Leffler&Hyland, P.C. Attorneys and Counselors at Law

CLUES TO SPIELBERG STORY EMERGE; POLICE, SCHOOL OFFICIALS RELATE CHAIN OF EVENTS AT HEARING
TOM JACKMAN WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Thursday, February 10, 2000 ; Page B07

When Jonathan T. Spielberg decided he wanted to attend Paul VI High School full time, he went to a nearby Kinko's Copies store, typed a bogus three-page report card and gave himself A's in everything from organic chemistry to U.S. government. He then submitted the "transcript" to the school, he later told police. He also told a police detective he is 27 years old, not the 14-year-old freshman he had pretended to be in 1998.

The first clues as to how Spielberg fooled the private Fairfax City school into believing he was the teenage nephew of filmmaker Steven Spielberg emerged yesterday during a preliminary court hearing in Fairfax County. Jonathan Spielberg, who legally changed his name from Anoushirvan D. Fakhran in 1997, did not testify, but school officials and Fairfax City police Detective Michael Boone did, explaining the chain of events that led to Spielberg's arrest on fraud and forgery charges. Chief District Court Judge Richard T. Horan threw out one forgery charge.

Boone testified that Spielberg admitted he has no relative named Spielberg, contrary to what he wrote in his name-change petition, but Spielberg's lawyer successfully argued that the information was not required by law and thus the claim was irrelevant. However, Horan found there was probable cause to believe Spielberg defrauded Paul VI. Evidence on a child pornography charge will be heard later.

Spielberg and his lawyer, Rodney G. Leffler, declined to comment yesterday. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ian Rodway introduced as exhibits Spielberg's September 1998 application to Paul VI and a purported transcript from the "Beverly Hills Private School for Actors," which does not exist. On the handwritten application, Spielberg's father is listed as a Beverly Hills "plastic surgen" named "Charls Spielberg"; his mother, Mary Fakhran, is also identified as a doctor.

Spielberg was admitted to Paul VI that September part time, for which he received no class credit, director of admissions Mary Jean Tani told the court. Last spring, when he indicated a desire to attend full time, Assistant Principal Marie Powell said she asked for evidence of his previous academic work. Spielberg, who claimed to have been tutored privately, provided the Beverly Hills transcript, which has a Universal Studios logo but no phone number or official seal. The document says Spielberg took 20 classes from 1997 to 1999 and aced all of them except for a B in journalism. One of the many A's he awarded himself was for "creative writing."

Leffler asked Powell if she had been suspicious about the high grades. She said she'd taken notice but "had no experience with the kind of organization that might provide credit for someone being tutored one-on-one." Last fall, after the school tried to contact Jonathan Spielberg's family in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg's security firm alerted Fairfax City police. Boone said yesterday that Spielberg initially gave his age as 20, then 26, then 27, and said he typed the Beverly Hills transcript himself at Kinko's.

Asked about the name change, Boone said Spielberg "said he liked Mr. [Steven] Spielberg. He said the name was Jewish and all Jews are related, and that makes him related to Steven Spielberg." Rodway asked if Spielberg explained why he undertook the seeming ruse after immigrating here in 1992. "He spent a good deal of time talking about . . . Iran," Boone said. "He said his father was arrested and in jail. He said his mother had been beaten, and he was beaten. He had an overall bad experience with high school in Iran. He came to the U.S. and wanted to experience a good high school."

Cutline: Jonathan T. Spielberg, who did not testify, leaves the Fairfax County Courthouse after a preliminary hearing. Spielberg is followed by a Brazilian camera crew covering his case.

Articles appear as they wereoriginally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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SPIELBERG IMPOSTOR STARRED IN PORN FILM
PETER PAE WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Thursday, February 17, 2000 ; Page B02

More than a year before Jonathan Taylor Spielberg began attending a Catholic high school and pretending to be the teenage nephew of Steven Spielberg, the Fairfax City man wrote and starred in a pornographic movie. And shortly before making the one-hour flick, a vanity production that was never distributed, Spielberg appeared on a racy Los Angeles cable talk show claiming to be an 18-year-old relative of the famed filmmaker.

The revelation of Spielberg's foray into the porn industry in the summer of 1996 is raising concerns among parents and officials at Paul VI High School, where, until police arrested him last month, Spielberg mingled with much younger students for nearly two years. Spielberg has since been charged with misrepresenting his age and possessing child pornography.

Fairfax City police are also investigating his relationship with Paul VI students. "I don't understand what's going on here. It scares me because I know one of the girls he went out with," said Stacy Burda, whose son attends Paul VI. "He maybe should be up for an Oscar. He pulled this off for a year and a half, and he pulled the wool over many eyes." The Rev. Robert J. Rippy, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, which oversees the school, said church officials are "very concerned." He said the diocese has urged parents and students to cooperate with police.

Fairfax City police Detective Michael Boone said yesterday he was looking into the latest disclosure about Spielberg's acting career and had reviewed the audio and video materials. Neither Spielberg nor his lawyer, Rodney G. Leffler, returned telephone calls. Spielberg, who legally changed his name from Anoushirvan D. Fakhran in 1997, already was using the Hollywood name when he vacationed in Los Angeles with his mother in 1996. In an appearance that summer on Susan Block's cable TV show, Spielberg said that he was Steven Spielberg's nephew and that he was 18.

He told a police detective last month that he is 27, not the 14-year-old freshman he had pretended to be in 1998 when he began attending the private school. "I'm 18. I want to be an actor," Spielberg said on a tape of the show. On the tape, he was wearing a white Planet Hollywood T-shirt and sandwiched between the hostess and a blond porn star, all of whom were on a bed with a live snake. The 10-minute segment ended with Spielberg looking into the camera and telling his famous supposed uncle: "Hi, Uncle Stevie. I love you. . . . You've got to come over to the show. She's very good."

Max Lobkowicz, a self-described 30-year veteran of the adult movie industry who produces his wife's show, said yesterday that Spielberg's unusual request to make an adult video came shortly after he taped the show. Lobkowicz said Spielberg is not among those who appear nude in the video. "He said he wanted to be an actor and that he needed to put together a portfolio. He said he had this idea and that it would be really fun to do this. He wrote it and did the whole thing himself."

In the movie "Story of V," Spielberg dresses in black pumps, stockings and a miniskirt and plays a transvestite trying to pass as a woman in a lesbian bar, said Stephen Lemons, a writer for the Internet magazine Salon who viewed some of the video. "It's just a fun movie where he's dressed up as a woman," said Lobkowicz, who wouldn't provide the film until talking to Spielberg. "It's a Sundance kind of piece."

