UPDATE: McDonald Trial Conclusion — So Close and Yet a Month Away

(UPDATE: According to the 10th Western District of Virginia federal website, Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon has set aside the week of Monday, October 23, through Friday, October 27, for the criminal trial of former FR-WC EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald to resume and run to conclusion. As reported below, involved attorney expectations are that the trial could be turned over to the jury for deliberations on the 34 criminal indictments the defendant faces within two to three days once the trial resumes. The prosecution will call its 57th and final witness when the trial is reconvened. The defense is then anticipated to only call one or two witnesses before resting and heading the trial into closing arguments.)

After a second week (Sept. 19 to 22) and an additional day, Monday, September 25, lost to the “unexpected health issue” or “unexpected circumstance” referenced at a motions hearing last week, the federal criminal prosecution of former Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Director Jennifer McDonald was again put on hold on Tuesday, September 26. And with the defendant again the only principal absent at the defense or prosecution tables, and no court official and none of the 15 jurors and alternates missing, the smart money “in Vegas” or at Charles Town’s Hollywood Casino is on McDonald as the focal point of that unexpected “health issue” or “circumstance.” In fact, it might be recalled that in the wake of one of her arrests, while her prosecution was initially at the state level, McDonald had to be transported from jail to a hospital for medical care, believed to be heart rate or blood pressure related.

Mug shot of Jennifer McDonald following one of her two summer of 2019 arrests following indictments at the state level. She was hospitalized for a time following one of those arrests. Royal Examiner File Photo

In fact, during an 8:30 a.m. motions hearing, defense counsel forwarded a motion for a mistrial due to the repeated delays and uncertainty on a time frame moving forward at trial. Lead prosecuting attorney Sean Welsh countered the mistrial argument, citing case histories and circumstances of longer delays in which mistrial motions were denied. Welsh also told the court he didn’t feel the defense had “proved anything beyond speculation” to justify a mistrial, including any “cumulative” negative impact on jurors from delays.

After the hearing was closed to the media or the public several times to let personal variables of involved parties not be made public, Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon posed the alternative of “briefly suspending the trial” and resuming it as an alternative to a mistrial. Dillon said she would take the defense mistrial motion “under advisement.” However, the effort to pin down a coming week in which to continue the trial, which appears to currently be delayed for an unknown amount of time, seemed to indicate the judge preferred the alternative to declare a mistrial.

Prosecutor Welsh pointed out how close the trial likely is to being completed and handed over to the jury for deliberation. He noted the prosecution team had called 56 witnesses to the stand, with just one remaining to be called. He forecast that it now seemed the defense would call only one witness, with closing arguments possibly coming within two days. The defense witness list has been cited at two, with a third potentially to be added. The defendant is not anticipated to take the stand.

The initial motions hearing convened at 8:30 a.m. was recessed at 9:34 a.m. until 11 a.m. when the jury was instructed to report to court Tuesday. Reconvened at 11 a.m., the hearing was again closed for a time as the court queried jurors on their prospective plans for the coming weeks under consideration for restarting the trial without the current day-to-day uncertainty it would proceed. A time frame of two to six weeks was cited for reconvening the trial if a decision to suspend was reached. However, the prosecution wondered if additional relevant information might not be helpful in pinning down how soon a restart might be feasible. When Welsh proposed such input, possibly by subpoena, as early as the following day, Judge Dillon called that scenario “highly unlikely.” The court adjourned at 11:30 a.m. with no clear path forward apparent.

So, a decision on how this trial will proceed and when, and possibly even if it will proceed, is currently on hold pending additional information to be received by the court. And apparently, as noted in the above “Update” that information was received late Tuesday afternoon, September 26, with the trial now poised to resume on Monday, October 23, at 8:30 a.m.

As previously reported, after inheriting the case from two state prosecutors’ offices on August 25, 2021, a federal grand jury handed down 34 federal criminal indictments on a variety of charges, including bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft against the former FR-WC EDA executive director.