FACULTY
Susan Barr, Office of the Attorney General / Richmond
Dana R. Cormier, Law Office of Dana R. Cormier / Staunton
Dr. Mark E. Hastings, Ph.D., Private Practice / Leesburg
Randi S. Lanzafama, VADOC, Community Corrections / Richmond
Dr. Daniel Montaldi, Ph.D., Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation / Burkeville
Jacqueline M. Reiner, Jacqueline M. Reiner, PLLC / Richmond
Dr. Anita Schlank, Ph.D., Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation / Burkeville
Seth C. Weston, Law Office of Seth C. Weston, PLC / Roanoke
Erin D. Whealton, Office of the Attorney General / Richmond
COURSE PLANNER & MODERATOR
Seth C. Weston, Law Office of Seth C. Weston, PLC / Roanoke
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Susan Barr, Office of the Attorney General / Richmond
Susan Barr is the Senior Assistant Attorney General & Section Chief in the Sexually Violent Predators (“SVP”) Civil Commitment Section of the Office of the Attorney General for Virginia. She has been in the SVP Section since May 2009 and has been the Section Chief since January 2019. Prior to joining the SVP Section, Ms. Barr was in the Office's Correctional Litigation Section, where she represented the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Ms. Barr is a native of Richmond. She graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in International Studies. Thereafter, she graduated from the College of William & Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1989. Ms. Barr began her legal career as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, in Washington, DC. She transferred to the Solicitor’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1994, where she represented federal agencies in employment-related litigation until returning to Richmond in 2000.
Dana R. Cormier, Law Office of Dana R. Cormier / Staunton
Dana Cormier was born in Laconia, N.H. and graduated in 2000 from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, where he served on the Brandeis Law Review and received the Brandeis Writing Award, the International Academy of Trial Attorneys Trial Advocacy Award, and the Edward Post Litigation Skills Award. He graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in 1988 with a B.A in American Literature and then attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before joining the Academy's resident theater company for its 1990-91 season. After attending Columbia University for one semester, he finished his graduate studies at Hunter College with an M.A. in Theater, focusing on Dramatic Literature.
Before opening his solo law office specializing in criminal defense and family law, Mr. Cormier practiced employment and business litigation with a firm in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and served as chairman of the firm's Employment Law Group. He has litigated civil, commercial, and criminal cases in the state, federal, and administrative courts of Virginia, West Virginia, Texas, New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. He has represented dozens of respondents in Sexually Violent Predator cases since 2008.
Mr. Cormier lives in Staunton, Virginia, and he is an active member of the Criminal Defense and Family Law Sections of the Virginia State Bar.
Dr. Mark E. Hastings, Ph.D., Private Practice / Leesburg
Dr. Mark Hastings, Ph.D., CSOPT, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider in the Commonwealth of Virginia with 20+ years of experience conducting a wide range of forensic psychological evaluations and providing expert testimony. Dr. Hastings has a private practice conducting forensic psychological evaluations throughout the mid-Atlantic region with a particular emphasis on sex offender evaluations. He has been conducting Sexually Violent Predators (SVP) evaluations for the CRC, defense, and OAG since 2007, and he has been conducting Sexual Dangerous Persons (SDP) evaluations for the court and United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina since 2010. Dr.
Hastings also works as a Court Psychologist at the Loudoun County Mental Health Center, where he has been conducting court-ordered forensic psychological evaluations for the past 20 years, including presentence sex offender (§ 19.2-300), sanity at the time of the offense, and competency to stand trial evaluations. He has previously provided outpatient and inpatient sex offender treatment as well as treatment for personality disorders, anger management, and domestic violence.
Dr. Hastings is also an Assistant Research Professor at George Mason University, where he conducts research on violence risk, psychopathy, offender treatment, and recidivism. His research has been presented at national-level scientific meetings such as the American Psychological Association, American Society of Criminology, and American Psychology-Law Society, and published in peer-reviewed journals. He has also taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in forensic psychology and assessment and provided forensic psychology-related training at both the local and state levels.
Randi S. Lanzafama, VADOC, Community Corrections / Richmond
Randi Lanzafama is the Sex Offender Program Manager for Virginia Department of Corrections/Community Corrections and has been in this position since January, 2007. She is responsible for sex offender programming in the 43 probation and parole districts including, but not limited to, sex offender treatment, polygraph, GPS and conditional release. Ms. Lanzafama holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. She earned her Master of Education in Agency Counseling from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. Additionally, she is a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider with the State of Virginia.
