Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia

Angela Ciolfi, co-editor of this book and co-author of Chapters 1, 16, 17, and 18, joined the Legal Aid Justice Center in 2004 as a Powell Fellow in the JustChildren Program after clerking for U.S. District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay. She served as JustChildren Legal Director from 2010 to 2017, when she became the Director of Litigation and Advocacy. Ms. Ciolfi was the recipient of the Oliver White Hill Award from the Virginia State Bar in 2003 and the Child Advocacy Award from the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division in 2010. She was also named the recipient of the 2017 Virginia Legal Aid Award by the Virginia State Bar Access to Legal Services Committee for her advocacy for children’s interests throughout the Commonwealth. She is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a member of the Virginia Law Review, was elected to the Raven Society and Order of the Coif, and won the VTLA Trial Advocacy Award, James C. Slaughter Honor Award, and the Pro Bono Award.

Julie E. McConnell, co-editor of this book, author of Chapter 11, and coauthor of Chapters 1, 9, 10, 15, and 18, is a Clinical Law Professor and Director of the Children’s Defense Clinic at the University of Richmond School of Law. Through the clinic, she and her students represent, on a pro bono basis, indigent youth throughout Central Virginia who are charged with acts of delinquency. The clinic also represents young people in post-conviction serious offender reviews and adults seeking resentencing on mandatory life sentences that they received as minors. Additionally, the clinic represents guardians seeking custody of undocumented children in special immigrant juvenile status cases.

Previously, Ms. McConnell served six years as a prosecutor in the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, where she was a supervisor in the Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. In that office, she specialized in the prosecution of violent juvenile crimes, domestic violence, elder abuse, child physical and sexual abuse, and domestic homicide cases. Ms. McConnell is a frequent speaker on the topics of best practices in juvenile representation, trauma-informed practice, elder abuse, the impact of child abuse and sexual abuse on children, and clinical education. For more than four years, she was part of a multi-disciplinary team funded by the Office on Violence Against Women, which conducted training on the successful prosecution of elder abuse for law-enforcement and prosecutors throughout the state.

Before becoming a prosecutor, Ms. McConnell served for five years as an assistant public defender and prior to that as a law clerk for the Honorable James W. Benton in the Virginia Court of Appeals. Before law school, she worked with the Virginia ACLU and as a community organizer and lobbyist for several not-for-profits in the Virginia General Assembly. She also served as a counselor and special education teacher at a group home for delinquent youth. Ms. McConnell earned her law degree cum laude from the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Agnes Scott Women’s College. In 2011, she received the Oliver Hill Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court’s “Unsung Hero” Award. In 2015, she was appointed by the Governor to a four-year term on the Advisory Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Prevention, and in 2016 she was selected to serve on the Virginia Bar Association’s Commission on the Needs of Children. In 2017, she was selected as the Richmond YWCA’s Outstanding Woman in Education.

Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., co-author of Chapter 15, is a clinical and forensic psychologist who serves as Forensic Program Consultant for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, where he focuses on the intersection of the mental health and juvenile justice systems. Previously, Dr. Aaron was the Director of the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents (CCCA), Virginia’s only state-operated psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. Prior to that role, he served at CCCA as Clinical Director of an adolescent inpatient unit, as Forensic Coordinator, and as co-Director of Psychology.

Dr. Aaron is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Medical School and Associate Faculty at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Dr. Aaron has a private forensic psychological evaluation practice based in Charlottesville. Areas of specialization include adolescent decisionmaking, mitigation, juvenile transfer, evaluating confession evidence, trial competency, posttraumatic stress, and juvenile justice. He has served as an expert witness in juvenile and circuit courts across Virginia, and as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Aaron has published in the areas of coping with stress, trauma, and juvenile forensic mental health, and has provided invited testimony before the Virginia General Assembly, and has presented across the Commonwealth on such topics as forensic mental health evaluation, adolescent development and legal decision-making, coping with traumatic loss, and clinical assessment of children and adolescents. Dr. Aaron was a member of the Mental Health Workgroup of the Governor’s Task Force on School and Campus Safety and currently serves as a leader on the Charlottesville-Albemarle gang intervention project known as Gang Reduction through Active Community Engagement.