Staff writer Tom Jackman contributed to this report. Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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LAWYER CHARGED IN GIRL'S ROAD DEATH;
WOMAN SAYS SHE THOUGHT CAR HIT A DEER
TOM JACKMAN WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Saturday, March 11, 2000 ; Page B01

A 29-year-old lawyer from Sterling, who told police she thought she had hit a deer on her drive home on Route 7 Wednesday night, surrendered to Fairfax County authorities yesterday afternoon and was charged with felony hit-and-run in the death of a 15-year-old girl.

The attorney for Jane L. Wagner, of the 10100 block of Yorktown Drive, said that Wagner's husband reported the accident to her insurance company Wednesday night and that Wagner was horrified the next morning when she saw a TV report that Naeun Yoon, of Great Falls, had been killed by a hit-and-run driver while walking along the road the night before. "She said, 'Oh my God, that must be me,' " said Rodney G. Leffler, Wagner's attorney. Wagner then called police, and "we've been cooperating fully," Leffler said.

Police confirmed that Wagner reported her possible involvement in the accident after seeing news accounts. After prosecutors decided to file the hit-and-run charge, Wagner and her attorney appeared before a magistrate yesterday afternoon, and she was released on a $50,000 unsecured bond. Wagner could not be reached for comment yesterday. Leffler said that she was "devastated" and that "her thoughts and prayers are with this family."

Naeun Yoon's mother, Sung Hee Yoon, said Thursday that she was driving her daughter and 14-year-old son home about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when the two teenagers began to argue. She said that she pulled over to stop them but that each got out, heading in opposite directions. As she sat there for a moment, Yoon said, a vehicle swerved onto the shoulder ahead of her, and her daughter disappeared.

At first, she thought the girl might have been abducted or had jumped over the guardrail. Instead, she found Naeun lying 70 feet down the embankment. The teenager died at Columbia Reston Hospital. Leffler said Wagner "has no reason to believe she ever left the roadway. When she felt the bump, she believed she was in the roadway." Leffler also said he didn't know of "any evidence to indicate she was drinking."

Sung Hee Yoon, speaking in Korean, reiterated yesterday that the car that hit Naeun definitely veered off the road and onto the shoulder before continuing west on Route 7. "It's incredible," she said of Leffler's comments. "How could she say that? She drove the car onto the shoulder and hit my daughter. She knows what she did, and she's trying to cover it up."

Yoon said she last saw her daughter walking next to the guardrail, at the edge of the eight-foot-wide gravel shoulder. Police believe that a green Ford Mustang was behind Wagner's car and that its driver may be able to say where the impact occurred. "I hope he or she will come forward," said Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh. Leffler said that after Wagner notified police of her involvement and turned over her 1994 silver Mercedes, he was "disappointed she had to be arrested."

He said his client had no intention of leaving the scene of an accident. "Hitting a deer is unfortunate," he said, "but there's no affirmative duty to stop." Leffler said he's hopeful the charge will be dismissed. "There has to be some evidence that she knew she hit a person," he said. Morrogh declined to comment on that possibility.

Wagner is an associate with Cooley Godward, a law firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., and works in its Reston office. Before joining the firm in July, she was with McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe. Previously, she served as a law clerk for Fairfax Chief Circuit Court Judge F. Bruce Bach. "Jane Wagner is a fine human being and was a wonderful law clerk, very popular at the courthouse," Bach said last night, also expressing sympathy for the Yoon family.

Wagner is an Illinois native and obtained her law degree from George Mason University in 1996. Her firm said she specializes in commercial litigation. "We know Jane to be a person of very high integrity, and we stand by her and support her," said Joe Conroy, a partner at Cooley Godward. "Our hearts go out to the victim's family and Jane's family."

Staff writers Patricia Davis, Maria Glod, Peter Pae and Leef Smith contributed to this report.

HIT-AND-RUN CASE TO PROCEED TO TRIAL; JUDGE REJECTS DOUBLE-JEOPARDY ARGUMENT
MARIA GLOD WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 30, 2000 ; Page V01

A Circuit Court judge will allow Fauquier County prosecutors to pursue a hit-and-run case against Randy Waterman, master and huntsman of the Piedmont Hunt, rejecting his argument that a new trial would violate his double-jeopardy protections.

The case ended in a mistrial when it came to court in January. Waterman, 51, is accused of fleeing the scene of an April 1999 car accident that seriously injured Upperville doctor William Katz, 65, and also injured Katz's wife and teenage daughter.

A jury seated to decide Waterman's case early this year had not begun to hear evidence when prosecutors asked for a mistrial after defense attorney Rodney G. Leffler alleged in his opening statement that the Katz family had pressured prosecutors to file charges to bolster the family's potential civil claim. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kevin F. Casey successfully argued that he could not continue as prosecutor because he was the only witness who could refute Waterman's defense.

Judge James H. Chamblin declared a mistrial. Leffler asked Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne last week to dismiss the charge against Waterman, saying the mistrial was too severe a remedy and compromised his client's ability to get a fair trial. He said Chamblin could have addressed Casey's concerns by simply telling jurors that prosecutors contended that the Katzes did not influence their decision to seek an indictment. Horne issued a three-page ruling saying he agrees with Chamblin and prosecutors that the mistrial was appropriate and that the case should proceed.

"This court finds no lesser alternative was available to the court than to grant a mistrial," Horne wrote. The opinion went on: "This disqualification of the prosecutor would not . . . disqualify the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney from prosecuting the defendant." The trial is scheduled for Aug. 16. Virginia State Police said Waterman was driving his 1994 pickup west on Route 50 near Middleburg about 10 p.m. April 25 when a vehicle driven by Katz's wife, Susan, 48, approached from behind.

Police said that Waterman stopped suddenly and that Katz tried to pass. As Katz entered the passing lane, police said, Waterman veered left and struck her vehicle. Police said Waterman left the scene and reported his involvement three hours later. During his January opening statement, Leffler said the Katzes sent him a letter shortly before the trial was to begin demanding $3.2 million from Waterman.

"The Katz family has sought to bludgeon Randy Waterman into paying millions of dollars by using this proceeding," Leffler told the jury, according to Horne's opinion. Leffler also argued that a delay between the April accident and the July indictment shows that prosecutors were pressured by the Katz family. Prosecutors responded that such delays are common and that the case was presented to the first grand jury to convene after the completion of the police investigation.

COURT HEARS ARMY WIDOW'S APPEAL; MD. GUARD CITES CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION IN OFFICER'S TRAINING ACCIDENT DEATH
STEVE VOGEL WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, May 10, 2000 ; Page B03

Maryland's highest court was told yesterday that "systemic negligence" on the part of the Maryland National Guard was responsible for the death of an Army officer in a training accident and that the state should be held accountable.

