After a prosecutor’s retirement, Albemarle County’s commonwealth’s attorney has reorganized his workplace and lured an office veteran to return as the point man on guns.
Jordan McKay, who most recently served as a federal prosecutor, will rejoin Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley to focus on gun violence and gun possession prosecutions in the county.
"I saw the opportunity to consolidate functions that had been spread around the office into one position," Hingeley told The Daily Progress, "to give that position a focus on gun violence and gun violence prevention in our community."
Hingeley said that McKay will not only prosecute gun cases but will also serve as the Albemarle County representative to the federally funded Project Safe Neighborhoods program and serve as the office’s primary contact for local law enforcement requests for emergency substantial risk orders, also known as "red flag" orders.
Local law enforcement recently was criticized for declining to issue a "red flag" order for 28-year-old Justin Barbour, who shot and killed two people in the parking lot of a Crozet Harris Teeter grocery store last month before he was shot and killed by an off-duty federal agent who happened to be shopping that day.
Barbour’s family has said they approached law enforcement with worries about his deteriorating mental health about two months before the Feb. 17 tragedy. However, Hingeley downplayed any connection to his new hire.
"It was not at all a result of the Crozet situation," said Hingeley. "There are a lot of specific instances and cases that that come to mind, but they’re part of the big picture."
After the fatal rampage last month, the Albemarle County police chief revealed that Barbour arrived at the Harris Teeter with four firearms and 374 rounds of ammunition, enough to have perpetrated a massacre of national or international notoriety. The chief said, however, that there was insufficient evidence, despite his mother’s desperate plea for help in December, to separate the mentally troubled Barbour from his firearms. While declining comment on that case, Hingeley expressed optimism about the new position.
"I can see," he said, "where it may address the issue of having a person who is familiar with red flag proceedings also be the person whose principal focus is gun violence."
In the wake of the Crozet shooting, the family of Peter Martin, one of the victims, launched a fundraising appeal to create a foundation to address mental health and gun violence. Martin’s father-in-law, Bob Rowan, said he found some encouragement in the new prosecutorial position.
"It’s too late for Peter," Rowan told The Daily Progress, "but it’s the kind of thing we’re interested in."
Rowan said he has gotten the sense that police are attempting to place the blame on Barbour’s mother for her failure to separate her son from his guns. Rowan said that she should not be blamed, even if she did not use words like "threat" and "violence" when speaking with authorities.
"Laypeople don’t know that there are magic words under the statute," said Rowan.
Rowan said that the way police are currently interpreting the red flag law needs improvement.
"I see the appointment of Jordan McKay as a step in right direction," he said, "provided he puts some energy and teeth into this."
Citing a family vacation, McKay declined a Daily Progress interview request.
McKay previously worked in Hingeley’s office from January 2020 until May 2023. Most recently, he served nearly four years as an assistant United States attorney in Charlottesville at the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Hingeley said the experience will prove valuable.
"He has the connections with federal law enforcement," said Hingeley.
McKay is a 2010 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, where he edited the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law. After graduation, he clerked for a Washington, D.C., judge and spent more than six years in private practice at the Charlottesville-based MichieHamlett law firm.
McKay’s new duties, Hingeley said, include serving as the office’s representative to Compstat, a regional crime statistics-sharing effort aimed at combating gun violence.
"We need to do a lot more to to combat gun violence," said Hingeley, "and I want to be a part of it, and reorganizing this position to focus on gun violence in the community is part of that."
The retiree is Alicia Milligan, who largely prosecuted crimes of sexual violence against juveniles as the chief deputy commonwealth attorney.
Milligan said she plans to remain in the community and maintain some involvement in criminal justice but that she hasn’t made any plans yet.
"I’m excited for Jordan," she told The Daily Progress.
McKay is slated to begin his new work as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney on March 24.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
Be First to Comment