On the heels of a juvenile court judge ruling to place the now 15-year-old boy in Loudoun County, Virginia, who sexually assaulted at least two students in high schools on the sex offender registry for life — the ruling has been revoked.
“This court made an error in my initial ruling,” Loudoun County Judge Pamela Brooks said in announcing her decision, as WTOP News reported. “The court is not vain enough to think it’s perfect, but I want to get it right.”
The 15-year-old boy, whose name The Daily Wire has continued to withhold due to his age, was found guilty of two counts of sodomy relating to the incident on May 28, 2021, at Stone Bridge High School, as well as another incident at Broad Run High School on October 6, as The Daily Wire reported. There was also another alleged assault victim, but he was never charged. He is on supervised probation until he turns 18 at a locked juvenile treatment center.
Brooks ruled to drop the boy from the registry in a Thursday hearing. Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj, who said prior that the boy was released from jail due to having no “history” of assault, argued that putting him on the registration was for the community’s safety and wellbeing. Biberaj was elected in 2019 after receiving $850,000 from a political action committee funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros.
“I can’t rest on it being immaturity,” Biberaj said in a discussion about the boy’s status as a minor, requesting he remain on the registry until the age of 30.
The attorneys defending the boy, William Mann, Jonathan Moore, and Caleb Kershner — who sits on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors — pushed the narrative that the boy was a victim. Kershner said he is the center of “a national media outcry” and that this has resulted in the high level of scrutiny.
“We are setting him up for failure,” Kershner, a Republican, claimed in his closing remarks. “We’ve never concentrated on [the boy] — we’re not even giving this young man a chance.” The board member also said the 15-year-old has been “cheated” by the “failure of the system.”
Scott Smith, the father of the victim raped at Stone Bridge High School, believes it is his family that has been wronged by the system. He released a statement after the hearing describing how he and his wife are “heartbroken” and “mad at how the justice system and the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s attorney has let down [his] daughter, as well as the other victims of his predatory actions.”
“The person who committed these horrible crimes against these three young women will not have to bear the shame at being known as a lifetime registered sex offender, as he was originally sentenced,” said Smith. “Rather, we are now concerned more than ever that this change in his legal status may put other parents’ daughters at risk of harm in the future.”
Jason Miyares, the new attorney general in Virginia, has said that his office plans to investigate the district after the school board allegedly sought to cover up the incidents amid efforts to approve a transgender bathroom policy.
Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) failed to report the May 2021 rape on statistics mandatory to provide the state — as The Daily Wire reported. LCPS launched an internal probe after Miyares announced his own. Fight for Schools, a parent-led group in Virginia, has said LCPS must release the independent investigation it claims to have conducted but is keeping private due to alleged attorney-client privilege.