The argument met strong opposition from the Maryland Guard, which argued that a ruling in favor of the family of Maj. Andrew Burris would derail constitutional protections and longstanding legal immunity doctrine that enable the Army to do its job without fear of being sued by soldiers over matters incident to their service.

"Today, as we argue this case, men and women from the Maryland National Guard . . . are in Bosnia helping to ensure peace in that war-torn nation," Lt. Col. Stephen Doyle, a deputy in the Maryland Guard's staff judge advocate office, told the court. Doyle was referring to members of a Maryland Guard military intelligence battalion who deployed to Bosnia in February as part of an eight-month rotation supporting NATO peacekeeping efforts.

A ruling overturning a Montgomery County Circuit Court's dismissal of the suit last summer, Doyle argued, would have "the potential to destroy good order and discipline. . . . Far more's at stake here than a single loss by a single plaintiff."

Karen Burris, the widow of the officer whose death led to the lawsuit, expressed disappointment with the state's argument after the hearing. "Nobody's second-guessing the commanders," said Burris, 39, a McLean native who now lives in Georgia with her 7-year-old daughter, Allison. "The commanders didn't do their job to begin with."

Andrew Burris, a decorated officer with the 82nd Airborne Division, traveled in 1997 to Camp Blanding, outside Jacksonville, Fla., to help evaluate a training exercise involving troops from the Maryland and Florida National Guards.

On the night of June 12, while accompanying a patrol, Burris was run over by a 2 1/2-ton truck operated by two Maryland National Guard soldiers. Because of the exercise, the truck was operating with its headlights off. But neither the driver nor his assistant was using night vision goggles they carried in the truck, because they had not been trained how to use them.

As a result of a chain of mistakes and missing equipment, two hours passed before Burris arrived at a trauma center. By that time, he had gone into cardiac arrest and was soon dead.

An Army investigation concluded that the truck was exceeding the 5 mph speed limit and recommended that Maryland consider filing charges against the driver, Spec. Gregory S. Headly, and the assistant driver, Spec. Submas C. Singh.

But Maj. Gen. James Fretterd, adjutant general of Maryland, blamed Burris's "lack of situational awareness" for the death. The Maryland Guard declined to recommend charges against Headly and Singh, who both denied wrongdoing.

"The drivers of that vehicle aren't the only ones negligent," Timothy Hyland, an attorney for Karen Burris, said in his argument yesterday. "Here we have a more systemic negligence."

Hyland referred to evidence that the soldiers were not given accurate information about the speed limit and had not been trained how to use night vision goggles.

"These acts of negligence are not attributed to the two soldiers," said Hyland. "These are attributed much further up the line, and ultimately to the state adjutant general."

Judges on the seven-member panel peppered the attorneys on both sides with questions about the National Guard's role in national defense and its unusual status as both a federal and state entity.

Doyle argued that because of the Guard's role as part of a national defense force, it must have the same legal protections as the regular force. "You can't have an Army that can fight as a cohesive unit . . . if it's subjected to standards dictated by various courts," he said.

Hyland countered that if a Maryland Guard truck had run down a civilian, the state would be liable for negligence. "The Maryland National Guard would have you believe that somehow, the wife and daughter of a soldier should be treated differently . . . and that defies logic," Hyland said.

LAWYER INDICTED IN FATAL HIT-RUN; TEENAGER WAS STRUCK ALONG ROUTE 7
TOM JACKMAN WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, May 24, 2000 ; Page B08

A Fairfax County grand jury has indicted a Sterling lawyer on a charge of felony hit-and-run in the death of a 15-year-old girl who was struck by a car in March in Great Falls. The case of Jane L. Wagner, 29, had been certified to the grand jury by a Fairfax juvenile court judge after a hearing last month. Chief Circuit Court Judge F. Bruce Bach recused himself yesterday even from setting a trial date because Wagner formerly worked for him as a law clerk. Retired Fairfax Circuit Judge Thomas A. Fortkort stepped in and scheduled the jury trial for July 5. The state Supreme Court is expected to name a judge from outside Fairfax to hear the case, court officials said yesterday.

Neither Wagner nor her attorney, Rodney G. Leffler, commented after the brief appearance. Leffler previously said Wagner believed she had hit a deer--not a child--and had no legal responsibility to stop at the scene.

Wagner is charged in the March 8 death of Naeun Yoon, a student at Langley High School. Yoon had climbed out of her family's Toyota minivan about 10:30 p.m. after arguing with her brother and mother. As her brother began walking east on Route 7, Yoon walked west near Bishopsgate Way. Yoon's mother, Sung Hee Yoon, testified at the preliminary hearing that as she sat in the minivan, watching her daughter walk away, "a car cut in front of my car. . . . That car swerved onto the shoulder . . . then swerved back onto the road."

Sung Hee Yoon said she didn't know whether her daughter had gotten into the car or jumped over the guardrail to dodge it. "There was no trace whatsoever," Sung Hee Yoon said. "So I thought she might have been kidnapped." Yoon had been knocked over the guardrail and propelled down an embankment. She wasn't found until 20 minutes later, when a police officer stopped to check on Yoon's brother, who was still walking.

Two witnesses testified at the preliminary hearing that Wagner's car was swerving and moving erratically that night, and one woman said she heard a thump and saw debris flying. One of the witnesses had seen Naeun Yoon running along Route 7 just moments earlier, and after hearing a thud decided to jot down the license plate number of Wagner's Mercedes-Benz C280. Wagner's husband called police the next morning, after the couple heard reports of the fatal hit-and-run.

A police sergeant who spoke to Wagner that morning said Wagner told him, "I'm so sorry. I did not mean to do this." Felony hit-and-run is a Class 6 felony--the lowest level in Virginia--with a maximum punishment of five years in prison. Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said prosecutors could not seek an involuntary manslaughter charge unless they could show "a substantial pattern of erratic driving behavior over a period of time," such as running stoplights, speeding, crossing the double line or weaving. An involuntary manslaughter charge also could be sought if the driver could be proven to have been intoxicated.

Wagner was not arrested until more than 36 hours had passed, so no blood-alcohol tests were performed. Police have been trying to retrace Wagner's steps on March 8 but have located only one tavern in Great Falls that she visited, and that was in the late afternoon, about six hours before the accident, sources close to the investigation said.

Peter D. Greenspun, the Yoon family's lawyer, said "the Yoon family believes there are people out there who know exactly where she [Wagner] was and what she was doing, and we believe it's the responsibility of those people to come forward."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

CHARADE ENDS WITH PLEA DEAL FOR SPIELBERG; MAN WHO POSED AS TEEN GUILTY OF FORGERY COUNT
TOM JACKMAN WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Thursday, May 25, 2000 ; Page B01

Finally admitting that he wasn't a teenager--much less the nephew of a movie mogul--Jonathan Taylor Spielberg pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of forgery on his 1998 application to a private high school in Fairfax City, where he roamed the halls as a 25-year-old freshman.

