NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Newport News judge has sanctioned a defense lawyer in the Richneck Elementary School shooting case for what the judge found were two unsubstantiated assertions about the case’s prosecutor.

Circuit Court Judge Christopher R. Papile said that the lawyer, Curtis M. Rogers, must complete two additional hours of legal training in 2026.

Rogers — one of the lawyers representing former Richneck assistant principal Ebony J. Parker — asserted that special prosecutor Joshua Jenkins “guided” the special grand jury that indicted Parker.

Jenkins “guided the special grand jury during its investigation, deliberation, production of its report and decision to charge (Parker) with eight counts of felony Child Abuse and Neglect,” Rogers wrote in a Sept. 4 motion asking that Papile remove the prosecutor from the case.

But Papile said the contention that Jenkins “guided” the special grand jury’s actions “is not supported by any facts.”

And that wasn’t simply “an inarticulate description” of Jenkins’ involvement in the grand jury’s investigation, Papile said.

“It was a deliberate attempt to discredit the Commonwealth, the aim of which was to disqualify the Special Prosecutor,” the judge wrote.

Though Rogers amended his motion to say that Jenkins “assisted” — rather than “guided” — the grand jurors, the damage was already done.

Rogers further asserted that Jenkins was biased and conflicted because of campaign contributions he made to Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn, the city’s longtime top prosecutor who ran for reelection this year.

But Papile said Rogers did not back up that argument, either. Asserting that the campaign contribution was a problem was also made “without any argument or legal support,” Papile found.

Under Virginia law, if a lawyer makes an argument that’s not “well grounded in fact” and “warranted by a good faith argument,” the judge “shall” impose “an appropriate sanction” on the attorney.

In issuing the sanction, Papile said Rogers must complete “an additional two hours of continuing legal education on the topic of ethics or professionalism” in 2026. That’s on top of the 12 hours — including two in ethics — that lawyers must complete annually.

Rogers did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Timothy Clancy, a veteran attorney who’s worked on both the prosecution and defense sides, said sanctions are “very rare” in local courts.

In fact, Clancy said that in 39 years of practicing law, he’s been involved in only one case in which a defense lawyer was sanctioned — and knows of only a few other cases where they were.

“When lawyers are in court or filing pleadings, they have to do so in good faith,” Clancy explained. “Which is just a fancy way of saying there has to be some objective basis for saying what you’re trying to allege.”

Rogers is one of two attorneys representing Parker in the case, which stems from the shooting at Richneck Elementary on Jan. 6, 2023 in which a 6-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, during an afternoon reading class.

Parker, charged with eight counts of felony child neglect, is accused of failing to act after receiving several warnings from other teachers or staff that the boy was armed. The number of counts stem from the boy having eight rounds in his gun that day — the one he shot at Zwerner and seven others left in the chamber after the gun jammed.

The criminal trial was scheduled for last week, but is now slated for May. A separate civil case against Parker last month resulted in a $10 million jury verdict in favor of Zwerner.

In the series of motions in September, Rogers asked Papile to remove Jenkins as special prosecutor. He asked that Papile and other Newport News judges recuse themselves. And he asked for a change of venue, to hold the trial outside of Newport News.

Papile denied each of the motions.

In April 2023, about two months after the shooting, Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn filed a motion to empanel a special grand jury to further investigate the case. A judge agreed to do so.

A year later, in April 2024, the 11-member grand jury found that Parker “acted in complete disregard” for the safety of everyone in the school. They indicted her on the eight felony counts, a nd released a 25-page report into their findings.

Gwynn held a press conference the next day, saying he was “troubled” by the grand jury’s findings of what led to the shooting, including the “security lapses” at the school. “I think anybody in this room, anybody in this city, anybody who reads this report should be disturbed by it,” he said.

Rogers’ motion contended that Gwynn “released this highly prejudicial report to the public,” not considering its impact on Parker’s right to a fair trial. Anyone who watched the news conference or read the report, he said, “cannot help but to be influenced in a prejudicial way” against Parker.

Jenkins, however, said Gwynn did not pre-judge Parker at the news conference — that Gwynn “repeatedly deferred” to the grand jury’s decision making and said he would “follow the facts and the law wherever they lead.”

“These are not extrajudicial declarations of guilt,” Jenkins wrote. “They are the necessary communications of a public office confronting unprecedented tragedy and expressing confidence in the judicial system.”

