Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney’s con artist Witness “L”
Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney Howard Vick described their main witness as “providing an enormous amount of information, including details about many other individuals’ involvement with the drug organisation….” against the accused Nickolas Spanos, who Vick labelled “the hub of a 600 kilo cocaine organisation.”
The main witness is listed in the December 03, 1998 Richmond multi-jurisdictional grand jury as “Witness L”, aka Sierra Elaina Cooke, the ex-girlfriend and mother of Nickolas Spanos’s son. The separated couple had been in a turbulent relationship for eight years, which ended up in a custody battle over their son. Sierra Cooke wanted to reconcile with Spanos but he had moved on to another relationship, Sierra Cooke used her son as a weapon against Spanos, denying him visitation, despite getting over $670 per month in child support. Nickolas Spanos filed for full custody in Henrico County Juvenile and Domestic court.
Sierra Cooke had stooped to numerous desperate acts to retaliate against Spanos, filing a false charge of stalking against Spanos, despite her constant harassment of Spanos, following him to restaurants, bars and social events, confronting Spanos’s dates and relationships, claiming there were still a couple. Sierra Cooke physically assaulted him at his parent’s home late night and would stalk him at bars, throwing drinks at him at bars.
As time got closer to their custody hearing, Sierra E. Cooke began making claims of a drug organisation headed by Nickolas Spanos, which caught the ears of Henrico Police Department investigators J.L. Johnson and Clavert, in which she gave a exaggerated tale of a New York to Virginia organisation. The HPD detectives began their investigation of Nickolas Spanos, following him to social gatherings at public places, trespassing on his property and stealing his trash at his private residence, entering his residence under false pretences and illegally searching it, illegally searching his vehicle and attempting buy-bust operations. The detectives could not obtain any material evidence of narcotics trafficking against Spanos, despite two years of surveillance.
The HPD detectives and Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney Howard Vick knew that their main witness Sierra Cooke had serious mental issues, as she attempted suicide on Christmas day and was held for a seventy-two hour suicide watch, Sierra pleaded to be released and her parents stated “leave her in there, it will do her some good”. The custody hearings produced evidence of Sierra Cooke committing several acts of perjury and fabricated stories, which she could not explain. They also knew that Sierra Cooke was a con artist, as it was reported that she had committed at least two acts of insurance fraud, faking injury to get compensation.
In the December 03, 1998 grand jury hearings, in indictment CR07-67, Witness “L”, aka Sierra Cooke, admitted that she transported and sold large amounts of cocaine, admitted that she lived in the New Jersey-New York area, known for being a cocaine hub. Sierra Cooke admitted knowing a major cocaine dealer in New York named “Emilio”. Sierra Cooke admitted to being personally involved in drug transactions with two other cocaine dealers. Why wasn't Sierra Cooke charged with distribution of cocaine? Here we have a cocaine dealer admitting to being personally involved in large cocaine transactions over a period of at least five years and she gets a pass? Inside sources in the Henrico Commonwealth Attorney’s office stated that “it became known to us that Sierra Cooke and one of the HPD investigators has a close personal relationship for several years, another reason why we avoided to extradite him, for fear this would surface and be an embarrassment to us all”.
In our previous articles, The International Fugitive Chronicles”, https://virginiacorruptlawyers.blogspot.com/2017/11/when-extradition-for-international.html, we covered the corruption involved in the case of Nickolas Spanos. In the January 01, 2019 article, Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor et al, faces serious problems for 2019, Sierra Cooke made negative comments about Nickolas Spanos, stating he was convicted of stalking and she was the victim of domestic violence. We were well aware of Spanos’s criminal record through our investigations, in which the only conviction he has is a misdemeanor for a DUI in 1998. We challenged Sierra Cooke to send us evidence of his conviction for stalking.