A plea agreement with Fairfax County prosecutors probably will keep Spielberg from serving jail time and deflect any problems with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which had joined the local investigation. As his saga in Fairfax nears its end, with a sentencing date remaining, Spielberg said he hopes to move to New York, make an appearance on Larry King's talk show and eventually become an actor.

His 15-month stand at Paul VI Catholic High School, and the resultant worldwide publicity from his unmasking, may prove to be a sparkling audition. Spielberg told Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush that he is 27, "I think." Spielberg's attorney, Rodney G. Leffler, added that Spielberg was uncertain of his exact date of birth in Iran but that in any event he was past the age for legal admission to Paul VI. He nonetheless attended the school from September 1998 until January. Spielberg, who legally changed his name from Anoushirvan D. Fakhran in 1997, told school officials and classmates that he was the nephew of filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

In 1998 he submitted an application to the school that listed his birth date as Jan. 2, 1984, and Paul VI admitted him as a part-time student, allowing him to take classes sporadically and receive no credit. The well-dressed and articulate Spielberg began showing up for school in a blue BMW with "SPLBERG" personalized license plates and doling out money to schoolmates, fellow students said. When this school year began, Spielberg asked to be admitted full time and provided a phony transcript from the nonexistent Beverly Hills Private School for Actors, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ian M. Rodway said. But when Spielberg declined to pay tuition or attend class regularly, the school called Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG studios in Hollywood.

A Spielberg security official then called Fairfax City police and told them that Jonathan Spielberg wasn't related to the famed Oscar-winning director. The police arrested Spielberg three times in January, charging him with forging the documents given to Paul VI; forging a public record for his assertions in Circuit Court when he changed his name; and possession of child pornography. The public record charge was dismissed in February, and Rodway agreed yesterday to drop all but one forgery charge.

Rodway and Leffler said that the plea agreement would limit Spielberg's maximum jail term to 11 months but that under Virginia sentencing guidelines, he would be eligible for probation and serve no time. Roush said, "I'm sure I won't have any problems with that plea agreement," and scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 21. Fairfax City police have said that Spielberg has a green card according him permanent resident status. Immigration law still allows for deportation for various felony convictions, but INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar said a forgery conviction would require a one-year sentence for deportation.

Spielberg said he still maintains friendships with his former classmates at Paul VI, where the principal, the Rev. John Lyle, introduced him around the school and allowed him to park in the principal's parking space. Those friendships became more troubling to police when they learned that Spielberg had dated a 15-year-old girl. But neither the girl nor her parents would cooperate with police, and Detective Michael Boone's pleas for anyone with information about Spielberg's actions to come forward did not result in additional charges. Even Lyle, the principal, initially declined to return Boone's calls, and he has never offered a public explanation for why he admitted Spielberg based on a sloppily handwritten form rife with misspellings.

Neither Lyle nor the Diocese of Arlington, which runs the school, returned calls yesterday. "In some form," Rodway said after the plea hearing, "there's egg on people's faces. They don't want to acknowledge that." After obtaining a search warrant for the Fairfax City apartment where Spielberg lives with his mother, police found a German book with erotic images and charged him with possessing pornography. Rodway said he agreed to drop that charge because the book was easily available in Germany, where Spielberg once lived, and had no images of Spielberg or anyone from Paul VI.

In January, Spielberg told The Washington Post that he was "no older than 18" and that he went to high school "just for the fun, to get the experience I never had." As his story unfolded, tabloid newspapers and television shows picked it up, first in this country, then in Europe and South America. A Brazilian TV crew was present for his preliminary hearing in February, and British tabloids hounded Leffler. After the tale wound up in Los Angeles papers, a local sex therapist and talk show host revealed that she had helped Spielberg make a semi-pornographic video in the summer of 1996.

Spielberg told Susan Block that he was the nephew of the filmmaker, did a stint on her cable talk show and funded the filming of the video himself. Spielberg spoke briefly about his show business ambitions before the hearing but declined to be interviewed afterward.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

DNA TESTED IN SEX ABUSE CASE AGAINST EX-FAIRFAX PRINCIPAL; SAMPLE IS OBTAINED FROM WOMAN'S CHILDHOOD NIGHTGOWN
PATRICIA DAVIS WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, May 31, 2000 ; Page A05

ORANGE, Va., May 30 -- Investigators have taken a blood sample from former Fairfax County high school principal Anthony M. Rizzo Jr. to see whether it matches DNA newly discovered on the childhood nightgown of a woman who says Rizzo repeatedly raped her between 1984 and 1989 at his farm here and in Alexandria.

Rizzo was tried twice last year in Alexandria on charges that he raped the woman, now 25, when she was a child, but both cases ended in hung juries. The nightgown came to light after the second jury deadlocked and after investigators began looking into the possibility of charging him in Orange County, according to papers filed in Orange County Circuit Court. Because of the renewed criminal probe, Rizzo, 63, has refused to submit to a mandatory psychiatric evaluation, prompting the Virginia Retirement System to cut off Rizzo's disability payments of about $38,000 a year, according to court papers.

Rizzo was instructed by his attorney, who attended the examination, not to answer most of the psychiatrist's questions because of the rape investigation. The state lost a nearly 10-year battle over disability payments with Rizzo, who contends that he has a permanent "psychosexual disorder" that makes him unable to supervise women without trying to coerce them into having sex with him. He sought disability benefits after he was fired in 1989 from his job as principal of Edison High School for sexually harassing female teachers.

State officials, noting his refusal to seek treatment, denied his claim, saying that giving him disability payments would reward him for the "reprehensible conduct" that caused his firing. But they lost on a technicality in 1998 when the state Supreme Court said they missed a deadline for making a decision on his claim. Rizzo was asked to submit to an examination this year to demonstrate that he still has the disability. When he refused to cooperate, the state stopped his payments. "It is clear that you refused to submit to the required medical examination," William H. Leighty, director of the retirement system, wrote in a letter to Rizzo. Bruce Smoller, the doctor who tried to conduct the evaluation this year, said he was unable to issue an opinion because Rizzo's attorney told his client to invoke the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination and refuse to answer most of the doctor's questions.

"Please note that this was without a doubt the strangest examination I have ever conducted," Smoller wrote. He added that Rizzo's attorney also brought along a court reporter, who was asked to leave. However, in reviewing Rizzo's previous medical records, Smoller wrote, he "failed to appreciate any psychosexual illness present in Mr. Rizzo." He also wondered about Rizzo's smiling behavior and response that he felt "wonderful." "This is unusual and inappropriate, I think, in the face of the disability and criminal issues swirling about the patient," Smoller wrote.

