Drug, Racial Reforms Emerge As Arlington Prosecutor Assumes Role

ARLINGTON, VA — While 2020 brought a new Virginia General Assembly with Democratic majorities in both houses, another change happened at the local level as two progressives won prosecutor races in Northern Virginia. Parisa Dehghani-Tafti took over as commonwealth's attorney in Arlington County and Falls Church after defeating incumbent Theo Stamos, while Steve Descano defeated Raymond Morrogh to assume the role of commonwealth's attorney for Fairfax County.

Changes are beginning to take shape in the first days of the term for Dehghani-Tafti, a former public defender in DC, legal director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and law professor. On Jan. 3, Dehghani-Tafti filed a motion to drop a case against a defendant charged with possession of marijuana, exemplifying how she is approaching these cases as a prosecutor. The Commonwealth's argument for the case dismissal mentioned the use of limited public resources, safety risk or lack thereof, and public policy.

The argument cited numbers showing the resources used for simple marijuana cases. "Simple marijuana possession accounted for about 14 percent of the arrests made by the Arlington County Police and roughly 10 percent of the caseload closed or otherwise disposed of by the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office and of the criminal caseload of the General District Court and Circuit Court in 2018," the argument read.

While Dehghani-Tafti has begun filing motions to dismiss some marijuana possession cases, this is only happening on a case-by-case basis. Her office will pursue charges in situations like marijuana distribution, smoking while driving, and smoking in public.

"The misconception is that reformers don't care about safety," she told Patch. "It's exactly the opposite. We want our communities to be safe. We take a more long-term view of safety."

Past data has shown a significant disparity between black and white individuals who faced marijuana charges in Arlington County. According to an analysis of 2010 to 2016 arrest data by Virginia Commonwealth University's Capital News Service, there were 1,173 arrests of black individuals per 100,000 people and 145 arrests of white individuals per 100,000. By comparison, Fairfax County had 861 arrests of black individuals per 100,000 people and 265 arrests of white individuals per 100,000.

The new prosecutor says the approach to simple marijuana possession, a misdemeanor offense, is just a piece of what can be reformed. She believes Arlington County has been aggressive in charging felonies. "If you're charging more, you're going to get more convictions," she said.

Dehghani-Tafti is looking into reforms with a lens of addressing racial disparities. One of her first actions in office was recruiting university researchers to look into the cause of disparities in incarcerations. One strategy she believes can address disparities is reducing the use of cash bail, but not for suspects classified as dangerous.

She points not only to the financial costs of coming in contact with the legal system, but the human cost and impact on families. One change she would like is to expand the drug court. "Treatment court really tends to work for people who are high need or high risk," Dehghani-Tafti said.

The types of cases she wants to prioritize are serious crimes involving public safety or victims, including sexual assault and wage theft cases. But while her office can prioritize which cases to prosecute, consistency on policies like marijuana possession and reforms like mandatory minimum sentences would need to come from Virginia General Assembly legislation.

Another reform coming to her office will be the creation of a restorative justice program. Arlington County has Liane Rozzell, a senior policy associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation on loan to lay the groundwork for the program. Dehghani-Tafti doesn't expect the program to "bear fruit" as it's set up in the first year, but it will have the opportunity to grow.

Her general philosophy as commonwealth's attorney is looking at whether the legal system is the best way to handle a case, what other options are viable and whether there's room for rehabilitation and redemption. "Not every social ill can be resolved by the criminal justice system. Not every crime needs to be punished," she said.

Like the restorative justice program, Dehghani-Tafti says "says none of the fixes are easy and none of the fixes are quick. [It] takes time to turn a very large ship around."