Loudoun Co. Chair 'appalled' sex offender hired by prosecutor's office

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. - The chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is calling out the commonwealth’s attorney following FOX 5’s exclusive reporting about a convicted sex offender hired to work as a paralegal.

Chair Phyllis Randall said Prosecutor Buta Biberaj gave false information about how the man got hired. 

"I don’t know if she didn’t know it or she’s just being dishonest," Randall said.

Last March, Biberaj‘s office hired a man convicted of a child pornography charge and put him to work right away. Biberaj wouldn’t answer our questions about how it happened, but provided a statement saying in part:

"Applicants for employment are reviewed through established Loudoun County Human Resources processes. Thereafter, the applicants are referred to OCA."

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Randall says it is completely up to Biberaj’s office to do background checks for employees.

"The fact is, the county does not do that. She is an independent, elected official, the commonwealth’s attorney is. And it is up to her to do the hiring, the interview, and the background check, and she didn’t do it," Randall said. "Normally, I wouldn’t speak out like this, but our HR department are hardworking people and so for her to implicate them in that way was just unacceptable to me."

John, the man who was hired without a background check, agreed to speak on the condition FOX 5 didn’t reveal his identity. He was fired several days later.

"I was kind of surprised how quickly the process went," he said of getting hired at OCA. "And I was expecting there to be the background check, of course. Everyone does a background check these days."

Randall says background checks are required for the commonwealth's attorney’s office, but there was never one requested for John.

"When the supervisors learned this information, we were literally on the dais last night when your story came through, and it hit us all like a brick," Randall said. "And this morning quite a few of us asked our county administrator to look into it."

Randall confirmed what FOX 5’s Lindsay Watts learned through sources: that the only reason the sex offender conviction came to light is because John’s probation officer called the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.

She said she’s appalled by the hiring and subsequent access to victim files going back years.

"It doesn’t matter that he may have been there just a couple of days. He could’ve been there just a couple of hours, it’s a problem," Randall said. "I would say to all the victims in the county, she should be apologizing to them. And I don’t have the right to apologize on her behalf, but I guess I should because if she doesn’t have the decency to apologize to them herself, I’m happy to do that for her."

FOX 5 asked Randall if the board of supervisors can provide oversight to ensure OCA employees are being hired properly. A former prosecutor shared they also never got a background check when hired.

Randall says the board of supervisors doesn’t have oversight over an independently elected official, but she does plan to call Biberaj herself.

"I will just make sure she understands how the process works," Randall said.