Loudoun County Democratic Committee Chairman Evan Macbeth released the following statement after Caitlin Gibson reported in Thursday’s Washington Post that information and documentation was withheld by Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman when he requested that Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos determine if a prosecution of Loudoun Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio would be necessary:

“Based on new information from Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos, it appears possible that  Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman and Chairman of the Board of Supervisor Scott York purposefully withheld information in an attempt to shield Loudoun Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio from prosecution.

It has been reported that the Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney was given a complaint filed by a former staff aide to Delgaudio but was not given the background documentation provided to Loudoun County.

Combined with recent reports about Loudoun County officials denying FOIA requests about this potential misuse of County resources, this new reporting makes clear that the all-Republican Board of Supervisors and Republican Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman are doing everything they can to keep potentially damaging information away from the public.

The public deserves to know what documentation Delgaudio’s former aide turned over to Loudoun County. The public deserves to know what documentation was turned over to Commonwealth’s Attorney Plowman and why the Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney was not given all the information available to Loudoun’s Republican office holders.

Loudoun County residents deserve answers, not a cover up.”

The Washington Post report can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/loudoun-pac-files-petition-for-delgaudio-records/2012/10/18/d953b32c-194b-11e2-aa6f-3b636fecb829_blog.html

The Post reported in part:  Prior to the board’s Oct. 3 vote, York noted that a copy of Mateer’s complaint was given to Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney James E. Plowman (R) for review several months ago. Plowman in turn referred the matter to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office in Arlington County. The Arlington County commonwealth’s attorney, Theo Stamos (D), did not recommend pursuing charges, York said.  In an interview, Stamos said she was sent a copy of Mateer’s statement but did not receive any of the records or documents to which the statement referred.  “The question was, based on that letter, whether there was a basis upon which a prosecution might go forward,” Stamos said. “My assessment, from the statement alone, was that it would be extremely difficult to mount any type of a successful prosecution, as it was based on the observations of a now-terminated employee.”