Henrico prosecutor's office will see broad changes

Incoming Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor will remove the top echelon of prosecutors in the office and bring in three new attorneys for her management team, one from Goochland County and two from Richmond.

The moves announced by the newly elected prosecutor yesterday wipe out more than 150 years of cumulative experience in the office, not including veteran Commonwealth's Attorney Wade A. Kizer, who did not run for re-election and joined the office in 1986.

Kizer issued a brief statement describing Taylor's housecleaning as "short-sighted."

"I can't imagine who will take their places," he said, describing himself as "deeply saddened about the firing of seven career prosecutors who have done so much for the people of Henrico County and the Division of Police."

It was not clear Friday when terms of employment will end. County records indicate that the combined salaries of the fired prosecutors and of Kizer total nearly $1 million. Kizer leaves office Jan. 1.

"I want to reduce the bureaucracy and be more hands-on," Taylor said in a press release. "I will be integrally involved with the cases and with the attorney work in the office. I believe the best way to effect this is to remove this layer of bureaucracy."

But Kizer described the losses as unprecedented in the region and said those let go "are handling some of the most important cases presently in the office."

Among those fired is Chief Deputy Duncan P. Reid, who joined the office in 1976 and is deeply embroiled in a complex bingo investigation that allegedly involved losses of nearly $1 million.

Also gone is Owen Conway, who was expected to lead the prosecution in the capital murder case of a Chesterfield man charged with slashing to death his pregnant girlfriend. Conway additionally was poised to prosecute murders linked to a complex subset of the Bloods street gang.

Among the 21 remaining lawyers, Taylor said she is keeping Deana Malek, Michael V. Gerrard and Michael C. Huberman as key deputies and is bringing to her leadership team Thomas L. Johnson Jr. and Toni Randall, both veterans of the Richmond prosecutor's office. Goochland prosecutor Nancy Oglesby is also among the six lawyers in Taylor's top layer.

Johnson volunteered in an interview this week that his law license was suspended for four years beginning in 2004. State Bar documents show that he had improperly accepted money as a court-appointed defense attorney in a drug case and then promised another defendant to "more zealously represent" him for an increased fee.

"It was the lowest point of my life," Johnson said in a telephone interview, praising those who were willing to give him a second chance after the suspension.

Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring said yesterday in an email that Johnson and Randall are "excellent" lawyers to whom the city owes "a debt of gratitude."

Herring said the suspension of Johnson "had absolutely no bearing on (Johnson's) ability to analyze and try cases" and he said he would hire Johnson again "in a heartbeat."

Both Johnson and Randall are black, a factor in keeping with Taylor's campaign promise to bring more people of color into the office so that it better reflects Henrico's racial makeup.

Taylor won an intense three-way race for the office in November, defeating veteran Henrico Del. Bill Janis, a Republican who ran as an independent, and Matthew P. Geary, a Republican who began his run at the office more than two years ago.

Analysts said that Taylor benefitted by low turnouts in western Republican areas, a split among Republican voters, and an outpouring of votes in the county's east end, where a veteran Republican supervisor also lost.