Felon Agrees To Get Vasectomy In Plea Agreement

JUNE 24--A Virginia man who has fathered seven children with six women has agreed to undergo a vasectomy as part of a plea deal in a child endangerment case, according to court records.

Jessie Lee Herald, 27, struck the agreement earlier this month with prosecutors in Shenandoah County, where he was also facing hit-and-run and driving with a suspended license charges. Herald was arrested in December following an auto crash from which he fled on foot with a three-year-old boy.

As part of the deal, Herald will serve four years in state prison and five years of probation upon his release from custody. Within a year of his departure from prison, Herald has agreed to get a vasectomy, according to a plea agreement signed by Herald, his lawyer, a prosecutor, and a Circuit Court judge.

The document also stipulates that Herald “shall not have a ‘reversal’ during the pendency of his probation.”

The agreement notes that the vasectomy requirement “is not a usual term of probation,” and that the judge “would not impose this condition without the defendant’s consent.” 

Herald--a convicted felon whose rap sheet includes prior narcotics, unlawful wounding, and hit-and-run convictions--was offered the plea deal by prosecutors who cited his proclivity to reproduce.

“It was primarily due to the fact he had seven or eight children, all by different women, and we felt it might be in the commonwealth’s interest for that to be part of the plea agreement,” prosecutor Ilona White told the Northern Virginia Daily.

Herald, seen in the above mug shot, will have to pay for his vasectomy. (2 pages)