I received a "Reckless Driving" charge for speeding in Sussex County,
Virginia.  I have the option of appearing in court, or mailing in a
$184 along with a "guilty" plea to Sussex General District Court
(Traffic.)  (This will have a major impact on my insurance rates due
to two other accidents this year, neither of which were my fault.)

I wrote a letter intended for the district attorney requesting that he
enter a "nolle prosequi" in exchange for my taking a defensive driving
course and committing no further infractions for six months.  When I
called the court to get the correspondence address, I was told that
there IS no district attorney or prosecuting attorney, and that in a
routine traffic matter, the trial would consist only of myself as
defendant, the officer, and the judge.

Since there is no DA, is there any other person involved in this
process who has the authority to look at my circumstances and enter a
"nolle prosequi?"  Alternately, is there any other way that I might
convince someone in the system not to bring this case to trial?

Dear williambg-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.

As a part time researcher and a full time member of law enforcement
myself for more than 20 years I can easily see how you might have
gotten “mixed” information. I’ve dealt with this issue many times over
the years and it works basically the same in every jurisdiction.

Let me first address the mostly likely explanation for why you got the
answers you got from the clerk. First of all, Virginia is a
Commonwealth and Prosecutors or District Attorneys as they are
sometimes called in other states, are known as “Commonwealth
Attorneys” in Virginia. Your reference to a Prosecutor or DA might
have confused the clerk a bit since, to be technical, they actually
DON’T have a Prosecutor or DA.

Secondly, some jurisdictions frequently hold court without counsel
representing the State’s interests (Prosecutor, DA, Commonwealth
Attorney, etc) and the practice is even more common in smaller
jurisdictions. Having said that, it is likely that what the clerk
meant to convey was that the Commonwealth’s Attorney would not be
“physically” present at your hearing, but there is indeed a
Commonwealth Attorney in Sussex County Virginia who acts in the same
capacity as that of a Prosecutor or DA in other states.

You can contact Sussex County’s Commonwealth Attorney E. Carter
Nettles, Jr. by writing to:

SUSSEX COUNTY
Attn: E. Carter Nettles, Jr., Commonwealth Attorney
Post Office Box 1347
Sussex, Virginia 23884-0347

Or by calling or faxing him at (804) 246-5511, ext. 3043, FAX: (804)
246-2630

Even if he is not present at your hearing the prosecution of cases in
Sussex County would definitely cross the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s
desk and he would be the ultimate point of contact for this type of
request for intervention. I should note however that a "nolle
prosequi", or “nol pros” as it is more commonly known, is not
something that necessarily needs to be “entered” but it is more of an
alternative decision made by the Commonwealth’s Attorney or the Judge.
In order to convince the prosecution that a nol pros is in the
Commonwealth’s best interest, you would have to present some
compelling circumstances to support the belief that you and the
Commonwealth would both be better served by having you “re-educated”
in defensive driving techniques (at your own expense I might add) than
by penalizing you administratively and financially. An honest and
sincere explanation (assuming you have one) to support the notion that
you are economically disadvantaged to such a degree that a financial
penalty would result in a much more severe penalty than the
Commonwealth normally intends to impose on others convicted of the
same offense also wouldn’t hurt. You might, for example, have medical
bills, kids to feed, etc and such a penalty would have a far greater
and more dramatic effect on your finances than the same penalty
normally presents to others charged with the same offense.

My experience is that those who show some humility and contrition
normally have more success that those who call making demands or for
emotionless favors. If you write a letter, make it brief. Lengthy
explanations and wordy letters loose their impact quickly. Explain why
you are “praying” that the court shows some leniency in this matter
and above all be honest and sincere in your effort to convince the
prosecution of your pledge to abide by the laws of the Commonwealth
from this point forward up to any time frame they see fit. Have in
mind exactly where you are willing to attend such a course and be able
to provide evidence that you have already researcher the matter and
you are prepared to enroll. If possible (assuming you have time) go
ahead and attend the course and provide a certificate of completion
with your letter as a show of good faith and sincerity. Even if it
doesn’t turn out the way you want it to, this defensive driving
certificate can, and often does, eliminate a few points from your
driving record and sometimes provides you with a bit of a break on
your insurance premiums. If these suggestions do not achieve the
results you hope to achieve, you may have no other choice but to
appear in court and enter a plea or pay the fine as instructed.

