Loudoun County prosecutor Buta Biberaj defended the decision to transfer a boy accused of sexually assaulting a female student in a girl’s bathroom to a different high school in the same school district late last week, telling local media that the boy had no prior record.
The Daily Wire reported, earlier in October, that Scott Smith’s daughter was allegedly raped in a high school bathroom by a male student who reportedly identifies as “gender-fluid.” Smith’s face was splashed across news networks and his arrest was used as an example of challenging behavior by parents in a letter from the National School Board Association (NSBA) to the Department of Justice, demanding the DOJ investigate confrontations before they become “domestic terrorism or hate crimes.”
The 15-year-old student, who was, according to Smith, charged with several counts of sexual assault, including a charge of forcible rape and a charge of forcible sodomy — ostensibly violent crimes. The student, however, was transferred to another school within the same district and, reportedly, went on to commit a second sexual assault.
Biberaj, according to Smith and Smith’s attorney Elizabeth Lancaster, “pushed for jail time against Smith who was slapped with charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest,” per the Daily Mail, citing The Daily Wire’s coverage, and “appeared in court to personally prosecute Smith, despite knowing that the details of the case involved his daughter” and despite campaigning on a progressive platform opposed to over-incarceration.
Smith was eventually given a 10-day suspended sentence; the alleged rapist was given an ankle monitor. The student is now being held in a juvenile detention center per more recent reports.
Biberaj defended her office’s approach to the alleged student rapist in an interview with local media late last week, claiming the office believed the teen wasn’t a threat, despite the severity of the allegations.
“We believed based on the facts that he had no history of having done this prior to this offense that was alleged,” Biberaj told a Washington, D.C., news outlet.
“She said because of that, there was a belief it was unlikely he would re-offend. She said her office consulted with the family of the victim and the office of probation about the decision,” the outlet noted. “She said the judge agreed with the recommendation.”
She then suggested that there are unreported details about the alleged attack: “I would ask this: for people to be patient because as we know what sometimes is reported initially is not then what the end result of all the facts are.”
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s office, in its own statement, alluded to a previous relationship between the two students: “the suspect and victim were familiar with each other, the investigation was complex, and a public announcement had the potential to identify a juvenile victim.”
The student, however, is now being charged with a second offense, also a sexual assault. “The sheriff’s office says on Oct. 6, the same boy, now 15, forced a female student into an empty classroom and touched her inappropriately,” according to Fox 5 Washington, D.C.