Son of Henrico prosecutor gets jail term in alcohol case
The son of Henrico County's chief prosecutor will serve a jail term for underage possession of alcohol but escaped a felony charge yesterday of malicious wounding.
In a 10-minute Henrico General District Court proceeding that did not include testimony from the arresting officer, a substitute judge dropped a malicious-wounding charge against Samuel Raines Kizer but sentenced him to 30 days in jail, with 15 days suspended, on the possession charge.
"Guilty," Kizer, 20, said when asked how he pleaded to the alcohol charge.
Kizer, a student at Longwood University in Farmville, will serve his time on weekends, must perform 50 hours of community service and will lose his driver's license for six months.
"He's very contrite about what's happened; he's very embarrassed about the whole thing," said Kizer's lawyer, Claire Cardwell, adding that the alcohol conviction was Kizer's second. Kizer is the son of Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Wade Kizer, who has made underage drinking a major target of his administration.
The elder Kizer attended the hearing with his wife and son and said afterwards that he, too, regretted the embarrassment that the July 27 incident brought to the community. The younger Kizer declined comment as he was being processed at the county jail.
Substitute Judge Paul W. Sellers, who normally sits in Powhatan County, granted a motion from special prosecutor Paul Ebert, Prince William County commonwealth's attorney, to drop the malicious-wounding charge.
Ebert told the judge that Kizer was engaged in "mutual combat" when he struck Michael Inge, 20, with a beer bottle after a night of drinking and card-playing at Inge's home in the 9500 block of Gardenia Drive off Woodman Road.
Kizer was spotted by police at a nearby convenience store in a blood-spattered truck.
It was not clear yesterday why Inge was not charged in the fracas or with alcohol possession.
Inge needed multiple stitches to his neck because of the beer-bottle attack and was hospitalized briefly; he and his mother and other relatives, all of whom attended the hearing yesterday, declined comment.
Cardwell said the Inge family didn't want to pursue the case. She said after the hearing that Inge told her investigators that he acknowledged hitting Kizer twice. When he approached Kizer a third time, Kizer lashed out with the beer bottle, Cardwell said. Ebert agreed with the scenario.
Inge said in a Richmond Times-Dispatch interview in July that he struck Kizer first because he was angry at Kizer for trying to re-enter the family home after being told to leave because he was intoxicated.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or
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Reader Reactions
Ah, where to begin.
Mr Kizer, you may have swept this one under the rug but your son has a headstart and a penchant for violence, he no doubt will get his due while causing pain and trouble for the community you persecute and prosecute beyond the bounds of justice and morality.
I believe it is better to let a guilty man go free than to lock an innocent man up - because you take the innocent man’s life and future. But a guilty man will eventually show his true colors and get his due.
I wish Mr Kizer shared this view for more than his son. But he has built a career on slanted justice and ruined lives for the sake of another mark on the “conviction” chalkboard.
very few things in a Henrico Courthouse happens by accident or surprise. Except for the accused. The reason the officer did not testify is because his son plead ‘guilty’ to the lesser charge. The other charge was dropped. Therefore there was nothing to try/no trial. Like they said, 10 minute long proceeding.
I would just like to know how many other repeat alcohol offenders found in a “blood spattered” truck, having sent a victim to the hospital get a 10 minute lesser charge and NO FELONY. If this was really Henrico, he would have had MULTIPLE FELONY CHARGES, expected to plead to at LEAST ONE FELONY (for the precious conviction) regardless of the details or extenuating circumstances.
Perhaps his son very much deserved another chance at recovery while still young with maturity and life ahead of him. He probably did. What makes this maddening is that the prosecutor’s office so very rarely (ive never heard of it) takes these aspects into account for their daily dockets.
I once had a case in Henrico. A young, first and only time mistake. I confessed, was willing to plead guilty and move on. A plea (still including felonies) was reached with a understanding prosecutor. Day before trial the prosecutor informed us all the Kizer heard of the deal, withdrew it, all to get a conviction on a recently invented/enacted charge so that he could claim the first conviction on it. Even though everyone knew it did not fit the circumstance. I still got stuck with it. Perhaps these experiences have renewed his perspective and has come to view his work as affecting sons, daughters, fathers and mothers. Not just as a sport to rack up points/human lives for.
fair is fair, i am so sorry for what your loved one suffered at the hands of such a hypocrite. This prosecutor who has shown us just what he is made of should either resign, or, with the other complicitors face a multijurisdictional grand jury investigation into this whole sordid orchestration, lets call it what it is, a favoritism issue, a perk of the office. This particular case is acute because of the zealot involved. Perhaps if he had been more fair and compassionate toward the others under his purview, then such an outrage would not have been generated.
Why hasn’t the judicial system bothered to address this smelly issue at hand of the “Kizer double standard”?? I will bet that the parties that benefitted from the cronyism in the corrupt VA “perks for CA’s system” are reading this daily and hoping that it blows over quickly.
But the biggest tell in the whole mess is the fact that the “police officer did not testify.“ How many times have you seen that happen in Henrico courts to the benefit of the accused???? Kizer needs to come clean about whatever conversation he had with the other young man involved, or whatever conversation was had on his behalf by jr’s hired atty, or the sham- stand in prosecutor. Somewhere I will bet that was such a conversation, it just needs to be flushed out. Was there a favor offered to drop the issue? Or was the other party just scared to do it for some reason? Like a threat of prosecution for himself also, or maybe that’s why he himself did not get charged on the underage drinking. I haven’t seen that one happen in Henrico, EVER, when police are called to the scene.
