Lenox seeks Commonwealth’s Attorney, pledges transparency and diversity

Tracey Lenox is seeking the Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney, pledging more transparency, accountability, and diversity.

Name: Tracey Lenox

Party: Democrat

Town: Manassas

Running for: Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney

Website: votelenox.com, Twitter, Facebook

Work: Criminal Trial Lawyer

Education: Undergraduate at College of William & Mary. Law School at University of Connecticut Law

Community Involvement: Tracey Lenox is a Prisoner Advocate. She serves on the Georgetown University Institutional Review Boards (2013-present). She is the co-head of volunteer training and primary presenter for “So You’re 18” High School Outreach for PWC, Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park (2010-present). Tracey is also a Rules and Discipline Chair. She is a member of the Northern Virginia Soccer Club (2008-present) and was previously a coach and age league commissioner from 2008-2012.

She is a member of the Prince William County Bar Foundation (2015-present), the PWC Evidence-Based Decision Making Policy Board and the Opioid, Pre-trial and Case processing sub-committees (2018-present), and the Manassas Rotary Club. She is President-Elect of the Prince William County Bar Association.

Questions and Answers

PL: What are the top three major issues facing the district you wish to represent? 

Lenox: The top three issues that must be addressed by the new Commonwealth’s Attorney are the following.

1. The lack of transparency and accountability in the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney.

2. The lack of diversity in the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney.

3. A misguided focus on conviction and incarceration for juvenile offenders and misdemeanor/non-violent offenders instead of a focus on using resources to combat serious and violent adult crimes, with this misguided focus usually working to the unequal detriment to communities of color.

PL: What concrete solutions do you propose to address these issues?

Lenox: 1. I would institute robust data collection and analysis of charging decisions, plea offers and sentencing recommendations, among other data, to make clear how decisions are made in the office. I would use the analysis of that data to formulate policies that ensure equal justice and fairness to all communities, while maintaining the safety of our communities. I would make the data collected and the policies formulated a matter of public record, for purposes of both transparency and accountability.

2. With the goal of building an Office of highly skilled, ethical and diverse prosecutors, I would publicly advertise for all positions within the office, and I would actively advertise and recruit highly qualified minorities from local law schools. I would also seek recommendations and assistance from local minority Bar Associations to recruit highly qualified minority lawyers. I would create a welcoming environment in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office that would attract and retain skilled and ethical minority lawyers.

3. I would establish an office culture that prioritizes prosecution of violent crimes and threats to public safety over most misdemeanor, status and non-violent crimes. I would institute office policies to prefer diversion and treatment options for most misdemeanor, status and non-violent crimes, creating paths for these offenders to earn their way to dismissal of charges and to clean records. I would personally scrutinize and be the decision-maker in every case where a juvenile is eligible for transfer as an adult, to ensure that this procedural step is taken only in the most egregious and dangerous of cases. I would institute polices that would seek treatment for offenders suffering from mental illness and drug addiction, instead of relying on incarceration as the default approach to managing these sorts of cases, as a proven method to both reduce the jail population while reducing recidivism.

PL: From your perspective, what is the job description of the office you’re seeking?

Lenox: The Commonwealth’s Attorney is the chief law enforcement officer in Prince William County and the Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park (except for misdemeanors in Manassas Park.) Her office is responsible for charging decisions for a range of criminal cases and traffic offenses, up to and including capital murder.

She is responsible for decisions about how to proceed with each charged case, including 1) which cases to prosecute and which to drop, 2) who gets plea offers and what sorts of offers are made, 3) who should be diverted and treated as a result of their charges with the possibility of dismissal of charges and second chances, 4) which cases should be tried, and 5) what arguments to make about sentencing, including jail.

The Commonwealth is responsible for arguing for or against expungements of criminal records and for arguing for civil forfeiture of assets used in or the product of crimes, when that forfeiture is appropriate. The Commonwealth is responsible to carry through on the statutory duties imposed to secure crime victims’ and witness’ rights and through the Victim-Witness Assistance Program, the Office assists victims of crime as their cases proceed through the criminal justice system.

PL: What expertise will you bring to the office?

Lenox: I have extensive and thorough experience as a criminal trial lawyer. I have been a criminal trial lawyer for 25 years. During that time, 90% of my cases have been criminal cases, along with protective orders and school discipline hearings. I have a thorough knowledge of every kind of case and issue that could be handled by the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, and I have actually tried every kind of case, including traffic charges, drug charges, financial crimes, malicious woundings and other violent crimes of rape, robbery and murder, as well as expungement motions and civil forfeiture hearings. I have tried a capital murder case to verdict. No other candidate has this kind of experience.

I have experience running a small business, as well as managing law practices and other lawyers. For more than 22 years, I have either run my own small lawyer’s office or managed the criminal division of a large Prince William County law firm, which I have done for the last 13 years. No other candidate has this kind of management experience, which will be needed to manage a large group of trial lawyers in the Commonwealth’s Office.

I have extensive training and experience in seeing and evaluating criminal cases from both sides of the litigation. I served as a substitute judge for 11 years, where I was both the fact finder and decision maker in all kinds of cases in the District Courts. No other candidate has this kind of experience.

I have been actively involved in issues affecting criminal justice and public safety in our community for over a decade, including being active in volunteer work in our high schools, with the local Bar Association, and in Evidence Based Decision Making in the Adult Detention Center to reduce the jail population and reduce recividism. I have been actively involved in what is currently called criminal justice reform for most of my 25 year career.

PL: Do you feel that the average citizen is well-informed and understands the workings of local government?

Lenox: I believe that many citizens are well-informed and understand their government, but it can be difficult to be well-informed given the sheer volume of competing information available in the public space and the difficulty in identifying reliable sources.

I also believe that transparency is a critical component of any public office, including the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. In order to develop and maintain open communication with the community, I would continue to develop and strengthen my existing connections to Prince William’s many local faith communities and civic organizations. I would appear regularly at houses of worship and community meetings to speak to the public and to hear what they need from the Commonwealth’s Office and to gather needed information about public safety in our community. I would maintain a policy of attending public meetings at the request of citizens to answer questions about policy and concerns of public safety.

PL: Have you ever made any mistakes in your public life? How have they affected you?

Lenox: Early in my career, I worked with another lawyer in a firm, without verifying the lawyer’s professionalism and diligence. The lawyer failed to properly handle a case that I had entrusted to him, and it resulted in a founded bar complaint against me for failing to properly attend to the client’s case and failing to adequately monitor the actions of the other lawyer. Beyond the Bar’s sanction, this incident resulted in soul-searching about the role of other lawyers in my career and a re-commitment to the highest standards of ethics and professionalism that I have striven to adhere to for the balance of my career. This incident ultimately caused me to be a better and more effective lawyer.

PL: Our readers want leaders in local government. Why should they vote for you?

Lenox: Your readers should vote for me simply because I am the most qualified person in the race for Commonwealth’s Attorney. I have extensive practical legal experience as both an advocate and a judge, and I have the management experience to be an effective leader of a large team of lawyers from the first day in office. I have a demonstrated commitment to transparency, the rule of law and fairness that goes beyond talk. I have a proven track record of advocating for equal justice, combined with a record of active participation in finding solutions for our community that preserve public safety and increase fairness for all.