Justin Douglas Peery v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Court of Appeals of Virginia·Decided April 7, 2026·No. 0868253·Published

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA Record No. 0868-25-3

JUSTIN DOUGLAS PEERY

v.

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges O’Brien, Lorish and Senior Judge Humphreys Argued at Lexington, Virginia Opinion Issued April 7, 2026

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY Christopher B. Russell, Judge

Oliver T. Ward (Rachel L. Yates; Yates Appellate Law, PLLC, on briefs), for appellant.

Ryan Beehler, Assistant Attorney General (Jason S. Miyares,1 Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

PUBLISHED OPINION BY

JUDGE ROBERT J. HUMPHREYS

The circuit court convicted Justin Douglas Peery of two counts of embezzlement because he failed to report and remit lodging and meals taxes to Rockbridge County. The court sentenced Peery to eight years’ incarceration, with all but two days suspended. On appeal, Peery asserts that the evidence was insufficient to prove he committed embezzlement. He also claims that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a bill of particulars and by granting the Commonwealth’s motions to quash three subpoenas duces tecum. Finding no error, we affirm.

1 Jay C. Jones succeeded Jason S. Miyares as Attorney General on January 17, 2026.

BACKGROUND2

Under Code §§ 58.1-3819 and -3833, counties may levy taxes on businesses that offer prepared food and beverages and short-term lodging to customers. In Rockbridge County, such businesses must file separate monthly meals and lodging tax reports with the Commissioner of Revenue and then remit the reported taxes to the Treasurer. Rockbridge County, Va., Code §§ 25-178, -180(E), -193, and -194. The reports list a business’s monthly gross receipts for meals and lodging sales and note the tax amount due for that month. When a business is late submitting its reports by a few months, the Commissioner sends the business owner a delinquency notice. If the business owner fails to respond to the delinquency notice, the Commissioner of Revenue issues a summons to the business owner to appear before the Commissioner and address the delinquency. If the business owner does not respond to the summons, the Commissioner either sends the business owner a statutory assessment or refers the matter to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.

Although it is the business owner’s responsibility to report and remit the taxes, lodging software companies VRBO and Airbnb began directly remitting lodging taxes for Rockbridge County businesses to the Treasurer in September 2021 and October 2022, respectively. During the time in question, Airbnb and VRBO remitted taxes to the Treasurer by a lump sum check. Those services did not itemize the businesses for which they were remitting payments to the Treasurer.

2 We recite the facts “in the ‘light most favorable’ to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party in the trial court.” Hammer v. Commonwealth, 74 Va. App. 225, 231 (2022) (quoting Commonwealth v. Cady, 300 Va. 325, 329 (2021)). In doing so, we discard any evidence that conflicts with the Commonwealth’s evidence, and regard as true all the credible evidence favorable to the Commonwealth and all inferences that can be fairly drawn from that evidence. Cady, 300 Va. at 329.

Peery owned and operated Good Place Farms, LLC, a short-term lodging and catering company in Rockbridge County. He listed his business on and received payments for reservations through VRBO and Airbnb, and on his own website where he processed payments through Square.

On April 6, 2022, the Commissioner sent Peery a delinquency letter, notifying him that he had failed to file tax reports and pay remittances from July 2021 to March 2022.3 The letter requested that Peery submit meals and lodging tax reports for those months and remit any taxes due. A few weeks later, Peery paid $10,475.39 in meals taxes for his January 2021 to January 2022 gross receipts.

On July 6, 2022, the Commissioner issued a second delinquency letter to Peery for his meals and lodging tax reports and remittances for April to June 2022. After months without a response from Peery, on January 17, 2023, the Commissioner issued him a summons for failing to pay his meals and lodging taxes from April 2022 to November 2022. Per the summons, Peery was to appear before the Commissioner to answer questions under oath regarding his tax liability. A summons is usually the “last step” before the Commissioner refers delinquent business owners to the Commonwealth’s Attorney.

On September 23, the Commissioner issued Peery a second summons for failing to pay his meals and lodging taxes from April 2022 to July 2022. The summons ordered Peery to appear before the Commissioner on October 20. On November 3, the Commissioner issued Peery a third summons for failing to pay his meals and lodging taxes from April 2022 through September 2022. The Commissioner later testified at trial that Peery had responded to summonses “[f]or the most part,” but “there was at least once that he was a no show.”

3 The Commissioner typically sends delinquency letters when a business owner fails to file tax forms for two months in a row.

At some point, the Commissioner prepared a “statutory assessment” for Peery, informing him that he owed the County a particular amount of money.4 Then, on March 20, 2023, Peery went to the Commissioner and filed his meals tax reports for April 2022 to February 2023, but did not remit those taxes to the Treasurer. By May 8, Peery still had not remitted meals or lodging taxes from April 2022 to April 2023, so the Commissioner and the Treasurer referred Peery’s debt to the Commonwealth’s Attorney.

As of June 2023, Peery had not filed any lodging tax reports with the Commissioner between April 2022 and June 2023. He filed late meals tax reports for the months of April 2022 through January 2023, as well as a timely February 2023 meals tax report. In June 2023, Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Investigator Travis Patterson contacted Peery regarding late meals and lodging tax filings and remittances for Good Place Farms. He had not filed his March 2023 or April 2023 meals tax reports by the time Investigator Patterson contacted him. Peery acknowledged to Investigator Patterson that he was past due on his reports. He told Investigator Patterson that he had been unable to file the reports on time because he was under house arrest. Investigator Patterson informed Peery that someone else could file the reports on his behalf.

After his conversations with Investigator Patterson, Peery went to the Commissioner’s Office and submitted lodging tax reports for April 2022 through May 2023, as well as the outstanding meals tax reports. He gave the Treasurer’s Office a check for $17,124.56, which covered the business’s late meals and lodging tax remittances, as well as some personal property tax payments. Reservation services VRBO and Airbnb had ostensibly sent lodging tax

4 The Commissioner of Revenue later testified that a statutory assessment was a “tool”

used to “get the taxpayer’s attention.” To prepare a statutory assessment, the Commissioner of Revenue “double[d]” the taxpayer’s liabilities from the previous year. Where this method overestimated a business owner’s tax liability, owners could provide reports to correct the number or prove that the business had closed.

remittances to the Treasurer during this period on Peery’s behalf, but as noted above, those services did not distinguish what amounts were for Peery and Good Place Farms.

In July 2023, a grand jury indicted Peery on two counts of embezzlement under Code § 18.2-111. The Commonwealth alleged that Peery’s failure to report and remit lodging and meals taxes to Rockbridge County from April 2022 to May 2023 constituted embezzlement under the statute. In February 2024, Peery filed amended reports for his April 2022 to May 2023 lodging taxes. Based on Peery’s amended lodging tax reports, the Treasurer issued Peery a refund check for $3,231.

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