‘Salt in the wound': Mother criticizes use of slain daughter in political ad

A homicide victim’s mother wants a candidate in a high-profile Virginia State Senate race to stop running an ad that spotlights her daughter’s death.

Republican Juan Pablo Segura launched the ad to suggest his opponent, former Loudoun County prosecutor Russet Perry, was soft on crime. 

Regina Redman Lollobrigido allegedly was killed by her husband, after he was given bond following a domestic violence arrest July 22, 2021. Now, he’s awaiting trial for murder.

The victim’s mother, Mellanie Cromwell of North Carolina, said she was devastated when she learned her daughter’s image was being used in a political ad. She said it’s like “rubbing salt in the wound.”

“It brought up the whole trauma of what happened two years ago again,” said attorney Patrick Regan, who represented Cromwell and supported Democrat candidates in the past.

“She felt like her daughter’s life was being used in a way for political gain,” he said.

Perry has spent much of her legal career working with domestic violence victims.

“As the prosecutor, the first thing you always do is go talk to the victims,” she said. 

After Perry saw the ad, she contacted Cromwell, who then encouraged Perry to speak out about it.

“The reason I haven’t said anything is wanting to speak to the family and express, quite frankly, my utmost condolences and apologies that someone would try to politicize those events for their own personal gain,” Perry said.

She said the ad also is inaccurate. She had left the commonwealth attorney’s office before Lollobrigido’s case began. 

The Segura campaign says Lollobrigido’s sister fully supports the ad. They sent News4 a statement from Audrey Redman reading, “What happened to my sister was unimaginably terrible, and it was avoidable. I appreciate Segura standing up and holding Buta Biberaj, Russet Perry, and the entire Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office accountable for putting my sister in harm’s way. As head of the domestic violence division, Russet Perry’s policies clearly did not do what they should have – protect women like my sister.”

A spokesman for the Segura campaign defended the ad, writing, "Our hearts go out to all families involved in these horrific situations. Our goal is to make sure that more families aren't victimized by the soft-on-crime positions of Russet Perry and her mentor, Buta Biberaj. These dangerous positions are why Perry is financially and politically supported by nearly 10 Defund the Police groups – a fact that Perry celebrates – and, in contrast, our campaign has been endorsed by 31 elected law enforcement officials who represent nearly 2.3 million Virginians. Russet Perry has said many times that she was in charge of the Domestic Violence unit, which means the lax charging policies in place for this awful series of crimes would have been handled under the policies she set. That's the danger of having policymakers who hold these dangerous positions in office, and it's why law enforcement is backing our campaign."

Perry, rejecting that characterization, pointing out for eight of her 10 years, she worked for Republican prosecutors. 

“Any insinuation that I would have let Mr. Lollobrigido out on bond is false,” she said. “Any insinuation that I was somehow soft on crime is untrue.”