Rizzo is now suing state officials for reinstatement of his disability payments, which ended April 1. Leighty declined to comment, saying the "court records speak for themselves." Rizzo's attorney in the disability fight, C. Waverly Parker Jr., could not be reached for comment. Rodney Leffler, Rizzo's attorney in both Alexandria criminal trials, declined to comment on the latest efforts by law enforcement authorities. But he did say, "It's interesting to me that we never heard about this nightgown through two trials."

Neither Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Molly Sullivan, who prosecuted Rizzo in Alexandria, nor Orange County Commonwealth's Attorney Timothy K. Sanner would comment on the new potential evidence in the case. Detective Sandy Hein, who investigated the allegations of rape in Alexandria, said the nightgown wasn't connected with the cases in the city. "It didn't really click with her until she was interviewed by Orange County detectives," Hein said. "That's when she remembered it. She said, 'You know, I still have that nightgown.' She always thought it was a beautiful nightgown and didn't want to get rid of it. But she didn't want to wear it either, because of the bad memories associated with it."

The victim, who contends that Rizzo raped and sexually assaulted her hundreds of times, told investigator D.T. Call, of the Orange County sheriff's office, that she remembered washing a nightgown after one of the rapes and that she had kept it all these years, the court papers said. The woman, who said the abuse began when she was about 10, "stated she had not worn this nightgown for any other sexual encounter," according to the affidavit for the search warrant. Call had the nightgown tested by the Northern Virginia state lab, which found traces of semen, the court papers said. He obtained a search warrant last week and obtained a vial of blood from Rizzo, who lives at his farm on Big H Ranch Road.

Results of the comparison are not expected for several weeks. After both trials last year, some jurors who deadlocked said they believed the victim, but felt they could not convict Rizzo without any physical evidence.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

SPIELBERG IMPOSTOR CHARGED WITH SEX ASSAULT ON TEENAGER; MAN WHO ADMITTED FORGERY BEING HELD IN FAIRFAX JAIL ON MISDEMEANOR COUNTS
PATRICIA DAVIS WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Friday, June 2, 2000 ; Page B09

Fairfax County police said yesterday that Jonathan Taylor Spielberg, who claimed he was the nephew of filmmaker Steven Spielberg and faked his way into high school, has been arrested on new charges. Police said that four days before he admitted in a Fairfax courtroom that he wasn't really a teenager--that he was 27, "I think"--Spielberg sexually assaulted a teenage boy and contributed to the delinquency of a minor, a teenage girl.

Spielberg was arrested about 3 p.m. yesterday on the two misdemeanor charges and taken to the Fairfax County jail, where he was being held on $5,000 bond. Police said the charges stemmed from an incident in the Fair Oaks area about 11 p.m. May 20.

Police spokesman Warren Carmichael declined to elaborate on the charges, saying that police are deliberately "being vague" to protect the identity of the victims. Spielberg's attorney, Rodney Leffler, said he had been out of town and had not talked to his client. He had no comment.

Four days after the alleged sexual assault, Spielberg pleaded guilty in Fairfax Circuit Court to one count of forgery on his 1998 application to a private high school in Fairfax City, where he played the part of a freshman and occasionally took some classes. Because of a plea agreement in that case, Spielberg was hoping to avoid jail time and deflect any problems with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which had joined Fairfax City police in their investigation.

Before his arrest yesterday, Spielberg said he hoped to move to New York, make an appearance on Larry King's talk show and one day become an actor. He gained worldwide publicity from his stint at Paul VI High School. Leffler said at Spielberg's court hearing two weeks ago that his client was uncertain of the exact date of his birth in Iran. But he acknowledged that Spielberg was past the age for legal admission to Paul VI, which he attended off and on from September 1998 until January.

Spielberg, who legally changed his name from Anoushirvan D. Fakhran in 1997, told school officials and classmates that filmmaker Steven Spielberg was his uncle. In 1998, he applied to the school and listed his birth date as Jan. 2, 1984. The school allowed him to take classes sporadically without receiving credit. Spielberg, who drove a blue BMW with "SPLBERG" plates and gave money to classmates, asked to be admitted full time and provided the school with a phony transcript, according to court testimony.

His ruse was uncovered when school officials finally checked him out with Steven Spielberg's offices in Hollywood and learned he was not related to the Oscar-winning director. Spielberg will be arraigned in General District Court this morning. Staff writer Peter Pae contributed to this report.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

JUDGE REVOKES SPIELBERG'S BOND; IMPOSTOR JAILED IN FAIRFAX AFTER ARREST ON NEW SEX CHARGES
TOM JACKMAN WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Thursday, June 8, 2000 ; Page B02

Jonathan Taylor Spielberg's multiple clashes with the law finally cost him his freedom yesterday. A Fairfax County judge revoked Spielberg's bond because of his arrest last week on two new sex charges and ordered the man who once claimed to be filmmaker Steven Spielberg's nephew to jail until his sentencing July 21.

Spielberg, 27, pleaded guilty May 24 to forgery in his scheme to attend Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax City for parts of the past two school years. His lawyer had arranged a plea bargain with Fairfax prosecutors that would allow Spielberg to stay out of jail and avoid possible deportation. He remained free on bail--set after his first arrests in January--pending his sentencing. But a day after his plea, an 18-year-old man told Fairfax County police that Spielberg had sexually assaulted him and a 16-year-old girl.

Fairfax detective Ron Miller testified yesterday that the man claimed he was forcibly sodomized by Spielberg inside a car May 20. Miller said the girl allegedly had consensual sex with Spielberg, but Miller also said he had not interviewed the girl. Spielberg was arrested again June 1, charged with sexually abusing the man and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Both charges are misdemeanors. Spielberg posted $5,000 bond and was released.

Spielberg did not testify at yesterday's hearing. But his lawyer, Rodney G. Leffler, said the 18-year-old had been trying to blackmail Spielberg, demanding "$5,000 and a car," after the latest round of publicity surrounding Spielberg's guilty plea in the forgery case. Leffler noted that Spielberg wasn't charged with felonies on either allegation, nor has he been convicted of the charges. But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ian M. Rodway argued that "the commonwealth does consider him to be a danger."

As a condition of his bond on the forgery case, Spielberg is required "to keep the peace and be of good behavior." Spielberg's eyes reddened as Rodway added, "He's 27 and has no business having sex with a 16-year-old girl." Rodway said later that his motion to revoke Spielberg's bond was standard for anyone convicted of a felony who is arrested again while awaiting sentencing.

