Bodycam shows Fairfax County prosecutor cited for drinking in public

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Centreville, VA - Newly released bodycam footage from the Fairfax County Police Department reveals that during an Aug. 8 police call, when Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Clingan was cited for drinking in public, officers did not make Clingan perform a sobriety test and provided the prosecutor with a ride home in the front seat of a police cruiser.

Clingan, 57, was served with a summons for drinking an alcoholic beverage in public, a Class 4 misdemeanor, and released after the incident in early August.

Shortly after 8 a.m. on Aug. 8, police responded to a call from an employee of an animal hospital in the 5000 block of Westfields Boulevard in Centreville. The dispatcher, who sent the officers to the scene that day, said a caller had reported a man "drinking beer and smoking cigarettes" in an alleyway behind the strip mall. The caller reported the man had “two beers sitting on top of the vehicle” and informed the dispatcher he was “there almost every day.”

Minutes after receiving that dispatch, Fairfax County Police Officer Henry Viar pulled his car into the alleyway behind an animal hospital in Sully Station Shopping Center, only to find Clingan with one empty beer bottle on the hood of his car and another empty of the same brand sitting on a dumpster in front of his vehicle. Viar appeared to recognize Clingan immediately, as the two men had the following exchange:

Officer: “Are you an attorney?”

Eric Clingagn: “I am.”

Officer: “Commonwealth?”

Eric Clingan: “Uh oh (laughs)”

When asked by Viar, Clingan initially denied he’d been drinking, according to the bodycam footage reviewed by the I-Team. He later told another officer at the scene he’d consumed one beer, a high-alcohol content IPA, according to police. Clingan denied consuming the empty beer of the same brand sitting directly in front of his vehicle on a dumpster.

“How many of those have you had?” the officer asked Clingan in the video.

"Just that one right there,” Clingan responded, pointing to the bottle on the hood of his vehicle.

Ultimately, four Fairfax County Police Officers arrived at the scene, and it was clear from the bodycam footage that they knew where Clingan worked. At one point, Clingan handed an officer his business card.

Clingan has been with the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office since October 2021 and worked on some of the county’s highest-profile cases, including as lead prosecutor in the highly publicized “au pair affair" double-murder trial, involving suspect Brendan Banfield, scheduled to begin next month. He told the officers who questioned him that he’d stopped behind the strip mall to check his email on his way to work and wanted to carry on with his day.