A court has temporarily stopped former Roanoke City Councilman Robert Jeffrey Jr. from getting out of jail. The court says it wants to do a more thorough investigation into what happened.
In August, Jeffrey was found guilty of fraud and received a sentence of two and a half years in jail.
Following a judicial proceeding initiated by Jeffrey one week ago, a panel of three judges from the Virginia Court of Appeals replied by directing a judge in Roanoke to establish bail in Jeffrey’s case. Jeffrey said that he should be allowed to stay free while he argues that the convictions against him are not true.
The panel said that the trial court had “abused its authority” by placing Jeffrey in prison so quickly after the sentence hearing had concluded. It sent the case back to court and told the judge to set “appropriate” bail and release conditions for the defendant.
But Jeffrey’s attempt to get out of jail was thwarted by the meddling. In the latter part of the previous week, the prosecutors were successful in their argument that the judgement should be reviewed by the whole court before it went into force.
Prosecutors seized on what they called a lack of detail in the first ruling. “In what manner did the trial court abuse its discretion or upon what statute or case was such a determination made?” wrote Sheri Mason, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney.
In addition, according to the prosecution, only two of the three judges on the panel agreed with the verdict, while the third judge disagreed with it. Mason said that there is “a divergence of opinion among members of the court” that has to be addressed for the benefit of the parties involved in this case as well as other criminal litigants in the state of Virginia.
The hearing that was supposed to take place on Tuesday to determine the terms of the defendant’s release has been canceled.
The court of appeals did not provide any indication of the length of time that would be required for its review.
In March, Jeffrey was found guilty on three charges, including two counts of acquiring money under false pretenses and one count of embezzling. He was forced to resign from his position on the municipal council. In addition to doing time in jail, the court ordered him to pay back the stolen money, which totaled $216,000 dollars.
Anita Price has been nominated to serve as the temporary replacement by the Roanoke City Council. Her term will end on December 31. In the election on November 8, Peg McGuire, a Republican, and Luke Priddy, a Democrat, will face off in a contest for the position of permanent successor. Voters will choose between them.
Melvin Hill, Jeffrey’s attorney, has said that his client would make a second effort to challenge his expulsion from the council. Jeffrey was removed from the council earlier this month.
