A Virginia prosecutor backed by the progressive billionaire George Soros botched yet another homicide case, freeing a second murder suspect in less than a month.
Loudoun County judge James Plowman said the office of Commonwealth's Attorney Buta Biberaj (D.) "exhibited a phenomenal series of missteps" while prosecuting a delivery driver charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Biberaj's office was delinquent in providing defense attorneys with evidence and subpoenas for expert witnesses, prompting Plowman to dismiss the case last week, the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported.
The bungled murder case is the latest misstep by the Soros-backed prosecutor. Biberaj's office in October mistakenly released a man charged with murder who fled to Georgia before he was caught by police. Plowman—who served as the county's commonwealth's attorney from 2004 to 2019—this year took the rare step of pulling Biberaj from two cases, one of which involved her office's attempt to "sell" a plea agreement by concealing past robbery charges.
Soros's Justice and Public Safety PAC contributed over half-a-million dollars to Biberaj's 2019 campaign. She is among three other progressive prosecutors who that year ousted veteran prosecutors in Northern Virginia, along with Fairfax County's Steve Descano (D.) and Arlington County's Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (D.).
Michele Burton, a deputy prosecutor in Biberaj's office, was set to argue that Abdul Waheed knew and served as a getaway driver for Furqan Syed. Both Waheed and Syed were charged with the murder of Najat Chemali-Goode, a 57-year-old mother of two who was shot to death in her home in December 2021. Burton planned to have a forensic pathologist and a member of the Loudoun County sheriff's office testify.
The testimony would have substantiated Waheed's ties to Syed, allowing Plowman to put the matter before a jury. Biberaj's office obtained phone records and text messages between the two that apparently showed their plans to kill Chemali-Goode.
But Burton didn't send Waheed's defense attorney the records, nor the notification of witness testimony, in time for a trial.
As a result, Plowman granted the attorney's request to dismiss Waheed's charges, given the lack of evidence from the prosecution. Syed will stand trial in April for the murder, along with five related charges. He is being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
Burton, who also handled October's missing murderer case, took responsibility in court for the failure. "I told my paralegal I would do it, and I got preoccupied," she told Plowman. "I will fall on my sword and say that was my fault."
But Andrew Kersey, a former prosecutor in nearby Fairfax County, told the Washington Free Beacon that Burton should go further and resign.
"If that was an attorney in private practice, that would be a malpractice issue—it would be an issue with the bar," Kersey said. "It seems that we have almost weekly mistakes coming from that office—big mistakes on big cases. And I don't know how you face the victims of crime in Loudoun County and say, 'My bad. We're going to do better next time.'"
Biberaj's office declined to comment.
Loudoun County sheriff Mike Chapman said his office gave Biberaj's prosecutors a "detailed, thorough, and compelling case for trial," and he was "extremely disappointed" with how the case was handled.
"Our detectives, analysts, digital forensics examiners, and crime scene investigators poured their hearts and souls into this investigation, working countless hours to ensure that Najat's family received justice," Chapman said. "Our community deserves better."