Chief justice’s son sentenced to 16 months

Leroy R. Hassell Jr. not only failed to complete the 200 hours of community service imposed as part of convictions for embezzlement, unlawful entry and trespassing, he forged documents saying that he had.

As a result, Henrico Circuit Judge L.A. Harris jr. sentenced him yesterday to 16 months in jail, part of it for forging community service time sheets and the rest for violating the terms of probation on the petit larceny and unlawful entry counts.

Those charges were reduced from burglary and grand larceny in an incident at a Henrico home that involved two other young men. He was charged later with embezzling from a Target store where he worked during the 2005 Christmas season.

He was assigned to perform community service work at the Henrico landfill but worked only five hours there before he forged documents reporting that he had put in substantially more time.

He turned himself on Sept. 14 after he was indicted on the forgery charges and chose to remain in jail to begin serving the expected jail time rather than post bond.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has more details.