Missteps plague top Norfolk prosecutor: Ramin Fatehi under scrutiny for mishandled cases, rejected plea deals

In August 2018, 15-year-old Monti Hughes was shot and killed during an altercation in the Broad Creek neighborhood.

The 19-year-old who pulled the trigger, Remono Newby, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and felony homicide — which can carry a life sentence in prison.

But Newby’s jury trial in April didn’t go as planned: The city’s newly elected Commonwealth’s Attorney, Ramin Fatehi, who handled the case personally, arrived in court without any witnesses.

The judge chastised Fatehi. The trial had to be called off.

A plea agreement was hammered out that same day, reducing Newby’s second-degree murder charge to voluntary manslaughter, a crime that carries a sentence of 10 years in prison. And the rest of his charges were dropped.

The case is one of a series of courtroom missteps that has put a target on Fatehi since he took office in January. Several high-profile murder trials have fallen apart in the courtroom. There’s been a spike in plea agreements from his office that have been rejected by Norfolk judges for being too lenient. And the office has seen an exodus of prosecutors.

Those problems have caused headaches at City Hall, where council members and law enforcement officials are under pressure to rein in rising violent crime, including a scourge of homicides that has reached levels not seen since the 1990s. And some are placing the blame on Fatehi for failing to hold violent offenders accountable.

“Those committing crimes must be held accountable in our courts,” Mayor Kenny Alexander told The Pilot. “Norfolk residents deserve a prosecutorial philosophy and practice that keep offenders off the streets.”

Fatehi was elected in November 2021. He ran on a “progressive” platform that included support for the legalization of marijuana. He worked for seven years under former Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Greg Underwood.

The first signs of trouble within the office bubbled up when prosecutors failed to get convictions in two high-profile murder cases.

Over the summer, two of the four men accused of taking part in the 2011 killing of Old Dominion University student Christopher Cummings, a 20-year-old nephew of the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, had their charges dismissed after their attorneys argued prosecutors had mishandled their cases. Fatehi conceded mistakes had been made.

The trial of a third defendant ended in a hung jury. And the fourth, Rashad Dooley, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, but acquitted of 10 other charges, including first-degree murder.

In another case, murder charges against a man accused of fatally shooting three people outside a downtown Norfolk bar in March, including a Virginian-Pilot reporter, were dismissed after two witnesses failed to show up for a preliminary hearing. The accused killer was freed from jail a week later.

Of the 11 jury trials for homicide between January and October, a guilty verdict was reached in only three cases — a less-than 30% conviction rate, according to data from the Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk’s office.

At the same time, the number of plea agreements rejected by Norfolk Circuit Court judges — something that used to be a rarity — has risen dramatically in 2022. Judges rejected 29 proposed plea deals in felony cases between January and November, more in 11 months than in the previous three years combined.

One judge, Judge Everett Martin, was responsible for just under half of those rejected plea agreements. Judge Jack Doyle, who is Councilwoman Courtney Doyle’s husband, rejected six of them.

A well-respected defense attorney who asked to remain anonymous told The Pilot he hadn’t seen anything like it in his decades working in the city.

“I’ve hardly ever seen plea agreements rejected. Now, it’s routine for them to be rejected,” he said.

Prosecutors typically reach plea agreements with defendants because it guarantees a conviction rather than facing the uncertainty of a trial. Those deals are usually hammered out by reducing the number or severity of charges in exchange for a guilty plea.

Defense attorneys who handle some of the city’s most violent cases also said they’ve noticed a change in the plea deals offered by prosecutors.

“I have seen my clients get, from my perspective, better results lately. A lot of gun charges that have mandatory time, we’ve been able to work out deals,” defense attorney Eric Korslund said.

Korslund said he didn’t know whether these changes were the result of new policies implemented in Fatehi’s office, or because of police staffing issues.

“The police department is significantly understaffed. Does the problem squarely lie with the prosecutor’s office in handling cases that are given to them from the police department? Or is the police department not giving them good cases?” Korslund said.

Emily Munn, another well-known criminal defense attorney, said she’s noticed the change as well.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the offers on guilty pleas my clients have been given this year,” Munn said. “The judges have not always been receptive to accepting them, however, which is very frustrating. I wish they would because they’re good for my clients.”

Fatehi conceded errors were made in several major trials. He also said his office is facing increasing issues with witness intimidation and problems stemming from the police officer shortage.

Asked why there’s been an increase in rejected plea agreements, and if those rejections are the result of more lenient plea deals, Fatehi sidestepped the question.

“You’d have to ask the judges,” he said. “Every case is considered it on its individual merits. We stand by the offers that we made, and we believe that they were in the interest of justice.”

Reached by phone Friday, Martin declined to comment.

Fatehi’s office, meanwhile, is experiencing an exodus of attorneys since he took office. Between January and September, 19 of the office’s 40 prosecutors left, including several senior level attorneys. More than half left to work in the Chesapeake and Suffolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices. Fatehi declined to provide the turnover rate in previous years, but conceded “it’s much higher this year.”

Fatehi said the reason for the high turnover is a combination of low pay compared with surrounding jurisdictions and a national lawyer shortage that has made hiring more difficult.

Complaints about staffing issues and mishandled cases have trickled up to City Hall, where officials are racing to contain record homicide rates and bolster the police force, which is down more than 200 officers.

The city has recorded more than 60 homicides in 2021 and 2022 — a 50% jump above the average annual homicide rate in the previous five years.

Alexander said people “are really, really concerned” about the issues this year in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. There have been increasing complaints that Fatehi’s policies and practices are “frustrating” the city’s police officers, he said.

“They’re frustrated that when they make an arrest, before you know it, that same person is back out. And in some cases they re-arrest that person within hours on another charge,” Alexander said. “It is really putting a strain on our officers and our resources.”

Daniel Berti, daniel.berti@virginiamedia.com