Fairfax Circuit Judge Kathleen H. MacKay revoked Spielberg's bond without comment. In an interview with The Washington Post last week, Spielberg denied the sex charges, and said he was nowhere near the Fair Oaks area, where the crimes reportedly occurred. "It's something I didn't do," Spielberg said after his most recent arrest. "I never had sex with [the girl] or anybody." Spielberg said the 18-year-old is "a big liar. He called me about 10 days ago, before he went to police. He just called and said like, 'You know, you have a lot of money. You need to help me.' I thought it was just a joke."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

NO DNA MATCH TO EX-PRINCIPAL IN RAPE CASE; ACCUSER'S CHILDHOOD NIGHTGOWN TESTED; RESULTS MAKE THIRD TRIAL LESS LIKELY
PATRICIA DAVIS WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Saturday, June 17, 2000 ; Page B05

A blood sample taken from former Fairfax County high school principal Anthony M. Rizzo Jr. does not match DNA newly discovered on the childhood nightgown of a woman who says Rizzo repeatedly raped her in the 1980s, authorities said yesterday.

Investigators in Orange County, Va., received the court's permission to take and test Rizzo's blood last month after the woman realized that she still had a nightgown from her childhood. Tests on the nightgown showed traces of semen. Orange County Commonwealth's Attorney Timothy K. Sanner said that without the match or any other physical evidence to support the woman's allegations, investigators will not pursue a case against Rizzo, 63.

Rizzo was tried twice last year in Alexandria on charges that he raped the woman, now 25, when she was a child -- in the city and at his Orange County farm. Both trials ended in hung juries. The nightgown came to light after the second jury deadlocked and after investigators began looking into the possibility of charging him in Orange County, according to papers filed in Orange County Circuit Court.

"The hope was that the DNA would provide the crucial piece of evidence that was missing," Sanner said. "Is there any point to a third prosecution if you really have simply the same case again?" Rizzo's attorney, Rodney Leffler, commended Sanner for quickly informing him of the DNA test results. "I am certain Mr. Rizzo will be relieved," he said. Rizzo could not be reached at his Orange County farm.

Because the alleged crimes occurred so many years ago, the case against Rizzo in Alexandria was primarily her word against his. Rizzo took the stand and strongly denied the allegations. After both trials last year, some jurors said they believed the woman but felt they could not convict Rizzo without any physical evidence. When the Alexandria prosecutor decided not to try Rizzo a third time, Orange County detectives began looking into charging Rizzo for the alleged offenses at his farm.

According to court records, the woman, who contends that Rizzo raped and sexually assaulted her hundreds of times between 1984 and 1989, recalled that she still had a nightgown from that time. Sanner said yesterday that the woman must have worn the nightgown in her adult life as well. "The only conclusion I could draw is that she had worn it later in life than she thought," Sanner said. "She's a small woman who is not much physically larger than she was when she was a child."

The Virginia Retirement System cut off disability payments of about $38,000 a year after Rizzo's attorney, citing the renewed criminal probe, advised him not to answer many of the questions during a mandatory psychiatric evaluation. Rizzo, who contends that he has a permanent "psychosexual disorder," was asked to submit to an examination this year to show that he still has the disability. Rizzo has sued the retirement system and is going to court next month to try to regain the money.

William H. Leighty, director of the retirement system, said the decision not to prosecute Rizzo will have no effect on his disability payments. Rizzo contends that his disorder makes him unable to supervise women without trying to coerce them into having sex with him. He sought disability benefits after he was fired in 1989 from his job as principal of Edison High School for sexually harassing female teachers.

State officials denied his claim, saying that giving him disability would be tantamount to rewarding him for the "reprehensible conduct" that caused his firing. They lost the case in 1998, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the state had missed a deadline for deciding his claim.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

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SPIELBERG GETS PROBATION FOR FORGERY; IMPERSONATOR CIRCUMSPECT -- PENDING MAGAZINE FAME
TOM JACKMAN WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Saturday, July 22, 2000 ; Page B03

Jonathan Taylor Spielberg, the 27-year-old who posed as a high school student for more than a year at a private school in Fairfax City, was placed on probation for forgery yesterday and ordered not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18. The sentence was no surprise for the Iranian-born Spielberg, who legally changed his name from Anoushirvan D. Fakhran in 1997.

Fairfax County prosecutors agreed in May to a deal in which Spielberg would plead guilty to a felony charge of forgery in exchange for an 11-month suspended sentence, with two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush imposed the sentence and added: "He's not to be palling around with teenagers, with children. He needs to find friends his own age." Spielberg said he was not troubled by that requirement, even though he has a 16-year-old girlfriend from his term at Paul VI Catholic High School, where he enrolled as a part-time student in fall 1998.

He told administrators and students that he was the nephew of filmmaker Steven Spielberg and drove a flashy BMW with the personalized license plate "SPLBERG" to and from school. His application to the school said he was born in 1984, and school administrators never questioned his ability to drive as a supposed 14-year-old. Spielberg maintained yesterday that he is not certain he was born in January 1973, as he stated when he changed his name, because his Iranian relatives told him they do not know the exact date. But he acknowledged he was too old for high school.

Spielberg did not pay any tuition as a part-time student, but when he decided to attend full-time in fall 1999, Paul VI administrators told him to provide a transcript and start paying. Spielberg provided a transcript filled with stellar grades--typed at a Kinko's copy store near the Fairfax apartment he shares with his mother. The phony transcript was the basis of the forgery charge that led to his guilty plea. Spielberg might still be attending Paul VI had he made tuition payments. But when he did not, an administrator checked with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG studio, and the ruse quickly collapsed.

In court yesterday, Jonathan Spielberg included the filmmaker in his apologies. "I regret the problem that I've caused to my family and Paul VI," Spielberg said. "To Mr. Spielberg, I would like to apologize to him and this court." The sentencing moves Spielberg one step closer to the fame he openly craves. An avid reader of star-gazing magazines, Spielberg is being courted by such national publications as Talk, Vanity Fair and Spin to tell his version of his 15-month "reality" role as a high school student.

Spielberg said he hopes to negotiate a sizable fee for the exclusive rights to his story--or at least a guarantee of being featured on the cover. So when he stood before the local television cameras after yesterday's hearing, Spielberg was determinedly circumspect. He has to save the good stuff for his potential moment in the national spotlight, he said. Spielberg's legal troubles are not over, though. Shortly after pleading guilty to the forgery at Paul VI, Fairfax County police arrested him on charges of sexual battery of an 18-year-old male and contributing to the delinquency of his 16-year-old girlfriend. Both charges are pending. The arrest caused one Fairfax judge to revoke Spielberg's bond and put him in jail for three weeks, but Roush later released him.