At the 2024 news conference, Gwynn said his office had recommended that the report be publicly released — even as it was a Circuit Court judge who actually ordered it unsealed at the grand jury’s request.

“We thought … it was important for every citizen in the city to have access to it,” Gwynn said at the time.

Papile declined to sanction Rogers for the lawyer’s incorrect assertion that Gwynn released the report “without an order of the Court.” The judge noted that another judge’s 2024 order making the report public was itself unsealed only after Rogers’ recent motions.

During the recent political campaign for Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney, Gwynn’s primary opponent, Shannon Jones, said she believed that Parker was overcharged. Jones noted that Parker was facing eight neglect counts, while the boy’s mother was only charged with one.

Jones also asserted that charging someone based on the number of bullets in the chamber doesn’t pass legal muster, though she stopped short of saying she would reduce the charges if she won.

But now, Jones won’t have a say in the matter.

After Jones beat Gwynn in the Democratic primary in May, Jenkins soon left the office to work as a prosecutor in Hampton. And in July, Gwynn’s office filed a motion asking that Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell “or his designee” be appointed special prosecutor in the Parker case.

“This is a serious and complex case, in which (Jenkins) has spent a great deal of time and built a relationship of trust with the witnesses, especially Abby Zwerner, a critical witness in this matter,” the motion said.

A judge granted the order, meaning the Hampton prosecutor’s office — not the Newport News one — is in charge of the Parker case going forward.

Rogers asserted in his motion that Jenkins was made special prosecutor “to prevent Ms. Jones from being able to exercise any prosecutorial discretion regarding the prosecution of Dr. Parker.”

Also in the motion, Rogers asserted that Jenkins gave Gwynn the “enormous” sum of $28,000 in campaign contributions.

But Jenkins — who served as Gwynn’s campaign manager — clarified that he donated $7,500 as a direct donation. The remaining $20,000, he said, was “in kind” contributions: Unpaid hours he spent working for the campaign at nights, weekends and during personal leave time.

Rogers said he wasn’t given an opportunity to object to the special prosecutor’s appointment — and that any prosecutor who served under Gwynn should be barred from the Parker trial.

In his response to what he called Rogers’ “baseless motions,” Jenkins said defendants don’t get to shop around for a prosecutor that suits them.

His appointment as special counsel, Jenkins said, is “exactly the type of legitimate grounds that courts recognize for such appointments” — such as prior knowledge of the case, facts and witnesses.

As for Rogers’ contention that Jenkins took part in the special grand jury’s deliberations, the prosecutor called that a “reckless” assertion.

“This lie warrants sanctions,” Jenkins wrote. “No attorney participated in deliberations, and no prosecutor participated in drafting the special grand jury report.”

Under Virginia law, the prosecutor “shall not be present” while grand jurors are discussing testimony or deliberating on a verdict, though a prosecutor may be “available” to answer legal questions for them.

“The grand jury, independent citizens of Newport News, alone made the decision to indict … after conducting a full and fair investigation,” Jenkins wrote.

A judge appointed a local attorney, Lexy Fenlason, to assist the grand jury in writing the report into their findings. Fenalson is a former Hampton prosecutor, but wasn’t in that role at the time.

Jenkins said Rogers “could have discovered this with reasonable investigation,” such as making a “single phone call” or asking about it in an email.

At a hearing on Oct. 10, Judge Papile denied Rogers’ motion to remove Jenkins from the case, saying he hadn’t heard “any level of impropriety whatsoever” that would preclude Jenkins remaining as special prosecutor.

The judge issued the sanctions a month later.

Papile said Rogers had no basis to assert that Jenkins “improperly participated” in the special grand jury deliberations. Though Rogers did not say directly that Jenkins violated the law, his motion as worded “does just that.”

Papile said Rogers “intended to leave the impression” that Jenkins improperly took part in the grand jury proceedings.

Moreover, Papile said that although Rogers raised Jenkins’ campaign contributions, he did not provide “any argument or legal support” for how contributing to Gwynn’s campaign created a bias or conflict.

In another ruling, Papile denied Rogers’ request to move the trial to a different jurisdiction because of extensive local media coverage that the attorney contends has been overly negative against Parker.

Papile said he was confident that enough would-be jurors would be brought in to seat a fair jury. “The Commonwealth and Ms. Parker are going to get a fair and proper trial,” he wrote.

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