Catch and Release: The Controversial Policy Fueling Prince William’s Crime Debate

In Prince William County, a catch-and-release style revolving justice system keeps more criminals on the street in the name of fairness.

A shooting at Manassas Mall on July 9, 2024, left two people injured, including one of five suspects in the case, underscores a more significant problem with the justice system in a much more progressive Prince William County.

At odds are those who want to reform the judicial process to make it more fair for criminals and those who wish to prosecute crime to get them off the streets for a determinate period. Caught in the middle are county residents.

Revolving Justice System and Its Implications

In a July 10 letter to her constituents, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega, whose district borders the Manassas mall, highlighted two cases where individuals previously accused of felony offenses were released from custody and re-offended. In the mall shooting, she highlighted that 18-year-old Daevon Russell, one of the individuals involved in the gun battle that left a shooter and a bystander wounded, had been previously arrested after an August 2023 shooting for reckless handling of a gun causing permanent bodily severe injury, a felony.

Court records show Russell went to a classmate’s house and shot the cousin of the classmate, who was also inside the home, without provocation. Russell ran from the home, leaving the victim there to bleed. The victim went into cardiac arrest several times on the life flight to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where doctors were able to stop the bleeding and save his life.

Controversial Decisions and Judicial Diversion

When the case went to court, Judge Petula C. Metzer, on a recommendation from county Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth, released Russell with nothing more than a promise to appear and the stipulations that he “not consume intoxicants and have no contact with the victim.” Ashworth claimed her office argued for no bond at a previous hearing, but she could not produce the bond document to prove her claim.

There was no stipulation in Metzler’s order to not possess or carry a firearm. Russell is now accused of going to the mall armed and getting into an altercation in the food court that escalated to shots fired between the two groups.

In a separate case in her letter, Vega highlighted Arial Moya Claros, who has 11 previous charges involving alcohol and family violence over the last two years, before his arrest on July 7, 2024, for felony abduction by force and misdemeanor domestic violence assault and a second driving while intoxicated (DWI) charge.

Six months earlier, in a January 2024 case, Claros’ landlord sought a restraining order against him after the landlord claimed Claros “took the eviction process personal” and claimed Moya Claros was caught on camera attempting to damage the landlord’s vehicles. A verbal confrontation ensued, and the police responded. The landlord also claimed in his petition for a restraining order that Claros followed his pre-teen daughter home, and she had to hide and call her parents because she was scared.

Claros’ case was adjudicated in a family court diversion program in the two earlier domestic violence instances. Had he been convicted in either of the other domestic violence cases, he would be facing a Class Six felony charge for the Domestic Violence assault, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail.

Now, he faces only a misdemeanor assault charge because there were no convictions in the earlier cases, for which carries a much lighter potential sentence. Despite his history of violence and the escalation of violence with this same victim, Claros was released within hours of his arrest on a simple promise to appear.

Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth points to Virginia law that judges only consider convictions, not pre-trial adjudications, when making bail decisions. This requirement by the code to only consider convictions and Ashworth’s focus on diversionary programs sidesteps the more intense consequences convictions provide for re-offenders.

Citing a long-standing prohibition on making statements about open cases, Ashworth said that her office “takes domestic violence cases very seriously and would never agree to a bond if [her office] believed the accused was a danger to anyone or there was a risk the accused [would abscond].” She also said that her office makes good faith recommendations to the judges regarding bail and diversion, but “the Judges unfortunately do not issue reasons for the decisions that they make.”

Diversion Programs vs. Public Safety

Diversion is a broad term referring to alternatives to prosecution that minimize an offender’s exposure to the criminal system by offering an alternative to prosecution and incarceration. These programs bank on an offender’s desire to stay out of jail, to get them on a path to not re-offend.

Diversion programs can help first-time offenders, but experts warn that overusing them for repeat offenders could weaken domestic violence prosecutions. This overuse might unintentionally support the ongoing cycle of violence that victims experience.

Elisa Castillo, director of domestic violence services at Action in Community Through Service (ACTS) in Prince William County, said, “Diversion programs have their place, but some people, for whatever reason, don’t take the chances they are given seriously and jail has to be part of the equation.”

