Lynchburg’s commonwealth’s attorney will be the special prosecutor in both a criminal investigation into spending in Martinsville and a civil removal petition against its suspended mayor.
Bethany Harrison, top prosecutor in Lynchburg since 2018, takes the criminal case from Wes Nance, the former Bedford County commonwealth’s attorney whom the General Assembly appointed to a judgeship last month.
Martinsville Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Flinn was handling the civil case against Mayor L.C. Jones but asked in January to be removed from the case. Then-Circuit Judge G. Carter Greer denied the motion.
Flinn announced Wednesday that after Harrison agreed to take on both cases, substitute Judge James McGarry granted his renewed motion to withdraw, and appointed Harrison.
It ended “an extensive search,” Flinn said in the announcement. Between Jan. 14, when he filed his motion with Greer, and this week, Flinn told reporters that he had unsuccessfully asked for help from Attorney General Jay Jones’ office. He said he also attempted to contact Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office to have her appoint the attorney general to handle the case, but said his message was not returned.
The cases date to last summer, when the Martinsville City Council fired then-City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides and authorized a forensic audit of the city’s finances. Nance was appointed special prosecutor, and has said that Virginia State Police continue to investigate that audit. The city has not released the audit for public consumption.
On Jan. 13, Martinsville resident Patti Covington filed a petition with 357 signatures seeking Jones’ removal. Covington wrote to the circuit court that she and other residents believe that “a legal review of information paid for … but concealed from taxpayers” would reveal “sufficient evidence of wrongdoing” to remove Jones from office.
Flinn, after investigating the claims in Covington’s petition, submitted a report to Greer. The report listed allegations that Ferrell-Benavides had given Jones or his significant other gifts including a hot tub and airline tickets.
Jones did not disclose those alleged conflicts of interest but negotiated a pay raise for Ferrell-Benavides and attempted to sit in on a meeting in which council members and staff discussed a complaint that the city manager had filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to Flinn’s report.
Greer, after reading Flinn’s report, on Feb. 18 filed a document agreeing with his assessment that there are valid grounds to move forward, then suspended the mayor and ordered him to show cause why he shouldn’t be removed from his office.
Ferrell-Benavides filed her EEOC complaint on July 2. On July 22, the council voted 3-2 to increase her salary from $183,500 to $215,000. The same body voted the next day to place her on paid administrative leave, and later terminated her for cause. Jones was alone in voting against that move and against commissioning the forensic audit.
Ferrell-Benavides has said that the city council fired her because of her complaint, in which she alleged discrimination on the basis of gender, race and color.
Flinn, in a recent interview, said that the two cases are “combined at the hip.” In his Wednesday announcement, he said that he will not provide further comment in the wake of Harrison’s appointment.
Jones, who has denied wrongdoing, announced that he is running for reelection, according to multiple published reports. He has not responded to recent requests for comment by Cardinal News.
Flinn said that the civil case against Jones only applies to this term, and that Jones cannot be prevented from serving another term, should he be reelected.
A jury trial on the show-cause order is scheduled for June 5.
Harrison, reached via email Thursday, declined to comment on a pending case.
