COURTHOUSE — A former Virginia Beach School Board candidate pleaded guilty this past week to two misdemeanor charges related to political nominating petitions he signed off on two years ago though they contained fake signatures.
Justin Burns, a college student whose efforts to hold public office received media coverage due to his youth, pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of duty, both misdemeanors, on Tuesday, March 22, in Circuit Court after reaching an agreement with a special prosecutor.
Burns had faced two felony charges after a grand jury in 2020 accused him of making a false statement in a report under a section of election law and representing a forged document as true.
Circuit Court Judge Stephen Mahan accepted the deal, and he sentenced Burns to 12 months in jail on each misdemeanor count, suspending both sentences as long as Burns has three years of good behavior and completes 50 hours of community service with a nonprofit.
William Wittenbrook, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Gloucester County who served as the special prosecutor, told the court Burns in 2020 signed as a witness to petitions that on some occasions had been carried by someone else.
Burns had been trying to qualify for the ballot so he could run for an at-large seat on the School Board under the former local election system here.
Someone carrying petitions filled in names rather than obtaining signatures, the special prosecutor said.
“By all other accounts,” Wittenbrook said, “he has a bright future. … I believe community service and probation is a good outcome here.”
“He was very young at the time,” Annette Miller, the senior assistant public defender who represented Burns, told the court. She added that Burns wanted to do community service as part of the agreement.
Burns and both attorneys declined to comment after the hearing.
In 2020, there were questions about whether Burns had enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, but the Virginia Beach Electoral Board voted to allow him to run after he appealed to them.
Donna Patterson, the former director of voter registration and elections for Virginia Beach, referred concerns about signatures on the petitions to the commonwealth’s attorney office.
Burns left the race before the general election that year, citing inability to campaign due to Covid-19 restrictions.
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