Fairfax City, VA – This morning, Democratic candidate Ed Nuttall responded to Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s mismanagement of a serious felony case involving the endangerment of children. Descano’s failure to honor the defendant’s constitutional rights and the rights of the 44 victims on the bus led to the Commonwealth’s Attorney dropping all felony charges and offering the defendant time served on three misdemeanors.  This result, in a case which Descano singled out in a press release in December 2022 where he stated that “my office takes crimes that endanger children very seriously” is a shocking outcome.

Reynolds was accused of driving a school bus full of forty-four kindergarteners into a ditch while intoxicated last October and was indicted on nine felony charges of child endangerment and three misdemeanor charges related to driving under the influence and operating a bus without a commercial driver’s license. Today, Steve Descano dropped eight of the nine felony charges and reduced the remaining felony to a misdemeanor. 

Nuttall made the following statement: “I can only imagine the phone call to the parents of the forty-four kindergarten children telling them that their child is on a bus with a drunk driver involved in an accident. Cases like this are the reason that I am running for Commonwealth’s Attorney. This case is yet another example of my opponent’s lack of leadership and experience, resulting in his inability to comply with the most basic requirements of his office.    

Once again, my opponent’s actions, or rather, failure to act, have made Fairfax County less safe.”