Faquier County Sheriff/YouTube Teresa Jo Burchfield is accused of giving contraband to an inmate at the Fauquier County, Virginia, jail after she was caught having sex with him in a car, police say. She is the wife of attorney Bobby Burchfield, right, an ethics adviser to President Donald Trump's businesses.
The wife of a prominent Republican attorney who is currently working as an ethics advisor to President Donald Trump’s business has been arrested after police in Virginia say they found her having sex with an inmate outside a county jail.
Teresa Jo Burchfield, 53, is accused of giving contraband items to the prisoner, who had “trustee” status, and was allowed to work inside and outside the adult correctional center in Fauquier County, the Fauquier Times reports.
The 23-year-old inmate was not named by the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office.
“During the investigation on Tuesday afternoon, September 5, 2017, detectives discovered an inmate and a female in the rear seat of a vehicle in a parking lot adjacent to the detention center facility,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. “The inmate was found in possession of suspected vitamin supplement pills and other unauthorized articles alleged to have been obtained from the female.”
The items included “clothing, cigarettes and suspected over the counter vitamin supplements,” the sheriff’s office said.
Teresa, who goes by Terri Burchfield, of McLean, Virginia, was charged with willfully delivering unauthorized articles to a confined prisoner, a class 1 misdemeanor, and released on $5,000 secured bond, the sheriff’s office said. She faces up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 if found guilty, according to state law.
Teresa and Bobby Burchfield could not immediately be reached for comment and have not issued public statements about the incident. It is not clear if she has hired an attorney. She is scheduled to appear at Fauquier General District Court at 11:30 a.m. Friday for her arraignment, according to online records.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Deputies Say They Saw ‘Suspicious’ Activity in the Back Seat of the Car & Found Burchfield Having Sex With the 23-Year-Old Inmate
The Fauquier County Adult Detention Center.
Teresa Jo Burchfield was arrested on September 5, 2017, according to the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office, the department said in a press release. The release did not detail the relationship between Burchfield and the inmate, who is 23, and did not name him or specify why he is in the jail.
“The 23 year old male inmate was on ‘Trustee’ status at the time of the incident. A Trustee is an inmate with minimal charges and sentence authorized to perform work inside and outside of the detention center and sheriff’s office facilities,” the sheriff’s office said.
Further details were revealed by the Fauquier Times, which obtained court documents filed by police and prosecutors. According to the criminal complaint filed at the Fauquier County General District Court, deputies found Burchfield having sex with the inmate in the back of the car after seeing “suspicious” activity in the jail’s parking lot.
“The defendant was caught in the backseat of her vehicle with an inmate…,” Deptuty J. B. Thorpe wrote in the complaint, according to the newspaper. “When the inmate exited the vehicle, he handed me a bag of brown pills (capsules), that he claims to be workout pills.”
Deputies then searched the inmate and the car and found other contraband items, including clothing, cigarettes vitamin supplements. The inmate said he had been meeting with Burchfield for about a month, according to court documents obtained by the newspaper. Further details about those meetings and their relationship were not revealed.
Burchfield does not appear to have a prior criminal record, beyonds several speeding and other traffic infractions.
2. She Is an Independent Research Consultant & Has Worked With the FBI, CIA & Defense Contractors Like Booz Allen Hamilton
Teresa Burchfield
Teresa Miller Burchfield is an “independent research consultant” in the Washington D.C. area, according to her Linkedin profile. She has said on Linkedin that she has done consulting work with the government, including the FBI and the CIA, and with several defense contractors, including Booz Allen Hamilton.
She has worked a government information specialist at FCi Federal, Inc, which has a contract with the FBI. She also worked at USIS, another contractor that has worked with the FBI. Burchfield was a senior support specialist and consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton from 2008 to 2012 and a finance administrator at the CIA from 2006 to 2008.
Burchfield also worked for ObjectVideo, “a cutting edge firm working on key homeland security technologies,” according to her bio on a charity website.
“Terri’s background with the internet is noted by her former employment as Vice President at Dimension Data. Dimension Data is a leading global technology company that builds and manages the IT infrastructures that enable companies to operate efficiently and collaborate seamlessly. The company has a unique combination of specialist skills in managed services, network infrastructure, application integration and e-Business services,” the website says.
She also worked for Congress.
“Terri’s exceptional understanding of government relations reflects her professional experience on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Terri worked for the Committee on Banking and Financial Services in the U.S. House of Representatives specializing in the area of financial derivatives and working on other banking issues such as the Congressional Whitewater investigation. Derivatives work included delivering speeches, writing reports, and drafting legislation on the subject,” according to the charity website.
Before moving to work in D.C., Burchfield previously worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in a two-year analyst program, where she was “involved in such transactions as stock offerings and mergers, including the merger of Ford Motor Company and Jaguar. Prior to Wall Street, Terri worked for a defense contracting firm and was put on (site) in the Pentagon, specifically the Ship Survivability Office, Chief of Naval Operations.”
