Friday, March 24, 2006

Judge & Jury - Tell Horan What YOU Think

Mr. Horan has served as Fairfax County Prosecutor for 39 years. This is an elected position, although you wouldn’t know it based on public reaction to his decision not to criminally charge the police officer who shot and killed our son, Dr. Salvatore J. Culosi. Unlike every member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and every other Commonwealth Attorney in Virginia, Mr. Horan doesn’t seem to keep an official website that would make it easy for the citizens of Fairfax County to communicate with him.

Mr. Horan’s interpretation of Virginia criminal laws is troubling. Under his interpretation, if a police officer anywhere in the state shoots an unarmed, compliant suspect in plain view, and he claims it was an accident, there is not enough evidence to charge the officer. If he’s right, there’s a terrible loophole in Virginia law that allows police officers to gun down anyone regardless of the circumstances without consequences as long as they claim it was an accident.

We think he’s wrong. Virginia Statutes on manslaughter are quite clear. More troubling, is Mr. Horan’s decision not to bring the case in front of a grand jury to decide. Is this the way Fairfax County citizens want their elected prosecutor to operate?

Tell Mr. Horan what you think. (after a deep, deep google search, we managed to find Commonwealth Attorney Robert Horan, Jr’s email address. If you are a citizen of Fairfax County, please make sure to include your name, address and phone # in your email. Perhaps – just perhaps – Mr. Horan might feel obliged to answer the constituents he’s charged to serve.

Sal and Anita
Proud Parents of Dr. Salvatore J. Culosi

1 comment:

kathleen said...

I am so disgusted with Fairfax county. There is a highly exagerrated sense of self-importance within the ranks of all county employees, and an offensively over-wrought confidence in their own competence. It gives this county a strange Brave New World feeling -- and now this horrible death is the most horrific manifestation. What a pleasure to know my tax money is used to outfit swat teams so they can harass and then "accidentally" KILL a doctor at his own home.

My sympathies to the family. Horan will be hearing from me.