Governor Ralph Northam’s administration and Attorney General Mark Herring’s office say a lawsuit filed by an employee of Virginia’s government watchdog agency is a political ploy, riddled with false accusations.
An investigator with the Virginia Office of Inspector General is suing her boss in the wake of a controversial parole board investigation. Jennifer Moschetti, the investigator, says in a lawsuit filed in state court that her superiors retaliated against her for coming forward with allegations of wrongdoing at the agency. Moschetti, who was suspended from her job, argues her conduct is protected under Virginia's whistleblower law.
Moschetti also alleges intimidation by the governor’s office which the governor’s office refutes.
Last year, Moschetti was assigned to investigate complaints of fraud and abuse at the Virginia Parole Board following the controversial release of Vincent Martin. Martin was convicted for the 1979 killing of a Richmond police officer and has been eligible for parole since 1994.
A heavily redacted report from that investigation was released last summer. It showed the Virginia Parole Board and its former chairperson violated both state law and parole board policies in Martin’s parole process.
Last month, a more extensive draft copy of the report was leaked to WTVR. It further details Inspector General Michael Westfall’s damning conclusions, including that the current and former parole board chairs attempted to falsify documents, alter meeting minutes and forgo impartiality in Martin’s release.
The lawsuit maintains the new information in the leaked draft was omitted at the direction of the Office of the Attorney General.
A spokesperson for Herring said in an email that the office did not shorten the report.
“Any decisions about what would be addressed in the report, including whether criminal allegations were proper in an administrative report, were made by OSIG and we would be happy for the client agency to be fully transparent about its process, including clarifying any input it had received from this office,” said spokesperson Charlotte Gomer.
Clark Mercer, the governor’s chief of staff, addressed the parole board’s decision and the draft report during a press conference today. He said the parole board and governor were “brave and bold” to release Martin, who was paroled last summer, at a time when parole decisions were being expedited to reduce jail and prison populations due to the pandemic.
Although he said the administration welcomes an independent investigation, he said the release of the draft reports was “incredibly irresponsible.”
“Those draft reports include unsubstantiated claims that are being bandied about as fact by political opponents,” Mercer said. “We stand by our assertion that it was biased - was not objective and we need to get an independent group to come in here and take a look at it.”
The governor has called for an independent investigation to look at how the report was put together, how a draft was made into a final draft and why the unsubstantiated claims were not included in the final draft.
There’s now an active state police investigation looking into the leaks, a lawsuit and an independent investigation.