3. Burchfield, the Mother of a College-Aged Daughter, Went to Stanford & Georgetown & Founded a Migraine Awareness Group
Terri and Bobby Burchfield.
Terri Burchfield, who is the mother of a college-aged daughter, graduated from Stanford University in 1987 with a degree in industrial engineering, according to a bio on a charity website. She later received her master’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University in 1999.
She has been a longtime advocate for those with migraines.
“She is a founding member and on the Board of Directors of M.A.G.N.U.M.: Migraine Awareness Group: a National Understanding for Migraineurs, a non-profit health care public education organization. As Executive Vice President and Legislative Director of MAGNUM, Terri delivers speeches, writes articles, participates in media events, and engages in other activities to educate the public and Congress on health care issues related to Migraine disease and pain issues,” the MAGNUM website says.
Terri’s efforts are noted as well, to raise public awareness about Migraine disease and her efforts as an important public health advocate on head-pain issues have been acknowledged by many major government officials. Some of the notables who have praised her work here at MAGNUM are President George W. Bush, Tipper Gore, Secretary of Health Tommy Thomson, Leader Bill Frist, Senators John Warner, Barbara Mikulske, & George Allan, Congressman James P. Moran & Cliff Stearns, the late Senator Paul D. Coverdell, and Former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Charles S. Robb, to name a few.
Terri helps raise public awareness to head-pain disorders via public speaking with Mr. Coleman to varied audiences from the U.S. Post Office Headquarters, to the D.O.D.’s Army Material Command, or at the Fifth Annual Migraine Awareness Event to name a few. She testified about the burden of Migraine disease to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, and is always ready to give voice to Migraineurs where their voice often go unheard.
Television broadcasts include a CBS broadcast on Migraine and Mothers, a Voice of America (VOA) international broadcast special on Migraine disease, as well as many other informative programs or TV news broadcasts on ABC, NBC, MSNBC & Fox Broadcasting. Special radio broadcast include traveling to Los Angels with Mr. Coleman to do a one hour women’s radio show discussing Migraine issues broadcast from the Museum of Radio & Television in Beverly Hills, California, as well as many other regional and national radio broadcasts on Migraine and pain public health issues.
4. Bobby Burchfield Has Worked on Republican Presidential Campaigns & for Karl Rove’s Group, Crossroads GPS
Bobby Burchfield is a prominent Republican attorney who is currently a partner at King & Spalding, based in the law firm’s Washington, D.C. office. The law firm has several ties to the Trump administration, with the president tapping several of its former partners to join his team, including new FBI Director Christopher Wray.
According to the King & Spalding website, Burchfield, who has never lost a jury trial, “specializes in complex trials and appeals for major corporations, particularly in C-suite level antitrust, securities and contract disputes. As a partner in our Contracts and Business Torts, and Appellate, Constitutional and Administrative Law practices, Bobby tries cases and argues appeals throughout the country, including before the Supreme Court of the United States, for corporate clients and political entities in a broad range of high stakes disputes.”
Burchfield worked as general counsel to President George H.W. Bush’s re-election campaign and was appointed to President George W. Bush’s Antitrust Modernization Commission. He also served as an attorney for the younger Bush during his recount effort during the 2000 election. Burchfield has also been the chairman of Crossroads GPS, a Republican advocacy group founded by Karl Rove.
5. He Was Named an Independent Ethics Advisor to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust in January
Pleased to see WFU trustee Bobby Burchfield receive the DC Boy Scouts atty of the yr award #wfualumni #wfumagazine
Bobby Burchfield was named as an independent ethics advisor to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust in January 2017, according to the Washington Post.
The Post reports that Burchfield will have the authority to approve or push back against domestic deals involving the Trump Organization. “Certain transactions cannot be undertaken” without his approval, the company told the newspaper.
Burchfield said in a statement he is “honored to be asked to serve in this unique and historic role for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.”
Burchfield’s appointment to the position was criticized by ethics watchdogs.
“Given Bobby Burchfield’s long-standing role in Republican party efforts, he does not fit the definition of what would be considered an independent ethics adviser,” Fred Wertheimer, founder of Washington good-government group Democracy 21, told the Washington Post. “Every judgment that Bobby Burchfield has to make goes directly to the president’s financial interests. This is not credible as an independent ethics advisory position. And no one is going to be fooled by this.”
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Court records: Wife of Trump Org ethics attorney arrested after tryst with Fauquier inmate t.co/gJy3oVrBdU
Norm Eisen, the White House chief ethics advisor under President Obama, told the newspaper that Trump put Burchfield in an “impossible spot” by not making a clean ownership break from the Trump Organization.
“Even if Trump had divested, given the nature and extent of the domestic and global conflicts, what was called for was a full-time ethics czar,” Eisen told the newspaper. “But given the fact that Trump did not make a clean ownership break, the risk and complexity is only escalated.”