Lisa Bennett, co-author of Chapter17, has advocated on behalf of low-income persons since 1989. Her current work in the JustChildren Program focuses on education and special education rights of juveniles by providing individual representation to court-involved youth in the City of Richmond’s schools, by training parents and other professionals, and by advocating for positive policy and legislative changes. Lisa obtained her law degree from the T.C. Williams School of Law of the University of Richmond.

Kellyn Blaisdell, co-author of Chapters 3 and 4, is a research assistant at the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy (ILPPP), where she studies how common cognitive biases can lead to unreliable and inaccurate conclusions within the legal system and forensic science disciplines. Ms. Blaisdell graduated from Princeton University with a degree in psychology and a certificate in neuroscience in 2016. She will begin a doctoral program in clinical psychology in the Fall of 2018.

Kelli Hall Burnett, author of Chapter 6, is the deputy commonwealth’s attorney supervising the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Division of the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Richmond. She has been a prosecutor since 2004, and has specialized in JDR practice since 2006. Ms. Burnett handles child abuse, domestic violence and juvenile delinquency cases and oversees elder abuse prosecutions for Richmond. In 2016, she received the Chappell-Morris Trial Lawyer Award from the Virginia State Chapter of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which recognizes professionalism, high ethical and moral standards, excellent character, and outstanding trial skills. She is a faculty member for the I.M.P.A.C.T. program presented by the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, which instructs prosecutors on topics specific to JDR practice. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Memphis in 2000 and obtained her law degree from the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law in 2004. Before becoming an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, she was law clerk to the Honorable David G. Lowe, Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at Richmond. Ms. Burnett is the mother of two daughters.

Rhanelle Collins-Meredith, author of Chapter 7, works for the Office of the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney as the supervising assistant commonwealth’s attorney for the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Division. Ms. Collins-Meredith joined the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in October 2010. Previously, she worked with the Hopewell Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and with Temple Law Offices in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Virginia Union University and Georgetown University Law Center. Her practice has been devoted to criminal matters originating in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court since 2010, with an emphasis on child physical and sexual abuse and domestic violence cases. Ms. Collins-Meredith currently serves as Chair of the City of Richmond Family Violence Fatality Review Committee, a member of the Human Trafficking Regional Law Enforcement Collaborative, and a member of the Regional Child Fatality Review Committee.

Robin L. Foster, M.D., author of Chapter 12, is the director of the child protection team at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Foster earned a B.S. in chemistry from the College of William and Mary and an M.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University. She completed her pediatric residency at the Medical College of Virginia and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. She is board certified in pediatrics, pediatric emergency medicine, and child abuse pediatrics. Dr. Foster is a member of the Virginia Department of Health’s State Child Fatality Review team. She served as President of the Board for “Prevent Child Abuse Virginia” and the Richmond Midnight Basketball League as well as serving as a member of Richmond CASA, Virginia Poverty Law Center, Reach Out and Read, The New Community School, and the Partnership for Families Northside/Robins Foundation. She received the Outstanding Woman Award in Health and Science from the YWCA and the Champion for Children Award from “Prevent Child Abuse Virginia” in 2009. In 2013 she received the Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Child Advocate Award and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond Spirit of Advocacy Award. Dr. Foster was selected by Virginia Lawyers Weekly for its Influential Women of Virginia Class of 2015. She received the Virginia Governors Award EMS for Children in 2015 and the Reach Out and Read Virginia Coalition Literacy Champion Award in 2016. She also received the Medical Society of Virginia Salute to Service Award for the Uninsured and Underserved in 2016. Dr. Foster was inducted into the VCU School of Medicine chapter of AOA in 2017. She lectures throughout Virginia and the United States on the topic of child abuse and neglect for DCJS, law enforcement, commonwealth’s attorneys, child protective services, CASA, hospitals, residents, and medical students.

Sandra L. Karison, co-author of Chapter 2 and author of Chapters 13, and 14, is Director of the Court Improvement Program in the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia, where she develops and facilitates the integration of procedures and best practices for court cases involving juvenile and family law. A particular focus for the program is improving the court system’s ability to manage and resolve cases involving child abuse, neglect, foster care, and permanency planning for dependent children under state and federal laws and policies. This work is facilitated by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant first awarded to Virginia in February 1995. Ms. Karison also supports implementation of Judicial Council of Virginia standards for guardians ad litem for children and incapacitated adults.

