He collected $1,100 a month and used the money on living expenses and a new truck, The News & Advance of Lynchburg reported Friday. Although Perdue expected the payments to stop, he kept paying them and was actually relieved he was caught so he could admit his wrongdoing.
Perdue was sentenced to 10-month's home confinement, two years of probation, and must pay back $85,850 to the Social Security Administration, which may be challenging since his attorney said Perdue suffers from severe social anxiety.
(Worst Virginians believes things come in threes, so we fully expect another "cashed his dead mother's Social Security checks" story by month's end.)
But Dougherty went a spite too far: "Even this session's license-plate proposals are yawn-inducing. Although you have to wonder who will want to zip around with this on his car: 'Reston! Live Work Play.' Be honest, is there a more soulless spot in the commonwealth than that bland ant colony near Dulles?"
To quote every column George Will ever wrote, "Well." The fact Reston is getting a license plate is hardly newsworthy elsewhere but is hardly scornful. The Virginia DMV allows any locality to apply for its own license plates with 350 prepaid applications. Virginia Beach, and Norfolk State, Hampton, and Christopher Newport universities have license plates, as do non-Virginia colleges such as Clemson, Marshall, and Florida State.
(Tom Jackman of The Washington Post's "The State of NoVa" blog lost his mind over Dougherty's column. In a blog post Friday, he mocked Dougherty's writing style and smeared Norfolk by comparing crime rates. Jackman also pointed out a Norfolk gun store that is a large source of crime guns, even though localities in Virginia have little authority to enact their own gun laws.)
As for Reston itself, it is a postwar planned community built in 1964. When the city opened for business, it progressively took out full-page newspaper ads in 1969 that promoted living in integrated neighborhoods. Reston has four manmade lakes, 55 miles of trails and paths, and at least five "village centers" constructed with buildings cloistered around them to enhance a community look. The Reston Town Center has more than 60 shops, restaurants, businesses, and art galleries. Reston is home to two Fortune 500 companies, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey and National Wildlife Federation.
Not bad for a soulless, bland ant colony.
Rafferty's client, Edgar Coker Jr. of Mineral, was wrongfully accused of rape by a friend at age 15 and followed her advice to plead guilty rather than face adult charges. He spent 17 months in a juvenile facility with an early release, and his accuser recanted. Since then, Coker, who has a learning disability, and his family have tried to clear his name and get it removed from the state's sex offender registry. The accuser's mother is also working with the Coker family.
Coker's lawyer argued before the Supreme Court on Friday that Stafford Circuit Court should've heard his claim that he received ineffective counsel, The Washington Post reported Friday. Not only was Coker innocent, but the family said Rafferty said there was DNA evidence linking Coker to the crime, but a lab report shows DNA testing was never conducted. The family also argues that Rafferty did not talk to school officials who knew the accuser – who also has a learning disability – had a history of false accusations, and that she didn't fight a judge's decision to put Coker's name on the sex-offender registry.
If there is any silver lining in this case, it is that a bill has been proposed in the House of Delegates that would give juvenile defendants a legal avenue to challenge their detentions if new evidence emerges.
Since Coker's conviction, the family was forced to move several times because of harassment, and Coker was arrested at a high school football game for violating his sex-offender status, although he had permission from the school to be on school grounds. Now graduated from high school, Coker has little interest in continuing his education or looking for work because of his sex-offender status.
Even if the Supreme Court sides with Coker and returns his case to circuit court, and his name is expunged from criminal registries, nothing can replace a childhood and young adulthood scarred by others' incompetence and misdeeds.
That's hopefully-soon-to-be-former attorney Denise Rafferty, today's Worst Virginian in the World.
