Chesapeake ex-public defender guilty of larceny

PORTSMOUTH

Eugene B. Harris, a former Chesapeake public defender awaiting formal sentencing in that city for assault of a police officer, got a six-month jail sentence here Monday for an unrelated crime.

Circuit Judge Johnny E. Morrison found Harris, 31, guilty of larceny from a person and gave him six months to serve in the Portsmouth City Jail.

The judge gave Harris a total of five years but suspended four years and six months, ordering him to serve supervised probation upon his release. The judge also ordered him to make restitution of $100 to Jorge Luis Concepcion Jr., a former client, and to have no contact with witnesses.

According to court records, the charges stemmed from a meeting Harris set up with Concepcion, who owed him legal fees, at an Olde Towne restaurant in November 2008. Concepcion told police someone with Harris took $100 from his pocket and that Harris jumped into his car when he tried to leave and ordered him to write a check.

Harris had faced charges of robbery, abduction and conspiracy; he was tried in October. The judge deferred findings on his verdicts until Monday.

The judge found him not guilty of robbery but guilty of the lesser larceny charge, a felony. Morrison dismissed the abduction and conspiracy charges.

Earlier this month, a Chesapeake jury found Harris guilty of assault of a law enforcement officer and recommended a six-month sentence. He will be formally sentenced in that city June 14.

Harris graduated from Regent University Law School in 2004.

Asha Pandya, a special prosecutor, asked him whether he had been fired from the state attorney general's office and the Chesapeake public defender's office, and he said he resigned from both positions. After leaving the Chesapeake public defender's office, he went into private practice in Portsmouth.

The Virginia State Bar is investigating Harris but has taken no action to date, according to information that came out in Monday's sentence hearing.

"My theory is that he will one day be able to practice law again," said Harris' lawyer, Von L. Piersall III. It may take time, Piersall said, but he added it could happen "once he gets this behind him and shows that this is not him."

Questioned on the witness stand, Harris said he will go back into law if allowed. Otherwise, he said, he planned to attend graduate school after serving his time.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com