Ms. Lanzafama began her career in the criminal justice field as a Senior Case Manager with the Community Diversion Incentive Program, Petersburg, Virginia. After a time in that position, she began working in juvenile corrections and spent six years as a Juvenile Probation and Parole Officer. In 1993, Ms. Lanzafama began working as a Probation and Parole Officer with District 35 Probation and Parole, Manassas, Virginia. In 1996, she was promoted to the first Senior Probation and Parole Officer Sex Offender Specialist position created in Virginia. In that capacity, she helped develop the policies and standards for the supervision of sexual offenders in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She remained in this role until 2005 when she was promoted to Deputy Chief Probation and Parole Officer. Ms. Lanzafama was named Virginia Probation and Parole Association 2001 Line Officer of the Year.
Dr. Daniel Montaldi, Ph.D., Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation / Burkeville
Daniel Montaldi, Ph.D., is the Forensic Director for the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR). He was previously chief evaluator and later director for the Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center (ACPTC) and senior psychologist and later administrator of the Florida Sexually Violent Predator Program.
Dr. Montaldi received his doctorate in clinical psychology at Texas A&M University. He has published on various SVP relevant topics, such as actuarial assessment and probability theory, clinical constructs and legal concepts, and SVP assessments models. During his administration, the Florida SVP program conducted recidivism research on individuals who were recommended for SVP commitment.
Jacqueline M. Reiner, Jacqueline M. Reiner, PLLC /
Richmond
Jacqueline M. Reiner has more than 20 years of experience litigating bench and jury trials in the state and federal courts across Virginia. Ms. Reiner graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law, where she received the VTLA Student Trial Advocacy Award. She has also taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor and lectures on professionalism and courtroom decorum.
Ms. Reiner began her career as a prosecutor for the City of Richmond and currently serves the Commonwealth of Virginia as a substitute judge. She is licensed to practice in all state courts in both Virginia and New York, as well as the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Federal Claims Court. Ms. Reiner’s current practice focuses on adult and juvenile criminal litigation, including defending capital murders; murders, robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes; narcotics and firearm offenses; traffic offenses; sexually violent predator civil commitment litigation; and family law.
Dr. Anita Schlank, Ph.D., Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation / Burkeville
Seth C. Weston, Law Office of Seth C. Weston / Roanoke
Seth C. Weston is a sole practitioner operating his own law firm, the Law Office of Seth C. Weston, PLC, in Roanoke. Mr. Weston has had a unique legal career that has seen him go from patrolling the streets around the U.S. Supreme Court as a police officer to presenting a case to the U.S. Supreme Court as a lawyer after it granted certiorari based upon his argument during a criminal trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. He was a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, DC, for approximately 12 years, serving as a patrol officer, an investigator in the First District Gun Recovery Unit (a vice unit investigating illegal firearms), a patrol Sergeant, an Agent in the Office of Internal Affairs, and ended his career as a detective Sergeant in the Seventh District. Mr. Weston received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including being recognized nationally as a “Top Cop” by the National Association of Police Organizations for his investigative work in a pipe bombing case, which was featured on America’s Most Wanted. He accomplished all this while attending the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School at night and working full time as a law enforcement officer.
In 2003, Mr. Weston began his career as a lawyer as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Roanoke, after which he opened his own law practice in 2006. He regularly tries cases in all levels of federal and state courts throughout the greater Roanoke Valley and Southwest Virginia and has appeared before and argued cases at all levels of the Virginia appellate court system as well as the United States Supreme Court. He is a Past President of the Board of Governors of the Criminal Law Section of the Virginia State Bar, and a Past President of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (VACDL). Lastly, and most importantly, he is blessed with an incredible wife and three beautiful children and is thankful every day for them.
Erin D. Whealton, Office of the Attorney General / Richmond
Erin Dugan Whealton is a Senior Assistant Attorney General working in the Sexually Violent Predators Civil Commitment Section of the Office of the Attorney General. She received her B.A. from the University of Richmond in 1997 and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2001. Before coming to the SVP section in January 2009, she worked as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney prosecuting crimes of domestic violence and sexual assault both in the city of Hampton and then in the county of Gloucester. During her tenure at the Office of the Attorney General, she has provided training on issues involving sexually violent predators to prosecutors, defense attorneys, sex offender treatment providers, probation officers, and victim witness advocates at various programs across the Commonwealth.