As part of Spielberg's probation, Roush also required him to undergo a mental health evaluation. Rodney G. Leffler, Spielberg's attorney, told the judge that Spielberg "is an incredibly immature guy who could probably benefit from this." Watching quietly from the back of the courtroom, Fairfax City police Detective Michael D. Boone said he was satisfied with the outcome of the case. Boone doggedly pursued Spielberg once he was alerted to the scheme by Steven Spielberg's security firm, arresting Jonathan Spielberg three times in one week on various charges.

Boone said putting Spielberg on two years of probation will provide an effective way to monitor his behavior.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.

APPEAL STALLS HIT-AND-RUN CASE AGAINST WATERMAN
MARIA GLOD WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Sunday, August 13, 2000 ; Page V03

The prosecution of a hit-and-run case against Randy Waterman, master and huntsman of the Piedmont Hunt, has been delayed again while the Virginia Court of Appeals decides whether a new trial would violate his double-jeopardy protections.

Waterman, 51, who is accused of fleeing the scene of an April 1999 two-car accident that injured Upperville physician William Katz, had been scheduled to go on trial this Wednesday in Fauquier County Circuit Court. Waterman's case has taken an unusual legal path, beginning in January when Circuit Court Judge James H. Chamblin declared a mistrial just after jurors heard a surprising defense theory from Waterman's attorney, Rodney G. Leffler. In his opening statement, Leffler alleged that the Katz family pressured the state to file charges to bolster a potential civil claim.

Chamblin halted the trial--over Leffler's objections--when prosecutor Kevin F. Casey argued that the only person able to refute Waterman's defense was Casey himself, who couldn't be both witness and prosecutor. Chamblin's ruling was later upheld by Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne. Since then, the two sides have been embroiled in a legal argument over whether the mistrial was a necessary step or a fatal flaw that requires the state to dismiss the charge.

Leffler has taken his objections to the appellate court, where a ruling is pending. Leffler argued that the mistrial was too severe a remedy and that it has compromised Waterman's right to a fair trial. "The Commonwealth simply wanted to obtain a mistrial on any basis possible as a result of its lack of preparation," Leffler wrote in a brief to the Court of Appeals. He argued that Waterman is at a disadvantage because prosecutors now know the names of defense witnesses and their anticipated testimony, revealed in opening statements. "The mistrial demanded by the Commonwealth will cause Waterman to endure more publicity, suffer more anxiety and incur more expense," Leffler wrote.

Fauquier County Commonwealth's Attorney Jonathan S. Lynn did not return calls for comment. Virginia State Police said Waterman was driving his pickup west on Route 50 near Middleburg about 10 p.m. April 25 when a vehicle driven by Katz's wife, Susan, approached from behind. Police said that Waterman stopped suddenly and that Katz tried to pass. As she entered the passing lane, police said, Waterman veered left and struck her vehicle. Police said Waterman left the scene and reported his involvement three hours later.

The Katzes have not filed a lawsuit. Leffler said they sent him a letter shortly before the trial demanding $3.2 million from Waterman. In his appellate brief, Leffler also alleged that until a week before the trial, prosecutors knowingly failed to hand over a rescue squad report "reflect[ing] that Ms. Katz was believed to be intoxicated."

Normally, Leffler would have had to wait until a retrial was concluded to appeal the mistrial ruling. But because he felt that a second trial would be unfair to Waterman--and because a second trial would not have been necessary but for the mistrial ruling--Leffler filed a rarely used "motion for prohibition," allowing him to challenge the decision before the case was over. Leffler said it is not clear when the appellate court will make its ruling or whether the judges will request oral arguments. He said a status hearing on the case has been scheduled for November in Fauquier County Circuit Court.

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BITTERNESS NEARLY RIVALS GRIEF
Tom Jackman Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON POST- Monday , October 23, 2000 ; Page B01

Young-ki Yoon was in Beijing last March, laying the groundwork for his teenage daughter to someday run her own business, when he got a call from one of his employees. His daughter, 15-year-old Naeun Yoon, had been hit by a car as she walked along a highway in Great Falls. She was dead.

Yoon, a successful business owner and developer, was overwhelmed. His only daughter, highly intelligent and an exceptional artist, was gone, and all the information about her death was a world away.

"I was in a desperate situation," Yoon recalled. "It seemed to me that I lost all aim and hope in my life." Yoon flew home to Seoul, then to Washington, and was driven directly to the spot on Route 7 where Naeun was struck, arriving 18 hours later. In agony, he fell to his knees and cried.

His confusion and bitterness were soon magnified. Yoon, 44, had never lived in the United States and was unfamiliar with the legal system. He speaks almost no English. And he soon learned that the woman accused of hitting his daughter and fleeing the scene was a well-liked lawyer who had clerked in the courthouse where she would be prosecuted. Yoon feared that the case would be quietly swept under the rug, his daughter ignored by a coterie of Fairfax County lawyers.

"If they want to make the case fair, they should share information with the victim," Yoon said recently through an interpreter. "But they don't try that."

Yoon alternates between moments of warm recollection of his daughter--a talented painter who also played the cello--and rage at the investigation. Her memory motivates him to press for justice.

"I know the power of a police investigation to prove things without witnesses," Yoon said. "If they don't have that power, I want to do it by myself."

So Yoon hired two prominent lawyers to protect his interests, but he fired them when he suspected that they were part of a courthouse clique. He demanded and held numerous meetings with the prosecutor but left even more suspicious. Yoon even met with Attorney General Mark L. Earley (R), hoping to get the case moved from Fairfax.

Now, after two postponements, the trial of 30-year-old lawyer Jane L. Wagner is scheduled for Oct. 31. As the date nears, Yoon's determination grows. He has hired another lawyer and a private investigator and is distributing posters with Wagner's picture, looking for more information on her whereabouts in the hours before the March 8 accident. The posters offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to a manslaughter or murder conviction--even though Wagner is charged only with felony hit-and-run.

"I am not satisfied with the investigation or the prosecutor," Yoon said. "I want her [Wagner] to have justice."

Wagner has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached to comment.

Yoon believes that Wagner should be charged with involuntary manslaughter, a charge carrying a stiffer penalty than a hit-and-run conviction. But prosecutors have said they would have to show extensive erratic driving or intoxication to make such a charge stick.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh, a veteran of many emotionally wrenching cases, could only sigh at the mention of Yoon's name. He said he has met repeatedly with Yoon and his attorneys--at the Yoon home, at various offices, even at the scene along Route 7.

"We are working as hard as we can to get at the truth," Morrogh said. "But sometimes you don't find what the victim's family wants you to find. We deal in evidence, not conjecture. My heart goes out to the guy. It's a terrible loss."

