Fraud Charges Dropped Against Former Candidate

Mark D. Tate, right, talking with Tom Patterson in June, said yesterday that "voters didn't have an opportunity to make a true choice in the primary election." (By Richard A. Lipski -- The Washington Post)

A Circuit Court judge yesterday dismissed all charges against a former Virginia state Senate candidate from Loudoun County who was accused of campaign finance fraud after the prosecutor said the case had been tainted by allegations of improprieties in the investigation.

Special prosecutor Matthew J. Britton asked the judge to dismiss two election fraud charges and nine perjury charges against Mark D. Tate. In June, Tate lost the Republican nomination in the 27th Senate District, which covers parts of Loudoun and Fauquier counties, all of Clarke and Frederick counties and the city of Winchester.

Judge Herman A. Whisenant Jr., a visiting judge in Loudoun County Circuit Court, dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning that Britton can try Tate again. Britton said yesterday that he plans to bring the evidence to a new grand jury as quickly as possible.

Tate, 42, of Purcellville, said he was relieved by the judge's decision. His attorney has argued that the case was politically motivated.

"I've said I was innocent all along," Tate said from the restaurant he owns with his brother in Middleburg. "Unfortunately, because of all this, the voters didn't have an opportunity to make a true choice in the primary election."

A grand jury indicted Tate on May 21, three weeks before he was to face Warrenton lawyer Jill Holtzman Vogel in the Republican primary. The charges were related to hundreds of misstatements that prosecutors said he made on campaign finance statements he filed in his two tries for office, in 2003 and 2007.

Questions immediately arose over the timing of the indictments and the role of Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman (R), who initiated the inquiry into Tate's finances. Plowman had endorsed Holtzman Vogel in the primary and began the investigation at the suggestion of a Holtzman Vogel campaign volunteer.

To avoid a conflict of interest, Plowman later asked Britton, the commonwealth's attorney in King George County, to act as a special prosecutor.

Tate's attorney, Edward B. MacMahon Jr., has alleged that Plowman had long been trying to discredit Tate. Last month, a former reporter at a Leesburg newspaper filed an affidavit saying that Plowman told him two months before the indictments that Tate was "absolutely a criminal." Plowman has said the reporter had demonstrated "obvious bias."

MacMahon also sought to subpoena three people who he said had prior knowledge that Tate was to be indicted.

Britton has argued that the evidence speaks for itself. According to charging documents filed with the court, Tate allegedly made about 200 misstatements on his campaign finance filings. The documents charge that he falsified loans, exaggerated how much money he had raised and "waged a campaign of misinformation and false reporting that allowed him to take money for himself and his business from his campaign balance."

Tate has said some of the allegations about recordkeeping in his filings were true but were innocent mistakes.

Britton said yesterday that he wanted to restart the case, "not because there is any truth or merit to the allegations about [political maneuverings]; I just want to remove the appearance of it from the whole equation."

Tate, meanwhile, said he is considering legal action against Plowman.

The 27th District seat is held by Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. (R-Winchester), who is retiring. Holtzman Vogel faces Democrat Karen Schultz and Independent Donald Marro on Nov. 6.