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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010 McDonnell on fast pace restoring felons’ rights BY ANITA KUMAR
richmond—Virginia Gov. Rob- ert F. McDonnell is on track to restore voting rights to more fel- ons than either of his Democratic predecessors — a surprising de- velopment for a conservative Re- publicanwhoservedasalaw-and- order attorney general. Hehaswonpraise fromAfrican
Americans and civil rights groups for scrapping plans to require es- says as part of felons’ applications and vowing instead to act on each casewithin 60 days. His administration has ap-
proved780of889applicants—88 percent, according to the Secre- tary of the Commonwealth of Vir- ginia’s Office, which handles the requests. “It was pretty darn fast,” said
James Bailey, regional director of the Hampton RoadsMissing Vot- er Project, which encourages fel- ons to apply for restored rights. “I give him props for sticking to what he said hewas going to do.” Bailey has helped 10 applicants get their rights restored since the
state’s revamped program went into effect inMay, and he plans to hold a clinic this fall to encourage more to apply and to reassure those who might be worried that they have towrite an essay. Under Virginia’s Constitution,
residents convicted of a felony automatically lose the right to vote, serve on a jury or own a gun. The governor can restore voting rights to thosewhohe thinkshave redeemed themselves. About 300,000 felons in Virginia who have served their time have not had their rights restored. A governor’s restoration of vot-
ing rights is the first step in the process; restoring the rights of gun ownership and jury service is more complex. McDonnell’s Democratic pre-
decessor, Timothy M. Kaine, re- stored the rights of a record 4,402 felons during his term. Before him, Democrat Mark R. Warner restored the rights of 3,486,while Republicans James S. Gilmore III and George Allen restored rights to 238 and 460 felons, respective- ly.
Republicans have often assert-
ed that Democratic governors re- store voting rights tomore felons because they are more likely to vote for left-leaning politicians. Mark Rozell, a political scien-
tist at George Mason University, said the changeswill not help the term-limited governor or his par- ty politically and might even prompt complaints from conser- vatives. “Bob McDonnell is going against type,” Rozell said. “It doesn’t fit the image in people’s heads.” In late May, McDonnell an-
nounced a revamped process, which included shaving the time nonviolent felons must wait to apply after serving their sentenc- es fromthree years to two years. Since then, his administration
has restored rights to 585 of 641 applicants who were convicted of nonviolent felonies (91 percent) and191of244whowereconvicted of violent felonies (78 percent), according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office. All ac- tions were completed within 60 days of receiving the necessary paperwork fromcourts and other state agencies, McDonnell
Lawyer sues ex-client, then agrees to pay him
lewis from C1
proportionate to the value of the dispute,” DiMuro said, but Lew- is’s settlement was a lousy deal. Firestone, through DiMuro, pur- sued Lewis for legalmalpractice. Firestone’s ex-wife had used
Fairfax attorneyDavid L.Duff for the divorce. Duff ’s total bill: $73,000. DiMuro noted that three law-
yers fromLewis’s firmworked on Firestone’s case, and two lawyers often appeared at meetings or depositions that would normally be handled by one lawyer. In 2003, Lewiswas only billing $575 an hour, while two young associ- ates billed at rates closer to $250 an hour. Lewis said Firestone was a
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difficult client, presenting nu- merous problems, and that com- paring one side’s legal bills with the other’s is unfair. Firestone had problems with taxes, his law practice and bookkeeping, suf- fered from depression and was bent on revenge against his wife, Lewis said. But DiMuro said, “This was a
garden-variety divorce with a modest estate for this area. No child custody issues. Their in- comes were modest.” Besides their house in Fairfax County, the Firestones owned a small office condo and a few other assets. Firestone also had a $1.1 million inheritance from his parents, DiMuro said, which Lewis suc- cessfully kept separate from the marital estate. Lewis said that’s a simplistic
analysis. “This case presented so many more issues that were big- ger than getting unmarried,” he said. “I had the high-mainte- nance client.” He said Firestone signed a contract acknowledging thatmultiple lawyersmightwork on his case and that he had 30 days to challenge a bill, which he never did. One of Firestone’s quirks was
his heated denial that his wife had cancer, Lewis claimed. Lewis said he never really pursued the issue, and the case ended in July 2004. But several years later, in a casual conversationwithDuff, he learned that Beverly Firestone had died of cancer not long after
the divorce. “My head exploded,” Lewis
said. “I was sickened by that. I was horrified to think the case accelerated that.Nothing ismore stressful than a divorce case. Stress kills.” So, he sued Steve Firestone in