Wagner's attorney, Rodney G. Leffler, said nothing untoward has happened. "While I understand that the passage of time may arouse some suspicion," Leffler said, "the delay is attributable to the workload of the state forensic lab and the lawyers' schedules. The prosecutor is proceeding no differently in this case than in any other."

Not long after the accident, Wagner learned that she was pregnant with her first child. And in July, her law firm, Cooley Godward, fired her.

"She will feel what a parent's feeling, that they lost a child," Yoon said upon learning of Wagner's pregnancy. "If she is a right person, she must feel the feelings of the parents."

The accident occurred on the shoulder of westbound Route 7, just before Utterback Store Road in Great Falls, about 10:30 p.m. Sung Hee Yoon, Naeun's mother, testified at a preliminary hearing in April that her two teenage children, Naeun and 14-year-old Yi Han Yoon, were arguing and that she pulled her minivan onto the shoulder. Yi Han got out and began walking east. After a few moments, Naeun got out and walked west.

Naeun was walking away from the front of the minivan as her mother watched. Then a silver car suddenly swooped onto the shoulder and back onto Route 7. Naeun was gone. Her mother testified that she thought Naeun had either been abducted or that she had jumped the guardrail and was headed home through the woods.

With both teenagers out of her sight, Sung Hee Yoon drove to their home in Great Falls, hoping her children had walked. Neither had. She then returned to Route 7, where she found a Fairfax police officer speaking with her son. Minutes later, they found Naeun at the bottom of an embankment.

Two drivers who were on Route 7 at the same time testified that they saw a silver Mercedes-Benz swerving across the highway, and one driver jotted down Wagner's license plate. That driver, Doug Chapin, saw Wagner pull over a short time after the accident, talking on a cellular phone.

Wagner's husband called police the next morning, reportedly after hearing news reports of the hit and run. Investigators found Wagner's silver Mercedes, with a cantaloupe-size dent in the windshield, in the driveway of their Sterling home.

Wagner wasn't arrested until the next day, March 10, more than 36 hours after the accident. She told police she thought she hit a deer. Leffler said that afternoon that there is no requirement for a driver to stop after hitting a deer, and he argued at a preliminary hearing that "there is no evidence that this woman had actual knowledge of this offense."

Police filed the hit-and-run charge, a Class 6 felony, the lowest level. Morrogh said police have spared no resources, seeking information about Wagner's drinking and driving that night to support a manslaughter charge.

"We've checked bank cameras, phone records, bars and restaurants, credit card receipts," Morrogh said. "Nobody has come forward who may have been with her. We're not able to say where she was." Police did learn that Wagner was at the Old Brogue, an Irish pub in Great Falls, but did not run up a large bill and left hours before the accident. Yoon has been trying to hang posters with Wagner's picture in various Fairfax bars in recent days, hoping to track her activities after leaving the Old Brogue.

After Wagner was indicted in May, the case seemed to languish, increasing Yoon's suspicions. No judge in the area wanted to hear the case because Wagner had worked for F. Bruce Bach, the chief judge of Fairfax Circuit Court, from 1996 until 1998. Bach even brought in a substitute judge just to set a trial date.

The Virginia Supreme Court assigned a retired Henrico County judge, James E. Kulp, to the case, but Kulp was unable to hear it on July 5, the original trial date. He continued the trial to Aug. 28.

But lab reports on the physical evidence taken from Wagner's car were not completed until mid-August, and Leffler said he wanted to have his own expert examine the reports. Kulp granted a second continuance to Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, Young-ki Yoon waits.

He had moved his family to Great Falls from Seoul last December, while he remained in Korea, so that Naeun could attend an American high school. From an early age, Naeun had shown extraordinary ability in drawing and painting, and Yoon wanted her to attend an American college. They had picked out the Parsons School of Design in New York City, Yoon said, for her to study fashion design.

Yoon thought that his daughter might go into the jewelry business after college. He was in Beijing, scouting for a possible manufacturing plant, when Naeun was killed.

"I was so sorrowful," Yoon said, "and had a very anxious time until I arrived" in Virginia. Once here, he said, "my despair got deeper and deeper after I saw her body and realized that I can neither see her nor touch her anymore."

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LAWYER PLEADS GUILTY IN FAIRFAX HIT AND RUN
Tom Jackman Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON POST-Tuesday, October 31, 2000

The lawyer who swerved off a Fairfax County highway in her Mercedes and killed a 15-year-old girl last spring pleaded guilty to hit-and-run today and was sentenced to a year in the county jail. The judge allowed Jane L. Wagner, 30, to postpone her jail term until March, after she delivers a baby due in January. Visiting Circuit Judge James E. Kulp also ruled that Wagner may enter a work-release program during her time in jail, provided the Fairfax County Sheriff finds her eligible and she has a job. Wagner was fired by her law firm this summer, and she automatically forfeits her law license in Virginia as a result of today's felony conviction.

Wagner spoke publicly for the first time today about the death of Naeun Yoon, the Langley High School student who was walking along the shoulder of Route 7 on March 8 when she was struck and propelled over a guardrail. Wagner did not specifically mention her lawyer's claim that she thought she hit a deer, but she maintained she did not purposely leave Yoon to die.

"I did not know, nor did I ever imagine," Wagner said, "that a person was involved in this accident or that a life was taken. I know in God's eyes this is the truth. But I made a mistake when I didn't stop the car."

In sentencing Wagner, Kulp said that "Ms. Wagner has convinced herself it didn't happen. But the evidence contradicts Ms. Wagner's belief."

State sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of zero to six months in jail, but Kulp said that was insufficient. He imposed a term of five years in prison, then suspended four years of that term, and placed Wagner on 10 years probation. He also ordered her to perform 500 hours of community service.

Unlike most other defendants, Wagner was then allowed to walk back into judge's chambers with her attorney, Rodney G. Leffler. Wagner was a law clerk in the Fairfax courthouse from 1996 to 1998, and a large contingent of friends and former clerks was there to support her.

Yoon's father, Young-ki Yoon, said the sentence was unsurprising, given the charge of hit-and-run. He repeated his desire that Wagner should have been charged with manslaughter or vehicular homicide, but Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said the available evidence didn't support a stiffer charge.

Young-ki Yoon said through an interpreter, "I don't think her conscience was there to admit to her guilt. Because of what Jane Wagner said and [because] she's not true to her conscience, she should be punished." Young-ki Yoon also testified about his daughter during the hearing, frequently glaring at Wagner and addressing his comments to her.

The Yoons plan to file a civil lawsuit against Wagner within two weeks, said their attorney, Michael Choi.

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