Mother Of Arlington Teen Killed By Drunk Driver Angry With Prosecutor

ARLINGTON, VA — The mother of an Arlington teenager killed by a drunk driver is urging local officials to rescind their endorsements of Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti for re-election.

Rose Kehoe, the mother of Braylon Meade, a 17-year-old student at Washington-Liberty High School who was killed in the crash last November, is upset that Dehghani-Tafti did not agree to try the driver, also a 17-year-old, as an adult.

In an April 10 letter to state Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington), who has endorsed Dehghani-Tafti for re-election, Kehoe argued that the driver’s “egregious conduct, combined with his age at the time of the crime,” warranted trying him as an adult, which would have allowed him to be tried for aggravated involuntary manslaughter.

Kehoe sent the letter to Favola and other elected and non-elected officials two days before a debate between Dehghani-Tafti and Josh Katcher, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for commonwealth's attorney of Arlington and Falls Church. The Democratic primary election will be held on June 20.

“Out of hand, she rejected the proposition of ever trying a juvenile as an adult, regardless of the nature of the offense and regardless of how close to adulthood — in this case, two months shy of his 18th birthday — the juvenile was at the time of the offense,” Kehoe wrote in the letter, which was also shared with the local news media.

RELATED: Teen Charged In Fatal Crash On Old Dominion Drive In Arlington: Police

The teenager ended up pleading guilty to aggravated involuntary manslaughter, the same charge he would have faced if he had been tried as an adult. In late March, an Arlington judge sentenced the teenager to one year of detention and two years of probation, although Dehghani-Tafti had sought three years in detention.

"As a mother, I know that the death of a child is life shattering. Braylon's death is a devastating loss for his family and friends, and I am heartbroken over it," Dehghani-Tafti said in a statement.

Virginia law allows for transfer of a juvenile to an adult court only in limited situations, according to Dehghani-Tafti, and requires consideration of several factors, like whether the offense was premeditated and whether a weapon was used, versus the mental health of the defendant and the availability of services.

"All this is because we know from both experience and science, kids are different from adults," she said.

Valerie Slater, executive director of the RISE for Youth Coalition, said the juvenile criminal justice system is set up to hold juveniles accountable and to offer a range of services to help prevent them from re-offending.

Based in Richmond, RISE for Youth is a nonprofit group that works on reforming the juvenile justice system in Virginia to increase the likelihood that youth will become law-abiding adults.

During his two years on probation after completing the one year of detention, the teenager who crashed into and killed Meade will likely undergo assessments and receive "tailor-made services" to help with his rehabilitation, services that would not be offered if he had been tried as an adult, Slater said in an interview with Patch.

There are specific criteria in place that determine whether to transfer a juvenile case to the adult justice system, Slater noted. "It can't be our emotions that drive whether we try a juvenile as an adult," she said.

Dehghani-Tafti said she and her team met with Meade's family and "listened to them, and carefully considered this case — with the guideposts of justice and the safety of the community —before determining it was not an appropriate case for transfer."

"We pursued this case with diligence, and asked for the maximum sentence available, three years. After hearing both sides, the court gave 12 months with a period of probation," she said. "I understand why Ms. Kehoe feels the way she does. And I don't want to say anything that adds to their pain. There is simply no good outcome because the only good outcome would be for Braylon to be home."

Meade was killed in a crash at the intersection of Old Dominion Drive and Williamsburg Boulevard in Arlington in the early morning hours of Nov. 11 when an SUV driven by a drunk driver ran into his car, the Arlington County Police Department said in an incident report at the time.

The teenage driver was charged with DUI/involuntary manslaughter after the fatal crash in the Rock Spring neighborhood.

Meade was trying to make a U-turn on Old Dominion Drive “when he was struck at a high rate of speed by the SUV,” police said. The SUV driver was taken into custody at the scene.

Kehoe said in the letter that the judge in the case sentenced the defendant to only one year in a detention facility, "despite the defendant’s history of alcohol and THC abuse, despite him driving 94 miles per hour down Old Dominion Drive, despite him only applying his brakes for one half of one second, and who lied to the police after the devastating crash."

In the more than three years that Dehghani-Tafti, a proponent of criminal justice reform, has served as commonwealth's attorney, no defendant under 18 years old has been tried as an adult in Arlington.

Katcher, a former deputy commonwealth’s attorney for Arlington and Falls Church who worked under Dehghani-Tafti and her predecessor, Theo Stamos, resigned from his job last summer to challenge his former boss for commonwealth's attorney.

In her letter, Kehoe expressed appreciation with the response of the Arlington County Police Department and other officials.

"The line attorneys who handled the case and the victim advocates were kind, well-meaning, and giving of their time," Kehoe wrote in the letter. "These amazing public servants need appropriate leadership from the Commonwealth’s Attorney to carry out the legal obligations of the office. As we went through this process, it was abundantly clear to our family that such leadership is solely lacking."

Kehoe said she hoped her letter would persuade Favola to rescind her endorsement of Dehghani-Tafti.