Wesley P. Hester
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Next month, Judge Thomas V. Warren, the longest-sitting circuit judge in Virginia, will step down at the age of 70 as mandated by state law.

“That was the deal when I signed on. Plus, it’s probably time anyway,” he said in a low, distinctly Southern accent familiar to court regulars.

Warren, who lives in Crewe, was appointed to the 11th Judicial Circuit - covering Powhatan, Nottoway, Amelia and Dinwiddie counties - in 1977 by then-Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr., who chose from a number of candidates.

“I have no idea why he chose me,” he said half-jokingly.

“Your charm and good looks,” offered his wife of 43 years, Ann, earning a laugh.

Warren, born and raised in Fredericksburg, tried his hand at a couple of jobs after serving two years in the Army after undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech. He went to law school at the University of Tennessee and graduated in 1968.

He moved to Crewe with Ann after school and began practicing with Fielding Wilson, who served as a mentor and eventually a partner. Less than a decade later, he was a judge.
“He’s a great man,” offered William E. “Bill” Maxey Jr., Powhatan’s Circuit Court clerk for 53 years. “He’s more than my judge - he’s my friend.”

Maxey said Warren will be remembered for major improvements he has made to courthouses in all four counties as well as his personality, calling him “one of the most popular judges” he has ever known.

“He’s absolutely fair, very level-headed. and uses his common sense,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of judges come through here, and I don’t know one that could stand up to him.”

. . .

Warren has seen his share of high-profile cases, most recently the murder trial in Tahliek Taliaferro’s slaying in Powhatan.

Cousins Ethan and Joey Parrish were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Taliaferro, a popular high school football player, after a skirmish at a local gas station.

A jury of 11 whites and one black heard the case. Taliaferro was black; the Parrishes, who originally had been charged with murder, are white.

Warren sentenced Ethan Parrish, who fired the shots that killed Taliaferro, to 16 years, and his cousin, Joey Parrish, to 11 years - the maximum allowable sentences.

“It was difficult,” Warren said. “The jury did what the jury did. They did the best that they know how to do.”

Asked if he thought the jury had arrived at the right decision, Warren hesitated.

“I’m always reluctant to criticize or second-guess a jury verdict,” he said. “It’s still pretty fresh and kind of raw. I don’t really want to say too much about that.”

He did say that the trial likely will go down as the most widely publicized and discussed in which he has had a part.

“I don’t ever remember any community being torn like that,” he said. “It was murder, and any murder deserves the highest degree of attention and scrutiny. But it probably wouldn’t have gotten the amount of attention and scrutiny that it had if the racial issue had not been in it. That always makes things different.”

. . .

Another case that stands out in Warren’s memory is that of Beverly Monroe, convicted in 1992 of murdering her lover, Roger de la Burde, a millionaire land speculator, art collector and retired Philip Morris chemist who claimed to be a Polish count.

When de la Burde was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on his 220-acre estate in Powhatan, Monroe was an unlikely suspect - a mother of three and a patents analyst at Philip Morris.

Prosecutors contended she was jealous after learning that another woman was pregnant with de la Burde’s child.

Warren sentenced Monroe to 22 years based on the jury’s recommendation and called it the “ultimate crime.”

A book, “The Count and the Confession,” was written about the case in 2002, the same year Monroe was freed after serving seven years on the conviction when U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams found that she had not received a fair trial.

Williams said the prosecution failed to disclose information to Monroe’s trial attorneys that they could have used in her defense. Prosecutors decided not to retry her.

Warren remembered that the trial concluded on a Saturday. The defense attorney and the prosecutor were concerned they would miss the University of Virginia football game if it went long, he said with a laugh.

And he’ll never forget the snake in the courtroom episode of 1978.

During a murder trial in Amelia, John W. “Bill” Crews, a local attorney who wasn’t involved in the case, was called to the stand as a witness.

“Somebody stood up, pointed toward the front and said, ‘Look, there’s a snake in the courtroom!’” Warren recalled. “Bill Crews said, ‘Well, I’ve been called a lot of things . . . ‘“

Sure enough, there was a snake crawling across the floor.

“I said, ‘Sheriff, take care of that snake!’ Well, Harold Osborne pulled his pistol and I said, ‘No!’ He found a broom somewhere and chased it out,” he recalled, laughing. “Talk about a rural county.”

. . .

As for his legacy, Warren won’t grade himself but said he has done his best to be fair.

“I’ve tried to be patient, and I’ve tried to be restrained, and, generally, I think I’ve done a good job with that,” he said, adding that “sometimes it’s not so easy.”

Reflecting on the changes that he has seen during his 32 years on the bench, Warren said the biggest difference is case volume. He noted that criminal cases have increased dramatically, while civil cases have remained relatively constant.

“I don’t know how it could be that we have so many more cases than we used to have unless there’s been a shift in people’s behavior,” he said. “I can’t think that the prosecutors and police officers are any more aggressive than they were 32 years ago.”

He attributed much of the rising criminal caseload to drugs.

“That started 30 years ago, and I don’t see it going down any,” he said. “Illegal drugs is something that overwhelms the docket, the prosecutors and the law enforcement.”

Asked if a career filled with murder, drugs and violent crimes has left him jaded and pessimistic, Warren shook his head.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Seldom am I shocked anymore, but you never see it all, you never hear it all and you never know it all.”

He hastened to add that the realities of court, generally, are far less interesting than the public perception. After each jury selection, Warren said he invites the 20 or so people not chosen to stay on and learn about the judicial process.

“I always tell them, ‘I know that a lot of you are very interested in lawyer shows and legal shows. So if you would like on this one occasion to stay and show what a real trial is like, please stay,’” he said smiling.

“Well, they about tear the door down.”