Yes there are a lot of fishy parts to this story, and I suppose we will see if the “bar” in Va wants to rise to the level it should have been all along with an official grand jury investigation of this whole disgusting influence bartering scam.
Until that happens, Henrico judicial system is tainted with the appearance of gross impropriety, as is the trading favors system of the “usual suspects.“
I have a loved one who has been personally affected by Wade Kizer’s zealotry as a prosecutor. I watched him defame my sister for actions caused by mental illness that was documented by doctors, psychiatrists, and a cognitive psychologist, and all he could say was that her behavior went “on and on and on.“ Well, Mr. Kizer, it sounds to me like your son’s drinking problem and subsequent malicious behavior has gone “on and on and on.“ However, unlike my sister, your son has an advocate in the court system - cutting him deals and being able to hire a “crony” attorney who comments that his behavior is an “embarrasment” to himself and to his family. He has a substance abuse problem. Admit it. 20 years old and on his second drinking charge…but, oh, he gets weekend deals to serve his sentence of 15 days so that his collegiate work isn’t compromised. What a double standard you live! I hope that you can begin to comprehend the PAIN that you have inflicted to other people with similar substance abuse problems that have been adversely affected by their disease. Hypocritical doesn’t even begin to describe your behavior.
Wait a minute, this is the same Commonwealth’s Attorney who refused to cut deals for the son of the Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. This is the same Commonwealth’s Attorney who refuses to cut deals for ANYONE.
Although the victim did not want to proceed with the case, his Office has done things to make sure victim’s came to court to at least testify to the truth to proceed with the prosecution.
Everyone needs to no this, when a Commonwealth’s Attorneys Office needs a special prosecutor to handle a case, the Commonwealth’s Attorney gets to pick the outside counsel. There is no independent selection process.
But of course, we all knew that there was NO WAY in the son of a prosecutor was going to get a felony conviction.
I guess daddy did his best to protect his little one. I bet you if daddy’s little buy got his butt whooped, the other guy would have had the “book thrown at him.“
This should have been at least a trial to let the jury decide whether it was self defense or not.
As a county resident, I know who NOT to vote for in the next election. I suggest all the other residents do the same.
This is BS. He should have been convicted of the felony, guess daddy didn’t want convictions after all.
My lawyer had Ukrops and the CA in the case agree to have the felony dropped to a misdemeanor, serve jail time and community service. The CA said she would but Kizer wanted convictions so it couldn’t be dropped to a lesser offense.
But of course Kizers son proved his Dad wrong by having his felony charge dropped!
this is totally unacceptable, and every parent should be very concerned with a prosecutor who evidently arranges for his son to evade a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. No dice, Mr. Kizer, come clean.
No one believes a word of the nicely gift wrapped dismissal of VERY serious charges against your son, evidently in need of some serious counseling and rehab. I got the part about the Powahatan judge, and the Prince William prosecutor, ‘ethically” handling the case, but i’m not buying it. We all know how the ‘system’ works for prosecutors and judges in Virginia.
I have never observed ANY defendant who maims another party getting his charges dismissed, in Henrico, or anywhere else. If that judge had any gumption, he would have called both young men to account and charged both. And suspicious, isn’;t it, the officer did not testify. Something is very rotten in the Co of Henrico, and in fact it stinks.
I want my kids no where near this kind of dangerous, felony behaviour, which looks suspiciously whitewashed by a parent who has a position to do so. Leaving this behavior covered up and unpunished, puts the entire community at risk, thanks Mr. Kizer for protecting your own, and thanks to the VA legal system for a cover up to be proud of.
I am so disgusted as a parent that I am considering filing a formal complaint against the judge and also against the complicit prosecutor who enabled this charade.
Protecting the public safety, is exactly what you are NOT doing Mr. Kizer. You are behaving exactly like that Vandersloot father, in the Natalie Holloway case, as I see things. Leaving this assault unpunished, and undealt with is not fair to the thousands of law abiding teens and young adults in the Commonwealth who depend n supposedly “responsible” Commonwealth Attorneys to look out for the public safety.
I am saddened and disgusted with the special treatment of a felony offense, and with the fawning coverup, and also with the responses I got on the phone this morning from both the Henrico CA’s office and the PWC CA’s office. The citizens of Va deserve a much more tramsparent and much less corrupt legal system.
First off, this was a violent person after drinking alcohol who was asked to leave the premises, so Inge had all right to hit him first, what other way is there to remove a drunk and angry person from entering your house, this was a clear act of prejudice, because of who Kizer is.I bet Inge was threatened by charges if he had pursued the case. To my understanding you are not supposed to cause bodily harm or use a weapon when fighting, not even to pretect yourself or others unless you feel as if a person/your life is in danger. The System really sucks…..
This reminds me of the case with the three officers, one of which wounded a man while off duty at night club over an ex-girfriend and his fellow officers who may as well lied for him by not writing a report or reporting the incident at all. ....And we are supposed abide by the Law when Law Officials or their Families don’t have to. Wonder Why???????????
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