Commonwealth Attorney’s office adds five prosecutors

Chesterfield’s Commonwealth Attorney’s Office recently hired five prosecutors to bring its attorney staff to full strength. (JOANNA HARTSOOK PHOTOGRAPHY)

The new employees are Gabriela Phillingane, Catherine Gray, Ayesha Meekins, Ambrosia Mosby and Gregory Overholser.

Phillingane most recently served as an assistant state attorney in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, where she specialized in domestic violence prosecutions and secured that office’s first conviction under Florida’s new “revenge porn” law. Phillingane is a bilingual English-Spanish speaker. “Having Spanish language fluency in our attorney corps allows us to better serve the large and growing Latino community in Chesterfield County,” Chesterfield’s Commonwealth Attorney Scott Miles said in a press release. “So when we can recruit an experienced prosecutor like Gabi, who also has the ability to communicate with a Latino victim, witness, or defendant in his or her first language, that’s a huge bonus for us and the community that we serve.”

Mosby is also a bilingual Spanish speaker. She comes from the Richmond’s commonwealth attorney’s office, and previously served as a senior trial attorney in the Richmond Public Defender’s Office. “Ambrosia has demonstrated her abilities as a prosecutor and defense attorney in serious, violent cases, including aggravated sexual assault cases,” Miles said. “She has supervisory experience in a juvenile court office, which is rare in an applicant… She’s uniquely well qualified to assume one of the leadership positions in our Juvenile and Domestic Relations unit.”

Gray was recruited from Fredericksburg’s commonwealth attorney’s office, where she had established herself as a formidable prosecutor capable of handling the most serious, violent cases. “Cate was able to step right into our court rotation because of her directly transferable skills developed in Fredericksburg,” Miles said. “Hiring someone who has been prosecuting the full range of criminal cases in another locality gives us an immediate boost.”

Meekins was in private practice before joining the commonwealth attorney’s office, and she served as an assistant public defender in Richmond’s public defender’s office for several years before that. “A prosecutor who has significant criminal defense experience brings the ability to evaluate cases from several perspectives, which is really valuable to us,” Miles said. “Most of the truly excellent prosecutors I’ve known have had that background to draw from. Also, as a former public defender myself, I appreciate the worth of that high-volume, intense education that Ayesha received.”

Overholser most recently served as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Hopewell’s commonwealth attorney’s office, has previously been in private practice as a criminal defense lawyer, and was an assistant public defender in Richmond for four years. “Greg is an all-around excellent attorney who has in recent years developed a special expertise in juvenile court work,” Miles said. “Juvenile justice is its own discipline within the field of criminal prosecution, and we’re lucky to get dedicated practitioners like Greg for this important work.”