Candidate for Bedford judgeship was involved in D-Day Memorial trial

A Bedford judgeship remains vacant because Virginia’s state Senate noticed that the designated candidate had been a key figure in a criminal fraud prosecution related to the D-Day Memorial.

Louis Harrison, a Bedford lawyer, had been selected over three other candidates by the House of Delegates in February to replace Bedford Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge Philip Wallace, who is retiring.

Harrison’s nomination was blocked on the last day of the General Assembly session after a member of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee raised a question about his role in fundraising for the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, according to Sen. Henry Marsh, D-Richmond, chairman of the committee.

Marsh would not discuss specifics concerning the Harrison nomination.

Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, who helped advance Harrison’s nomination, could not be reached for comment. State Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, whose district includes Bedford County, also couldn’t be reached.

Harrison’s actions while an attorney for the D-Day Foundation in the late 1990s and 2000 earned him a private reprimand from the Virginia State Bar, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Roanoke.

Harrison did not return phone calls seeking comment on Thursday.

Former foundation director Richard Burrow was indicted twice on federal charges that he used an illegal scheme to raise money for the memorial.

Harrison was brought out as a key witness when then-U.S. Attorney John Brownlee announced in 2003 that he was seeking the second set of indictments against Burrow, whose original trial in the case had ended with a hung jury.

Harrison signed a pretrial diversion agreement to testify against Burrow in that second trial in exchange for the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreement not to prosecute him on a wire fraud charge. Harrison also paid a $12,500 fine.

Harrison said at the time that he approved documents Burrow used to get loans from the National Cooperative Bank in California in 1998 and 2000.

The 2000 loan for $3.5 million to the memorial was to be used as matching money for a state grant.

“I ignored clear warnings and signs that Burrow was intentionally defrauding the State of Virginia,” Harrison wrote in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2003.

“I was willfully blind to the fact that the loan had to be repaid in only 90 days, and that the Foundation did not have the required matching funds to obtain the state grant.”

The money simply didn’t exist, he wrote.

Harrison testified at Burrow’s second trial that he resigned from the foundation after the 2000 loan because, as a family law attorney, he did not have experience in financial transactions in which the foundation was engaged.

Harrison was required to report his actions to the Virginia State Bar. A bar representative said Thursday that no public disciplinary action was taken.

The bar did issue a private reprimand and a statement that Harrison should not have taken on representation of the foundation because he was not qualified, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Brian McGinn said on Thursday.

Burrow’s second trial in the fundraising scandal also ended in a hung jury, in October 2004. Shortly thereafter, Brownlee announced he would not pursue the case further.

Brownlee is now a candidate for the Republican nomination for attorney general of Virginia in a race with two other candidates to be decided by a statewide GOP convention May 30 in Richmond. Also seeking the nomination are state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, and Dave Foster, of Arlington.

The Bedford judgeship is expected to become vacant in June because Wallace, the current judge, has said he plans to retire.

Possibilities for filling the judgeship are unclear.

The General Assembly could take up the judgeship during its scheduled one-day reconvene session April 8, or the circuit court judges of the 24th circuit could appoint a judge. Such an appointment would be subject to approval by the General Assembly next year.

Ten other judgeships also went unfilled as time ran out in this year’s 46-day session of the Assembly.