Hoppe’s past as the former wife of a federal magistrate judge who hears cases in Charlottesville never seemed to play a role in her prosecution. But her other family’s legal ties did impact the case.
Release Denied
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judge Contreras) denied a motion for pretrial release of a defendant who had recently pled guilty.
The order is dated April 1 but was posted on the court’s web page today.
The Department of Justice issued a press release noting her plea
Hoppe pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, who scheduled sentencing for September 23, 2024. The terms of Hoppe’s plea agreement call for her to serve 135 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release. In addition, she will have to register as a sex offender for a minimum period of 25 years.
According to court documents, in late February 2023, an undercover law enforcement officer encountered Hoppe on a social media site where individuals discuss their sexual interest in children and child sexual abuse material. Hoppe distributed three images of child pornography to the undercover officer and repeatedly expressed an interest in sexually abusing his purported 8-year-old daughter. On March 16, 2023, P Hoppe arranged to have the undercover officer bring his daughter from D.C. to a hotel in Warrenton, Va., where she would meet them to sexually abuse the child. Police arrested Hoppe when she arrived at the hotel.
The Daily Progress reported on defendant’s background
In late January, Graves accused Eleanor Hoppe of trying to enlist both her father, Eppa Hunton V, and her brother, Eppa Hunton VI, of using their law licenses to evade the routine recording of jailhouse phone calls. While neither man is part of the powerhouse Richmond law firm bearing the family name, Hunton Andrews Kurth, each is a member in good standing with the Virginia State Bar.
Eleanor and Joel Hoppe were divorced in 2021. Judge Joel Hoppe won custody of their two school-age daughters last year. While she was well known in Charlottesville circles, Eleanor Hoppe’s home address was technically in neighboring Albemarle County. In addition to having worked as an event planner, including a stint at the University of Virginia, she also claimed to have once worked as a victim-witness advocate in the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. At the time of her arrest, she was a paralegal for divorce cases at the Charlottesville law firm of Tucker Griffin Barnes.
(Mike Frisch)