appearing on talk shows.

This latest incident was on WJLA (actually, News Channel 8) tonight. I can't find a video right now. I'll look for one if it seems important.

The battle is on in the Twitterverse.

Typical uninformed scaremongering from our overmatched AG
@JasonMiyaresVA
. If he was competent at all he’d know that prosecutorial outcomes are constrained by evidence, and there are different evidentiary standards for arrest vs. successful prosecution. 1/3

Link to tweet

I guess in

@JasonMiyaresVA
version of the world anyone who is even potentially guilty of any crime is incarcerated forever regardless of the evidence. 2/3

More lying to the people from
@JasonMiyaresVA
. Probably just blowing off steam after his shameful effort to weaponize the trauma of victims in service of his failed power grab in the General Assembly. https://wapo.st/3IluuFQ 3/3

Link to tweet

Here's that Washington Post article.

Virginia Politics

Virginia’s self-styled ‘top cop’ thwarted in bid to expand powers on violent crime

State lawmakers stalled a bill that would broaden Attorney General Jason Miyares’s authority to prosecute crimes

By Justin Jouvenal
February 28, 2022 at 3:48 p.m. EST

Virginia’s new Republican Attorney General blasted the state’s liberal prosecutors on the campaign trail, saying they weren’t seeking stiff enough sentences and were failing to charge certain crimes. Jason Miyares made a bold promise: if they didn’t enforce the law, he would.

The pitch was central to his platform to approach the job as a tough-on-crime “top cop,” but his bid to expand the limited powers of the attorney general’s office to address violent offenses was dealt a serious setback Monday. ... A Senate committee controlled by Democrats put an indefinite hold on a bill that would have allowed the attorney general’s office to prosecute sex assaults against children, meaning the legislation is all but certain to die this session.

The legislation was already a scaled-back version of a bill that would have given the office broad powers to prosecute violent crimes. The defeat means Miyares, who called himself the “new sheriff in town,” won’t have critical tools to tackle a top priority — public safety — in the way he had set out to do.

{snip}

In February, Miyares’s office withdrew support from a bid by two men to have their convictions in the killing a police officer overturned. The move was supported by Miyares’s Democratic predecessor, Mark R. Herring.

By Justin Jouvenal
Justin Jouvenal covers courts and policing in Fairfax County and across the nation. He joined The Post in 2009. Twitter https://twitter.com/jjouvenal

This is not the first time Miyares has gone after Descano.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares slams "far-left prosecutors" Descano and Biberaj

by Nick Minock Monday, February 14th 2022

RICHMOND, Va. (7News) — As he nears his first month in office, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sat down with 7News for a wide-ranging interview on what Virginia residents can expect from him over the next four years.

{snip}

And he’s also going after two Northern Virginia Commonwealth Attorneys: Buta Biberaj in Loudoun County and Steve Descano in Fairfax County.

{snip}

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. AG Miyares slams Descano for reduced charges of man accused of killing homeless men

Here's the story that ran on TV Wednesday night.

AG Miyares slams Descano for reduced charges of man accused of killing homeless men

by Nick Minock Wednesday, March 16th 2022

WASHINGTON (7News) — On Wednesday, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares called out Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano for reducing charges of a man who is now accused of killing two homeless men and shooting three others in Washington, D.C. and New York.

The 7News I-Team found Gerald Brevard had 88 prior criminal charges dating back to 2009. In December 2020, Brevard was charged with felony abduction and burglary in Fairfax County.

“It’s a penalty of up to life in prison in Virginia," said Miyares. "Another charge - burglary - which is up to five years. It was reduced to a misdemeanor. Which it is my understanding the individual only served five months in jail and got back on the streets. If this individual served what should have been the proper amount of time, he would not have been back on the street. This serial killer would not have been able to find more victims. And there are victims who are not with us anymore because the commonwealth’s attorney office in [Fairfax] didn’t do his job."

{snip}

On Wednesday morning, 7News reached out to Descano's office for an interview. Instead of an interview, Descano's staff pointed 7News to a series of tweets.

{snip}

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Miyare's remark in a tweet

He's in love with the sound of his own voice.

Jason Miyares Retweeted

Virginia Attorney General
@JasonMiyaresVA
to Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano: step aside.

More on this ahead on
@7NewsDC
at 6pm.

Link to tweet