Ms. Karison previously served as Assistant Director of Legal Research in the Office of the Executive Secretary, as Staff Attorney for the Court Improvement Program, and as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Richmond representing the Richmond Department of Social Services and Children’s Services Act office. She also has worked for Rappahannock Legal Services and in private practice, where she served as guardian ad litem for children and incapacitated adults. Ms. Karison is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law.

Mary E. Langer, co-author of Chapter 10, is a presiding judge in the Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. Before her appointment in 2016, Judge Langer worked as a Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney in the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County, as an Assistant Public Defender in the City of Richmond, and in the Office of the Virginia Attorney General. From 2000 through 2016, Judge Langer’s practice focused on criminal matters originating in the J&DR court, with an emphasis on cases involving the sexual and physical abuse of children. Judge Langer is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Boston College Law School. She is the inaugural recipient of the Virginia S. Duvall Award presented by the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, the 2013 Women of Achievement Award recipient from the Metropolitan Richmond Women’s Bar Association, a 2015 YWCA Outstanding Women Awards honoree, and the recipient of the 2017 Hill-Tucker Public Service Award from the Richmond Bar Association.

Dr. Daniel Murrie, co-author of Chapters 3 and 4, is Director of Psychology at the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy (ILPPP), an interdisciplinary program in mental health law, forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, and neuropsychology. Institute activities include academic programs, forensic clinical evaluations, professional training, research, and public policy consultation and review. Dr. Murrie is also a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and he teaches a course in psychology and juvenile justice in the University of Virginia School of Law.

Dr. Murrie’s duties at the ILPPP involve training Virginia clinicians to perform forensic evaluations and supervising the ILPPP’s psychiatric, postdoctoral, and practicum trainees. Within the ILPPP’s forensic clinic, he performs criminal and civil forensic psychological evaluations of juveniles and adults. As a researcher, Dr. Murrie has published works in over 50 peerreviewed scientific studies and three books on topics related to forensic psychological assessment, diagnostic labeling, and juvenile justice. Much of his current work addresses bias and quality control in forensic evaluations.

Nancy VanLuyn Oglesby, co-author of Chapter 2 and author of Chapters 5 and 8, has been a career prosecutor in the Commonwealth of Virginia for over 19 years. She is currently Virginia’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Resource Attorney for the Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Services Council. Ms. Oglesby has handled thousands of domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault cases. She has also provided training on these issues to many professionals, including prosecutors, law enforcement officers, advocates, medical professionals, and forensic interviewers. She has been appointed by four Virginia governors to statewide advisory boards, commissions, and task forces devoted to combatting domestic and sexual violence. She also served a key role in the development of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services’ model law enforcement policies related to domestic and sexual violence.

In 2011, Ms. Oglesby was chosen by the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys to receive the Virginia S. Duvall Distinguished Juvenile and Domestic Court Prosecutor Award. She also was recognized in 2012 as the Outstanding Woman of the Year in the area of Law and Government by the Richmond YWCA. In 2015, she co-founded Justice 3D, a company that offers training to allied professionals nationally on issues of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault.

Ms. Oglesby is married and has two daughters, Mackenzie and Berkeley.

Hon. Frank W. Somerville, co-author of Chapter 9, graduated from Davidson College in 1974. After teaching History and Government for two years, he returned to school and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1979. He was appointed in 1994 as a Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge for the 16th Judicial District and currently hears cases in Culpeper County.

Amy Walters, co-author of Chapter 16, is a clinic supervisor and attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. She joined the Center in 2014 to supervise University of Virginia School of Law students in the health law clinic and child advocacy clinic. Ms. Walters previously worked at the Maryland Disability Law Center, where she joined the staff as a Skadden Fellow after clerking for U.S. Magistrate Judge F. Bradford Stillman. She received her B.A. and law degrees from the University of Virginia, where she received the Claire Corcoran Award for Public Service.