Trial date of Oct. 25 set in Tharpe solicitation case – prosecution seeks change of venue

Attorneys for former Front Royal Mayor Hollis Tharpe say they will vigorously fight a change of venue request made by Special Prosecutor Heather Hovermale during a Monday hearing. Tharpe was in court with attorneys David Hensley and Beau Bassler on June 17 to set a trial date on his misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution charge related to a May 31, 2018, visit to a massage parlor on Biggs Drive.

In what was likely his last hearing on the case Judge Clifford L. Athey Jr. set a trial date of October 25, at 9 a.m., for the jury trial requested by Tharpe’s attorneys and July 15, at 2:30 p.m., for arguments on the prosecution’s change of venue request.

Bassler and Hensley called the special prosecutor’s request for a change of venue on a misdemeanor case “extraordinary” in their legal experience.

“Justice is supposed to be local to where a community is affected by crime unless there are unusual circumstances that would make a fair hearing of the case questionable,” Tharpe’s legal team observed. Obviously they do not believe Tharpe’s high profile in the community as a former mayor and councilman, not to mention long-time ice cream man, fits the “unusual circumstance” criteria, particularly in a misdemeanor case of this nature.

Hollis Tharpe at Town Hall meeting room chairing a council work session – Royal Examiner File Photos/Roger Bianchini

Tharpe’s high profile in the community was illustrated in the wake of Athey’s setting of the hearing and trial dates – “Well, someone will be here to see you but it won’t be me,” Athey said to Tharpe of the July 15 hearing date.

“You have a good time in Richmond,” Tharpe replied to another former Front Royal mayor, turned state delegate, turned judge who will be leaving for a seat on the Virginia Appeals Court this September.

When Athey asked Tharpe’s legal team if they wanted speedy trial statutes in play in the setting of a trial date, Hensley replied for his client, “He would like a speedy trial.”

The judge’s setting of a date four months away that fit all involved party’s schedules means a verdict will be rendered about two weeks before the likely November date of a special election to fill the mayor’s seat for the duration of Tharpe’s term, which expires at the end of 2020. That seat is currently occupied by long-time Republican activist and former county supervisor Matt Tederick, who was appointed interim mayor on May 28 by a 4-2 vote, Tewalt and Thompson dissenting. Tederick has said he does not plan to run for the mayor’s office in the special election.

While proclaiming his innocence following his indictment on April 15, Tharpe initially placed himself on administrative leave and then announced four days later on April 19 that he would resign as mayor effective May 2. Tharpe explained his decisions as not wanting the charge against him to distract town government from the conduct of its business pending a resolution of his case. The 67-year-old Tharpe has called the misdemeanor charge against him “embarrassing” and “baseless”.

On March 25, flanked by Vice-Mayor William Sealock and Councilwoman Letasha Thompson then-Mayor Tharpe listens to former Councilwoman Bébhinn Egger address town officials on lessons to be learned from the EDA financial scandal.

A Virginia State Police press release announcing Tharpe’s pending indictment in April indicated Tharpe’s charge stemmed from an investigation launched at the direction of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.

That there was an investigation into Tharpe went public on August 30, 2018, when Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Madden filed notice he would recuse himself from any possible prosecution relating to an “Investigation Concerning Hollis Tharpe”. Special Prosecutor Hovermale works out of the Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office of Marc Abrams, which was handed the case following Madden’s recusal announcement.