A. Strode Brent

Background  Mr. Brent was my girlfriends third attorney for her divorce, from 1989-1993, I paid his retainer, he was supposed to be paid on successful representation from the settlement he acquired. In 1989 my girlfriend had escaped from an abusive husband that had informed her that he was going to turn into a women. He had a felony conviction for statutory rape and an illegitimate child that he had sired after marrying. She had sought sanctuary with a woman and her family, when the husband had found her he terrorized the family - because of law enforcement failures a strain was put on the woman's household. I met my girlfriend while she was staying with the family and saw the situation that the family was put in. I talked to her social services counselors and found out that my girlfriend had experienced years of abuse within the household, they confirmed the abuse and they continued to assist her after the separation. There also should have been police reports documenting assaults.

Our experiences since have identified that the Virginia State Bar does not address "strategy" complaints from clients. Legal "strategy" or "tactics" is the service provided by its members not addressed by the institution. The agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia states that one can file a malpractice suit/writ, to take such action requires another member or risking a biased court - not an option for a financially damaged client. Is this agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia executing due diligence in ensuring that its members competently represent the citizens of Virginia or is it betraying the public trust ?

The questions one must ask as you read this, are a follows:

• Would you want Mr. A. Strode Brent or his law firm representing you ?
• Given the lack of concern for the integrity of the profession demonstrated by the Virginia State Bar, can any member of this institution be trusted to represent their clients diligently ?
  There is no incentive for the members to be accountable to their clients/their employer, the public trust is betrayed - Reform Attorneys with functional oversight.

Relevance  of bringing up a case that spanned the period from 1989-1995 is old news right, wrong. The representation of Mr. A. Strode Brent a senior partner of Whitestone, Brent, Young & Merril, P.C., member of the Virginia State Bar, officer of the court and politician has lasting consequences.

June 2, 2009   my girlfriend fell hard injuring herself because her leg gave out. Falling down has been periodic since she was bitten by a neighbors dog in 1995, months after entanglements with her husband was concluded, financially damaged by Mr. Brent's questionable and conflicted representation.

November 14, 2008 on a Google search lark I confirmed Mr. Brents political ambitions. I was curious about the election so I emailed Leslie Byrne - no response.

In 2005 I was framed by Manassas Police I was denied work release because I was considered a threat to society.   What is interesting is that the only time we had dealings with the police was when my girlfriend was being stalked and the vandalism, I was not arrested for those incidents back in 1995 a decade prior, so what history ?   Is this a reflection of the suit that Mr. Brent ignored ?

Settlement my girlfriend's husband was awarded the divorce as a result of Mr. Brents legal strategy. Virginia gives half the community property to each party, which included the townhouse. Mr. Brent allowed delays and did not contest them for nearly a year, was this the action of a professional expecting a payment for their solutions ?. Resolving the mistakes of Mr. Brent resulted in my girlfriend consuming her settlement to pay her fourth attorney.

What is currently relevant is that as a result of cascading events my girlfriend was depending on the retirement so that she could start her life. When she was awarded the settlement she understood that when her husband was eligible for retirement she would be able to collect. Earlier this year, 2009, she found out that they have changed the rules, that she will not be able to get her settlement till she is eligible for retirement.

The legacy of Mr. A. Strode Brent officer of the court and senior partner of the firm of Whitestone, Brent, Young and Merril, P.C. include the following:

• Mr. Brent ignored our questioning the date of an event in a meeting. We knew that the event did not occur on the date because it occurred before my birthday and it was documented as after, the date would have been past the statute of limitations for the civil suit and if pushed would have resulted in the suit being dropped. Mr. Brent could have confirmed this by talking to the prior attorney, his client could have produced a diary and the incident was discussed with her mental heath counselors at the time.
• Besides the official documents the wife had acquired the husbands album containing pictures of him dressed in her clothes, performing masochistic acts on himself and she also had a New York doctors bill that was allegedly for the first stages of a sex change operation. The pictures were used by the second attorney to stop the criminal aspect of an event, the foundation of the suit that Mr. Brent messed up, the prosecutor took one look at the pictures and dropped the charges.
• Mr. A. Strode Brent did not contact the social services counselors who had counseled his client for years during the cohabitation and after. My girlfriend did not want her records used but expected that the counselors would be contacted and used, the office even sent a letter of introduction. The counselors would have identified years of spousal abuse and a rape where the husband had given his friends his wife.
• Mr. A. Strode Brent and the Virginia courts confused theocratic with secular law when they acquiesced to the husband's attorney's demands that my girlfriend see a Christian counselor overlooking the years of Virginia State Social Services counselors.
• Mr. Brent chose to ignore the notes being passed to us from the Church members who stated that "adulterers should be put to death" apparently this "law" did not apply to their born again member who had committed adultery years prior to the separation.
• Mr. Brent ignores the period of confidential records accessed by the courts.. Mr. Brent allowed records to be accessed for a divorce that specifically started a year after separation. The records accessed did not pertain to the divorce and any possible legal use would be to identify my girlfriend as a parent. Custodial and visitation rights had been taken off the table by the courts in prior hearings. My girlfriend found out about the access when her mental health counselor called her stating that they were taking her files.
• I personally witnessed Mr. Brent ignore my girlfriend when she presented documentation of separation and proof of custody by stating "professional courtesy" and patting her hand in response to a claim that she did not separate by the husbands attorney, an officer of the court who had told us in a meeting that they were out to destroy us.
• A real estate agent identified that Mr. Brent had a political agenda. I did not realize the extent till I found a site that had the husbands attorney's biography and identified that he was politically active, an officer of the court that had told us they were going to destroy us.
• Mr. Brent allowed the courts to give out our street address to a stalker. Within months after the release the husband showed up and accosted his ex-wife at work, over twenty miles away, this was documented in a letter from his attorney as being a coincidence.
• Mr. Brent left their client in jail when the client could not afford to pay child support. Mr. Brent did not visit or contact his client, a client who was put on suicide watch. Mr. Brent was fired and Ms. Judy A. Dugger retained. Ms. Dugger repeatedly stated that she was doing damage control, trying to fix the mistakes of Mr. Brent. In 1994 when Ms. Dugger concluded the cases she gave us instructions for an "abuse of process" action against the husband's attorney, what was the foundation of this action do we not know ? Did she discover a political "conflict of interest" ?
• Then there was the bankruptcy trustee which Ms. Judy A. Dugger handled. There was some questionable activity given that we were told that no creditors had made a claim when the deadline had passed, notably Mr. Brent, a week later we found out that he did make a claim - what actually happened with this ?

The damage caused by this attorneys negligence or incompetence is significant as his failure resulted in a cascading sequence of events. Years later the minor son contacted his mother, Mr. Brent's client from the hospital, apparently he had tried to commit suicide by jumping off of a building. The daughter, in a tearful discussion years later, claimed that her father, the good Christian father had relations with her. Mr. Brent's clients lost her clothes because her husband was wearing them, was forced into bankruptcy, did not get enough settlement to be able to purchase a car and as a result was injured by a neighbors dog while walking in the neighborhood - lacking transportation and low wage job her mode of transport was walking or taxi. She retained Mr. Burks as a probono client to address the injury. Five years pass and the attorney handling the dog bite injury is apparently stealing clients settlements, my girlfriend has a breakdown.

This is the legacy of a senior partner of the law firm of Whitestone, Brent, Young and Merril, P.C., member of the Virginia State Bar, officer of the court and politician.   This failure also reflects on the firm because it should have supported Mr. Brent, during his distraction such as researching dates and maintaining some sort of diligence.

This is a senior member of a law firm and his biography is an impressive sell, with the assets available was this a case of selective diligence, distraction or questionable competence ?
What about those political ambitions ? I see no other record of political activity, so why at that time become politically active ?

In communications with the Virginia State Bar they have identified that their members are diligent, that the Bar does not address strategy grievances, this avoidance covers up member indiscretions.
Does Mr. Brent represent what one might expect from certified members of the Bar, the failed oversight of an Agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia ?

How about the confusion between Theocratic and Secular law, why didnt Mr. Brent or the courts shut down husbands attorney's Biblical strategy ? (professional courtesy)