I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If
you have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga



INFORMATION SOURCES

COMMONWEALTH'S ATTORNEYS
(STATE OF VIRGINIA)
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vaw/lawenfdir/commatty.html

SUSSEX COUNTY, VIRGINIA
http://www.sussex.k12.va.us/telephone_extensions.htm


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

SUSSEX COUNTY VIRGINIA

“SUSSEX COUNTY” “COMMONWEALTH’S ATTORNEY”

Dear williambg,

Was this ticket issued by the County? I know that it can sometimes be
very confusing trying to determine who is the prosecutor for a given
ticket, as tickets may be issued by any of a number of units of
government, including state police, county sheriffs, and township,
city and town police departments. Ordinarily, any given unit of
government will typically either have an attorney on staff or on
contract, who is responsible for prosecuting local tickets and
ordinances. Granted, the nature in which these duties are broken down
between jurisdictions can vary between states.

If the ticket was not issued by the County, it will benefit you to
take note of who issued the ticket before you call the number tutuzdad
supplied. The Office of the Commonwealth Attorney should be able to
tell you who is responsible for prosecuting tickets in the
jurisdiction at issue, if it is not one of their duties. (They don't
*have* to tell you, but they should have a directory, so they may
choose to be helpful.) Otherwise, contact the primary office for the
unit of government that issued the ticket (e.g., the city hall,
township hall, etc.) and ask them to provide you with the name and
number of their attorney.

With a few notable exceptions, I have typically had better luck
negotiating tickets with attorneys who represent smaller units of
government than with county attorneys. Smaller can be better.

Dear williambg;

With all due respect to the comment above, it has been my experience
that regardless of the law enforcement agency issuing the citation
(State Police, County Sheriff, etc), the JURISDICATION will determine
which court hears the case. In your case, since you recieved the
citation in Sussex County, it will in all probability be the Sussex
County Commonwealth Attorney who will in fact have jurisdiction over
prosecuting the offense.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

And with all due respect to the comment above, my comment was not
about which court would hear the case, but was about identifying the
prosecuting authority which could negotiate a resolution to the
ticket. The mere fact that a traffic charge is filed in  a particular
county's court system does not necessary mean that it was filed by the
County Commonwealth Attorney - although it may well have been. As I
indicated, not all states follow the same model.

As a Virginia criminal defense attorney, the parameters of answers to
this query poses some interesting scenarios.  Indeed, the officer
cannot stop the prosecution of the case as he is simply a government
witness.  However, in the real world, in cases where there is no
prosecuting attorney, the officer can move the Court to nolle pros the
case.  The Judge will likely enter such disposition at the request of
the officer and will not oppose the motion on her won.

Therefore, instead of writing the letter to the prosecuting attorney,
my interaction, pretrial, would be focued on the officer.  Although
rare, such persons may sometimes conduct the above actions -
particularly in boderline cases where culpability levels are low.

As a backup plan, a letter to the Judge explaining the scenio of the
reckless driving  and plausible explanations may lead to a lower
charge in final disposition.  Such charges include improper driving
and simple speeding.

For a wonderful article written on the topic of Virginia reckless
driving, read http://www.boselawfirm.com/rd.html.

For an indepth analysis of reckless driving and a plethora of tips on
self help for Virginia cases, click the "Tips" button on
http://www.vatrafficlaw.com.

BOSE LAW FIRM, PLLC
By: Sudeep Bose
Former Police and Investigators