Police impersonator case on hold

Henrico County's chief prosecutor agreed this morning to reconsider a case against a man found guilty in August of impersonating a police officer and attempted abduction.

Commonwealth's Attorney Wade Kizer said after a closed hearing in a judge's chambers that he may seek to alter convictions against Shay Cameron Mann.

Retired Circuit Judge James E. Kulp ordered that a sentencing hearing be continued until Nov. 24 to give Kizer and Mann's defense lawyer time to explore whether there is a process by which Mann's convictions can be amended.

Mann, 31, of the 6800 block of Carnegie Drive in Henrico, was found guilty of four separate offenses tied to his encounter in February with a woman whom he allegedly pulled over with blinking police lights; he then displayed a firearm and ordered the woman into his car, according to her testimony.

Moments before Kulp was prepared yesterday to sentence Mann to a mandatory three-year term for use of a firearm in the commission of an attempted abduction, Kulp agreed to meet in chambers with Kizer and defense lawyer Phillip Liebman. Kulp returned and ordered the continuation.

Witnesses yesterday spoke to Mann's unblemished police record, his military service, and outstanding academic record. And Mann himself testified this morning that he "made a bad decision" in pulling the woman over and flashing a badge but he denied ordering her into his car, which included various pieces of police-type equipment.

Mann faced a mandatory sentence of three years on the firearms charge and up to six months on three other convictions, including impersonating a police officer, according to sentencing guidelines.

"It's just not in his character to be aggressive," Liebman said of Mann, a graduate student in psychological counseling at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Kizer stressed after the hearing that he fully supports to testimony of the victim in the case.

-- Bill McKelway