Va. prosecutor handling Irvo Otieno murder case resigns (original) (raw)

The Virginia prosecutor who brought murder charges against 10 sheriff’s deputies and hospital workers in the death of Irvo Otieno at a state mental hospital said Friday she is resigning later this month to pursue a graduate degree in France.

Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill runs a small office that at one point this year counted her as the only prosecutor, but she has since hired two deputies, who could take over the Otieno case. The defendants — seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and three employees at Central State Hospital — have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and are awaiting trial.

The death of Otieno — a 28-year-old Black man whose family said he was in a mental health crisis — at the hands of law enforcement and hospital workers made international headlines earlier this year. Baskervill released video over defense attorneys’ objections showing the 10 defendants piling on Otieno’s body for 11 minutes in a hospital admissions room until he went limp, and in court likened his death to a medieval execution method called pressing.

Ben Crump and Mark Krudys, attorneys for Otieno’s family, said in a statement that Baskervill had promised Otieno’s mother that “those who killed her son would be vigorously prosecuted.”

“Who will do that now?” the attorneys asked. “The family prays that the in-custody murder of a young African-American man in the midst of a mental health crisis is not disregarded by the leaders of the Commonwealth.”

In a resignation letter, Baskervill said that her office had prosecuted thousands of offenses since she was first elected in 2014. In a news release, she said she would be enrolling in a master’s program at the French Institute of Political Science in Paris and would remain in office until June 21. The prosecutor said she accepted the offer of admission on March 4, two days before Otieno’s death March 6.

“I hope I have shown myself to be willing to make tough choices,” Baskervill wrote in the letter. She did not respond to questions about the Otieno case Friday.

Under Virginia law, Dinwiddie County officials could choose to hold a special election to fill Baskervill’s seat or elevate one of her deputies, Jason Moore and Thomas Nicholson, to the top prosecutor’s job for the remainder of her term, which ends in January. Baskervill had not been seeking reelection.