THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502040315
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
An attorney for School Board member Charles W. Vincent filed a lengthy argument Friday on why a Circuit Court judge should set aside a jury's verdict that Vincent is guilty of ethics violations.
In a brief to Judge Thomas S. Shadrick, attorney Andrew Sacks said prosecutors failed to prove during a trial last month that Vincent intended to break a state law when he solicited campaign contributions from businesses seeking school building contracts.
A jury convicted Vincent of nine misdemeanor counts and recommended that he be fined $1,800. But Shadrick delayed making the verdict final, citing questions raised by Sacks.
Sacks argued then that the jury's verdict was improper. In order for Vincent to be convicted of a criminal violation of the state Ethics in Public Contracting Act, Sacks argued, prosecutors needed to prove that he knew about the law and intentionally flouted it.
In his brief, filed Friday, Sacks cited cases which he said show that prosecutors not only must prove someone violated a law, but that he or she did so willfully.
``No person, no matter how unpopular or disliked by forces outside of the courtroom, should suffer the burden of a criminal conviction unless and until the strict proof requirements of the law have been met,'' Sacks wrote. ``In this case they simply have not . . .''
Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys said during the trial that Vincent should have known about the law because he had been given copies of it in School Board manuals. Therefore, he said, Vincent was criminally liable for breaking the law.
Humphreys has 10 days to respond to Sacks' written argument.
Vincent's School Board seat is on the line. If the conviction stands, state law requires him to vacate his seat. Shadrick is scheduled to rule on the verdict Feb. 22.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB