Steve Descano is the left-wing, Soros-backed commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County, Virginia. We tried to rally support for his opponents — first a Democrat, then an independent — when Descano sought the chief prosecutor’s job in 2019.
Descano prevailed in part because of the extraordinary financial backing of Team Soros. In addition, his promise not to prosecute “low-level” crimes such as marijuana offenses probably resonated with many Fairfax County voters.
Now that he’s the county’s chief prosecutor, Descano receives low marks from even some members of the defense bar. His office is said to be poorly run.
Moreover, Descano’s sympathy for criminals isn’t limited to the “low-level” kind. It extends to vicious child molesters.
The pervert in question is Oscar Zaldana, age 53. He was charged with molesting a young girl, a relative, for a period of seven years. This period included a years-long stretch when the abuse occurred at least once a week while the girl was in grade school. Zaldana was also charged with molesting a second girl who was not a relative.
Zaldana entered a guilty plea. Under the plea deal agreed to by Descano, his sentence is capped at around 17 years.
Judge Thomas P. Mann reluctantly accepted this deal because, in his view, it met the loose standard in Virginia for evaluating plea agreements. However, Mann had harsh words for Descano. According to the Washington Post:
The Fairfax County judge told the girl who sat sobbing in his courtroom Monday that she had been victimized twice — once by the man who had sexually abused her for years and a second time by the prosecutors who handled her case.
“Make no mistake,” Judge Thomas P. Mann said in a stinging rebuke at a sentencing hearing. “Your government has failed you.”
Mann called the plea deal that the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano had reached with Oscar Zaldivar “woefully inadequate”. . . .
Mann called Zaldivar the “worst kind of predator” for molesting his young relative when she was between the ages of 5 and 10.
(Emphasis added)
Zaldivar was indicted on three counts of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of sodomy in connection with the abuse of the relative. He was indicted on abduction with intent to defile and one count of sexual battery in the case of the girl who is not a relative.
Under Virginia law, the sodomy counts carry a mandatory life sentence, since the abuse occurred between an adult and a child under 13. The other counts carry maximum sentences of more than 80 years in prison.
Descano’s predecessor, Raymond Morrogh, offered Zaldivar a plea deal that waived the mandatory life sentences and capped his prison term at 30 years. However, Zaldivar rejected that deal.
The pervert can thank George Soros, along with Descano, for getting off so easily.
We shouldn’t be surprised that Descano agreed to a “woefully inadequate” sentence for a child molester. The left’s critique of the criminal justice system isn’t of the soft libertarian variety. Leftists believe our system is rotten to the core. They see criminals of all kinds (other than right-wingers) as victims of society.
That’s where Descano is coming from. As the Washington Post says in its report on this case, he’s “one of a wave of liberal prosecutors who have won election in recent years across the nation, promising to take a less punitive approach and to undo historical inequities in the justice system.”
Yes. But Descano didn’t promise to go easier on sex offenders.
Unfortunately, no one will undo the current inequity to crime victims like the little girl Zaldano abused for seven years and her family. As the child’s mother said:
The judge can give me 1,001 words of relief, but none of them are going to return the peace of which he spoke of during the sentencing hearing. My worst fear is to think that my daughter goes out on the street after he gets out of prison and she runs into him.
Descano is fine with that possibility. Fairfax County voters should not be.
Currently, there are two efforts to recall Descano. Fairfax County residents should consider supporting them.
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