On January 25, 2019, Sierra Cooke sent us an email with a December 29, 1998 Style Weekly article written by Richard Foster, which stated that Nickolas Spanos was convicted of stalking and that Sierra Cooke was awarded $3000 in damages and that she was granted a verdict to keep a $10,000 engagement ring. We emailed Nickolas Spanos to verify this information, his email states that the stalking charge was dismissed, there was no damages awarded to Sierra Cooke and that the $10,000 engagement ring was returned to him after he won the civil case, adding the fact, Sierra Cooke and her mother attempted to appeal the decision but returned the valuable ring, to his Attorney Murray Janus, when they learned of the $10,000 bond needed to secure the appeal.
We emailed Sierra Cooke to provide us with any evidence of Nickolas Spanos conviction, the $3000 damages decision and the $10,000 engagement ring decision in her favour, Sierra Cooke has not responded to this writing. Surely if she kept a defamatory Style Weekly article from 1998, she would have retained court records giving merits to her claim. We verified with Henrico County Court that no such judgements have been recorded against Spanos.
We contacted Style Weekly reporter Richard Foster, who is still employed by Style Weekly, requesting evidence of the defamatory claims he wrote in his article, Richard Foster has yet to answer. Nickolas Spanos stated that, when we sent him the article for verification, “it was the first time he had seen it and was only aware of Richmond Times Dispatch articles written of him”. Spanos stated that he is in contact with Style Weekly about the defamatory article and is awaiting response from the Executive Editor.
We decided to look further into the strange claims of domestic violence by Sierra Cooke and requested to Nickolas Spanos to provide any facts that would dispute her claims. Nickolas Spanos stated that Sierra Cooke had even sent him a copy of his criminal record in September 2006, which showed no conviction for stalking, only a misdemeanor DUI conviction.
He further stated that Sierra Cooke had been chasing and harassing him for over 18 years, she went as far as to travel to Greece to meet him and reconcile with him. Spanos provided several emails and pictures of them in Greece. Its very strange that Witness L, Sierra Cooke, who is a alleged victim of domestic violence and feared for her life, that she would travel to Greece to meet Nickolas Spanos, begging him to forgive her and take her back.
We decided to further investigate Sierra Cooke and researched her background, on her LinkedIn profile, Sierra Cooke states that from 2014 to present day, she is employed by Safe Harbor as a Court Advocate. “I get so much more than what I offer . I am trained as a court advocate which is an extension of the CA office in Henrico, I work with victims of intimate partner violence. This experience has been life changing for me and hope for all those I offer my service to. This is truly a great cause on an enormous social issue.” We contacted Safe Harbor, a non-profit organization, about Sierra Cooke’s employment and training, which they have denied having any affiliation with Sierra Cooke.
Since we challenged Witness L Sierra Cooke to all her unsubstantiated claims, Sierra Cooke has not provided any evidence or responded to any of our emails, she has disappeared, the usual tactics of con artists when they are caught. We asked Nickolas Spanos why would she continue to harass him and make false claims, he stated ” it always has been about extortion, threats and blackmail, she knew that my family and I had a good reputation in Richmond and attempted to extort me for more child support money. I agreed to pay the exact amount that Henrico County Child Services calculated. Then she threatened me when our son was to begin college, if I did not pay his tuition, she would turn me into U.S. authorities for being a “fugitive from justice”, I denied her extortion threats and she notified the U.S. Embassy of my location in the Philippines. I would have gladly paid his tuition but she never abided by the Court child custody agreement, even from day one, she denied my visitation, I only saw my son 1 time in 20 years, when she sent him to Greece.
The Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney continues to stand behind Witness “L” Sierra Elaina Cooke despite knowing that she, on numerous court testimony gave false statements, committed perjury, insurance fraud, admitted to dealing large amounts of cocaine and continues to harass Nickolas Spanos. It appears that three generations of Henrico Commonwealth Attorneys can not admit that they have been scammed into a “witch hunt” and if they brought Nickolas Spanos to trial, it would be the biggest embarrassment of all times.
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