Former Virginia Sheriff's deputy sentenced to 2 1/4 years in federal prison

Greene County, VA deputy Leftery N. "Terry" Tsouroutis will serve a 27 month sentence for various sex and drug charges stemming from incidents in 2002. He will report to a low security Florida prison on June 13 to serve his term.

The sex charge stems from taking a 19 year old drug informant across state lines to have sex with her. Other charges include lying to the FBI, and a one year sentence to serve (5 years total, 4 of them suspended) for selling a firearm to a felon. This charge stems from bartering a firearm to a felon for payment for work on a Jeep. Tsuoroutis will also serve 2 years of probation and 200 hours of community service. The community service charge, according to Circuit Judge John R. Cullen was an attempt to pay back the community for breach of trust by law enforcement.

George S. Webb III, Madison County commonwealth's attorney, was a special prosecutor in the case. Although Tsouroutis expressed remorse in court, Webb said a probation officer's report showed he didn't accept responsibility for what he had done. Webb recommended a sentence similar to that Tsouroutis received, except the year in prison would have been served consecutively to his federal sentence.

"Those that enforce the law are not above the law," Webb said in court.

In the summer of 2002, police were alerted to a homemade sex tape featuring Tsouroutis and a 19-year-old drug informant. In February 2002, Tsouroutis had driven to Baltimore with another officer to pick up a female prisoner. Police said he later told her he would "take care of her charges" if she had sex with him, which she did for money for more than three months.

His wife, Kelly Tsouroutis, met him [back in 2004] when she worked at the Greene Sheriff's Office. She testified Wednesday that she knew he had gone through a bad period in his personal life, but their time together has been positive.

"Since 2003, everything has been so great as far as I'm concerned," Kelly Tsouroutis said in court. "We have hobbies, a family."

Defense attorney Lloyd Snook said Terry Tsouroutis' case was unusual because the state gun charge was levied after federal prosecutors had discussed making it part of the federal case. The charge also happened in the same jurisdiction and time period as the federal case. The attorney requested that his sentence be served concurrently, in part because he wouldn't get any more rehabilitation from a state facility after about two years in a federal penitentiary.

"I think it's fair to say that Terry Tsouroutis is going to keep his nose very clean from here on out," Snook said.