A 27-year old Virginia man has agreed to a vasectomy as part of a plea deal in Virginia.
“It’s a condition of his probation, and I’m sure he’ll have to provide documentation to his probation officer,” [prosecutor Ilonia L.] White said of the vasectomy.
White said her motivation in offering the vasectomy option to [the defendant] stemmed from concerns raised at sentencing hearings in earlier cases about how many children have been traced to him from different women.
“It was primarily due to the fact he had seven or eight children, all by different women, and we felt it might be in the commonwealth’s interest for that to be part of the plea agreement,” White said of the vasectomy provision.
But the defendant in this case, Jessie Lee Herald, was facing charges related to a car crash. The charges included child endangerment, hit-and-run driving and driving with a suspended license. Mr. Herald fled the scene of the accident with the child who had been traveling with him.
The Northern Virginia Daily has the story here.
It is difficult to read this report against Virginia’s history with forced sterilization, most notably the Buck v. Bell decision.
-Bridget Crawford