With Ashworth’s election in 2019, county prosecutors shifted focus from a reputation of being tough on crime to a more diversionary justice system that incarcerates fewer criminals and focuses prosecutorial efforts on programs to rehabilitate criminals before they go to jail. The result is a record-low incarceration population in the county lockup and a heavier workload on the probation office.

Prince William County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Terry Fearnley said the jail population hovers around 540 and represents only the worst of the worst offenders. That number is about half of the jail’s average under former county prosecutor Paul Ebert, who retired after 50 years. Under Ebert, the jail averaged 1,000 inmates.

The jail population is not a bellwether of a healthy justice system but can indicate problems. According to Steve Austin, the county’s director of criminal justice services, referrals from the courts to his pretrial release program have risen nearly 19% during Ashworth’s tenure. Yet, recidivism rates, or the number of accused who commit additional crimes, in his programs have increased by two percentage points in the same period.

Ashworth has said that she does not maintain recidivism statistics, so we are unable to compare how many times people not involved in pre-trial supervision re-offend on her watch. In a statement to Potomac Local, Austin said he could not pinpoint why the recidivism rate in his program has increased despite increased staffing and budgeting.

Community Impact and Political Reactions

Supervisor Vega, reserve Prince William sheriff’s deputy, has been critical of Ashworth’s soft-on-crime policies for some time. She highlighted the two cases because they are “but two examples of the catch and release justice system she sees under Ashworth’s watch.” Vega said she has a unique vantage point of the justice system, previously as a patrol cop and now in her reserve capacity working in the courthouse. “I hear complaints from law enforcement officers telling me that they are dismayed how quickly people they arrest for serious crimes are back on the streets within hours of their arrest and back re-offending, and I hear from constituents that are worried about how unsafe our community has become.

Ashworth is a founding member of the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice (VPPJ), a left-leaning political activist group. VPPJ has been a leading proponent of justice reforms in Virginia that make crime less detrimental for criminals in the name of equal justice.

VPPJ has called for the state legislature to end mandatory minimum sentences and cash bail. A 2021 letter to the General Assembly argued that these reforms would make it more fair for poorer Virginians. Ashworth does not think making the accused put up collateral to leave jail will help criminals return to court, “Requiring a cash bond punishes people for being poor, and it makes bail bond companies rich,” she said.
With the largest prosecutorial team in the commonwealth, Ashworth has made headlines for prosecuting significantly fewer cases and instead focusing on diversionary efforts as an alternative to prosecution. On average, Ashworth’s predecessor, Paul Ebert, prosecuted 350 felony cases monthly. Ashworth comparatively averages to indict 75 125 felonies per month despite a massive influx in funding and personnel.

Her opponents have blamed the lack of prosecutions as the reason for the county’s alarming 70 percent increase in violent crime between 2019 and 2023. In an unsuccessful bid to unseat Ashworth in 2023, Matt Lowery held a press conference highlighting the rise in violent crime last year. “Ms. Ashworth has charted a course virtually identical to the ultra-liberal prosecutors all around us, and Prince William County residents have paid the price with their property, with their health, and even sometimes with their lives,” Lowery said.

In a 2019 interview with Potomac Local News, Ashworth stated that the fair handling of domestic violence cases was one of her top three issues when running for office. “I will assign a senior attorney to exclusively handle domestic violence so we can pay more attention to the serious domestic violence cases and sort out the minor ‘push-and-shove’ cases,” Ashworth said.

According to The National Domestic Violence Hotline, domestic abuse almost always escalates to something bigger without intervention. This escalation appears to be present in the Moya Claros case, where he is now accused of abducting his victim by force- a felony- in his current case.
Russell’s trial on the December charges is set for August 5, 2024. He remains at the Prince William Adult Detention Center with no bond after his arrest for the Manassas Mall incident. He’s scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the mall charges on September 19, 2024.

Moya Claros’ case is set for another adjudication hearing on November 19, 2024. He remains free on a promise to appear.

*This story has been corrected.