Back in February, I predicted that the arrest of former Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Thomson on five federal drug, witness and evidence-tampering charges would open the lid of the “tightly sealed Pandora’s box of cases he had won.” That may finally be happening. On Aug. 26, the Virginia State Bar’s Disciplinary Board revoked Thomson’s law license. The former prosecutor, who tested positive for cocaine, pleaded guilty and faces up to 38 months in federal prison when he is sentenced Sept. 26.
But one key question still hasn’t been answered: Since court records show that the 1994 arrest of Jeffrey Washington for the murder of Winchester drug dealer Carlos Marshall was clearly illegal, which an experienced prosecutor should have spotted immediately, was Thomson doing drugs when he sent Washington down the river?
Washington’s elderly father Franklin, who has been diligently collecting evidence for the past 17 years, told The Washington Examiner
that Virginia State Police, the FBI and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office have all requested copies of a musty old court transcript he obtained years after his son’s trial because it had mysteriously disappeared from the courthouse files.
The Aug. 19, 1994, arrest warrant, sworn to and signed by Winchester Police Detective James Bailous, stated that there was evidence linking the young Army veteran to Marshall’s murder. However, 10 days later at Washington’s preliminary hearing, Bailous denied under oath that he had any witnesses or forensic evidence linking Washington to the crime.
According to a copy of the Aug. 29, 1994, transcript obtained by The Examiner, defense attorney John Prosser asked Bailous: “Did anybody inside the apartment identify the defendant, Jeff Washington, as the person who fired the shot?”
“No sir,” Bailous replied.
“You’ve conducted tests to determine whether Mr. Washington fired a shot, haven’t you?” Prosser asked.
“We have done tests, yes,” Bailous said.
“Do you have those results back?” Prosser asked.
“They’re not back from the lab at this time,” Bailous said.
If Winchester Police had no witnesses and no evidence linking Washington to the crime, they had no legal grounds to arrest him. But Prosser, who later became a judge and suddenly resigned from the bench just two weeks after Thomson’s arrest in January, apparently let this improper arrest go even though his client was facing the death penalty.
There are other anomalies. The Winchester Star’s Bryan Root reported on Feb. 2, 1995, that “the bullet used to kill Marshall was tested by the state Division of Forensic Science in Richmond, Va., but was too damaged to be matched to any gun, including the Tec-9 semiautomatic handgun that Washington was allegedly carrying when Marshall was shot.” Yet the Aug. 17, 1994, police report of the crime scene says responding Investigator David Soboyna “noted a gold bullet laying on a 2×4 stud inside the wall. The only damage to the bullet Investigator Soboyna could note was that it contained Sheetrock powder.”
And why were none of Washington’s co-defendants, who were in Marshall’s apartment when he was slain, ever called by Thomson to testify?
Even though Winchester Police Chief Gary Reynolds urged state officials to investigate the “mess” Thomson had made of the Washington case in a letter dated July 28, 1999, Franklin Washington’s dogged insistence that his son’s case be reopened would probably have been ignored for another 17 years had Thomson himself not been nabbed doing drugs and tampering with witnesses and evidence.
Now Virginia authorities — who long resisted mounting evidence that Washington may have been railroaded by a crooked prosecutor and a compromised defense attorney — are apparently taking a second look.
It’s about time.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
