Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance will serve as the special prosecutor in the investigation into Martinsville staff spending.
Wes said Wednesday that he and his office are still in the preliminary stages of the investigation, adding that his current strategy is to get a handle on the facts.
“First you’ve got to get your feet under you and determine whether an investigation has been completed, whether an investigation is still ongoing, before one decides if charges are appropriate,” Nance said.
Nance said there are factors he and his staff have to determine.
“The options are all on the table at this point. Whether to charge, if so what to charge, when to charge and how to go about charging.”
The Martinsville City Council, as part of its ongoing investigation into city spending, voted to fire City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides and to give Commonwealth Attorney Andy Hall’s office pertinent evidence to determine whether criminal proceedings were appropriate. Hall recently decided that a special prosecutor was needed for the case.
Hall disclosed Nance’s identity two weeks after announcing that he would be seeking a special prosecutor. While Nance had already been tapped at the time of the announcement, Hall said he wanted to hold off on publicly naming the special prosecutor to give them time to familiarize themselves with the case.
“He has no ties to Martinsville,” Hall said about Nance. “He’s been doing this for quite some time.”
Nance has worked in the field for 28 years, both as a commonwealth’s attorney and an assistant commonwealth’s attorney. He said he started in Roanoke as an unpaid intern in 1996. In 2001, he moved to Bedford to work in the commonwealth’s attorney’s office. He was elected the county’s top prosecutor in 2016.
Nance said he has served as a special prosecutor “well over 20 times” in his career. A number of his past special prosecutor cases involved possible malfeasance by government actors. The majority of these, Nance said, had to do with police misconduct.
Hall said he was compelled to seek a special prosecutor because of what he felt were conflicts of interest. In the eight years he has worked as Martinsville’s commonwealth’s attorney, he has gotten to know members of the board and city staff.
He also expressed concerns about securing evidence, pointing to a report he described as being heavily redacted. The report was about employee spending and was part of a forensic audit the city is conducting.
That report was among the things some concerned Martinsville residents wanted released. Councilors voted against releasing the report, citing concerns of attorney-client privilege.
Transparency continues to be a point of concern among Martinsville residents. Nance said full transparency becomes more practical as the investigation matures.
“Once one gets to the end of an investigation, there has to be transparency,” he said. “We want the public at large to be comfortable with whatever decision is made or to at least understand why a decision is made.”
Transparency is less practical in the midst of an investigation, he said.
“One cannot necessarily investigate with transparency because you’re learning the facts as you go along,” Nance said. “Individuals have a presumption of innocence and the right to a thorough and appropriate investigation. That is the stage you request patience and understanding from the general public.”
