VB judge-prosecutor dispute reappears

This article describes the log kept by Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant in which he lists decisions made by the judges that he believes exceeded their discretionary authority. Specifically, Bryant criticizes judges issuing deferred findings in criminal cases. The Virginian Pilot has had several articles on this issue to which we have linked previously here, here, here and here. It still is unsettling how this log, the bar complaint, and the response letter from Bryant to the bar have all appeared in the public domain. This process is supposed to be confidential to protect all the parties to the complaint, and the Virginia State Bar "requests that [parties] protect the confidentiality of the system by not discussing [the] inquiry or . . . investigation with others." Clearly, somebody is not following that recommendation in this case.