October 2009. Firestone said he never told
Lewis hiswife didn’t have cancer. “I told himI wondered if it was a ploy to increase my alimony ex- posure,” Firestone said. In pretrial discovery, DiMuro
obtained billing records for all of Lewis’s cases, not just the Fires- tone case. He found examples of days where Lewis billed for 39 hours; 31 hours; 40 hours; 71 hours. Lewis said that was the result
of “block billing,” in which he entered the time for many days all at once. In a 16-month period in 2003
and 2004, DiMuro calculated in court records, Lewis billed his clients for 3,620 hours, or an average of 226 hours per month, or 7.4 hours per day, 365 days per year. Lewis said he worked nights
and weekends, in addition to his bar duties and television hosting. As the suit progressed in Fair-
fax Circuit Court, Lewis’s attor- neys angered Fairfax judges by failing to respond to basic re- quests and orders. The judges started slapping Lewis’s attor- neys with financial sanctions. First $2,000. Then another $2,000. Then $5,000, $7,500 and finally a $10,515 hit after Lewis failedto appear forhisdeposition lastmonth. Lewis said his attorney Mi-
chael P. Freije had released him fromappearing, although he had been subpoenaed. Freije told Judge David S. Schell there had been a misunderstanding, but Schell was clearly upset and or- dered Lewis to appear in DiMuro’s office the next week as well as pay the highly unusual fifth court-imposed sanction. Lewis said he couldn’t be
there, because of family obliga- tions. Rather than defy the court, he said, he agreed to pay Fires- tone and settled the case.
jackmant@washpost.com
spokeswoman Stacey Johnson said. Linwood Christian, 43, lost his
rights after he stole money from the Disabled American Veterans thrift store so he could buy drugs. He was one of more than 200 people who had been mistakenly told that he needed to write a letter toMcDonnell as part of the process.He learnedthathis rights were restored this summer. “It was a real exciting feeling,”
said Christian, who works as a case manager for a nonprofit group in Petersburg that helps HIV/AIDS patients. “All of a sud- den, I’ma person to themagain.” An additional 518 applications
werepending as of lastweek,with 76 of themincomplete. Janet Polarek, secretary of the
commonwealth, said that about half of the applications her office receives are incomplete but that her staffhasbeenabletocomplete them more quickly by communi- cating better with state agencies, including the Department ofMo- tor Vehicles, police and courts, and by instituting a system to accept documents online.
“We have kept track with all of
our deadlines,” she said. “We’re very pleasedwith the progress.” About 650 cases remained
open when Kaine left office in January, and McDonnell pledged inMay totake careof themby July 15.Johnsonsaidthatdeadlinewas met. But SpencerMoore, 31, ofNew-
portNews,who said he applied to have his rights restored in Sep- tember2009,whenKainewas still governor, learned by letter that McDonnell denied his request Sept. 3. “It took awhole year,” said Moore,whoworks inmedical bill- ing. “It’s leaving people in limbo.” Moore, who was convicted of
three DUIs, said he has tried to contact the secretary of the com- monwealth’s office several times to find outwhy hewas denied but has not received a call back. Po- larek declined to detail why an applicantmight be denied. In 39 states, including Mary-
land, and in the District, voting rights are automatically restored after a felon completes a prison sentence, probation or parole. In the remaining states, felonsmust
Pulling their weight for a good cause
petition a governor or board. MarcMauer, executive director
of the Sentencing Project, a re- search and advocacy group, said that because Virginia has one of themost restrictive policies inthe country,McDonnell’s changes are significant. But Virginia should work on its outreach, he said, to ensure that potential applicants are aware of the process. Polarek said her office is work-
ing with churches, civic groups and others to spread theword. The American Civil Liberties
Union and others plan to lobby the General Assembly to change Virginia’s Constitution so that people besides the governor can make the decision to restore rights, turningit intoamoreauto- matic process. Kent Willis, executive director
of the ACLU’s Virginia chapter, praised McDonnell, but added: “There are more than 300,000 people who still don’t have their voting rights restored. The gover- nor’s reforms are good, but they don’t tackletheproblem. It simply doesn’t address the real issue.”
kumaranita@washpost.com
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Dwayne Coutreyer, top photo right, and Stewart Davis lead the TimeWarner team Saturday in attempting to pull a 164,000-plus-pound Airbus faster than competitors at the Dulles Day Plane Pull, a fundraising event to benefit Special Olympics Virginia. An Air Force A-10Warthog, bottom photo, was also on display at the day-long festival, which included live music, rides and a car show.
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