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Community-Supported News. Free to all.
VOL. 10, NO. 11
JANUARY 23, 2025
Supervisors Look to Boost Support for Underfunded Public Defender’s Office BY HANNA PAMPALONI
hpampaloni@loudounnow.org
A student accused of a felony for which he was later acquitted after being misidentified, nearly lost his chance at a wrestling scholarship. He didn’t because of the swift actions taken by attorneys at the Loudoun County Public Defender’s Office. This case is merely one of many like it handled by Public Defender Lorie O’Donnell’s team on a dayto-day basis. But the office and its state-employed staff are woefully underfunded, a report by the county’s finance department shows. Funding for the state’s public defenders is set each year by the General Assembly. Without supplemental support from the county government an attorney working as a public defender I would earn $84,870 a year, while a commonwealth’s attorney I earns $93,650. To even that out, the county provides a 25% salary supplement to the Public Defender’s Office employees. That brings the comparison to $106,087 for a public defender I and $93,650 for the commonwealth’s attorney I. But the disparity grows for more experienced attorneys. PUBLIC DEFENDERS continues on page 38
Hanna Pampaloni/Loudoun Now
Members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity take part in the county's 34th annual Martin Luther King Jr. march Jan. 20.
‘Keep Going’
MLK Celebrated in Annual March WILLIAM TIMME
wtimme@loudounnow.org
Community members gathered in Leesburg Monday morning to join the county’s 34th annual march from the courthouse to the Douglass Community
Center to celebrate of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. The post march celebration was held in the Historic Douglass High School’s gymnasium. The theme of this year’s event, “Open the Possibilities,” focused on reading, writing and empowerment through
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education in pursuit of achieving racial equity and harmony and was marked by speeches from County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) and Leesburg MLK MARCH continues on page 37
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