A circuit court judge on Tuesday reinstated Martinsville’s mayor to the city council, pending trial on a petition to have him removed from office.
Judge Marcus Brinks also gave the recently appointed special prosecutor a week to study new documents she received late last week, as well as a potential conflict of interest that might arise from them.
Mayor L.C. Jones has been suspended since February, when now-retired Martinsville Circuit Judge G. Carter Greer ordered a recall trial for Jones, whom petitioners accused in January of wrongdoing.
Jones has faced no criminal charges, but the city prosecutor, who was recently relieved from the case due in part to professional and personal relationships with the city council and potential witnesses, has said that Jones’ removal case and a forensic audit of city spending are joined “at the hip.”
The city released the audit to the public this month, after Brown Edwards in Roanoke provided it to the city council in January. The audit examined credit card purchases from the former city manager and city employees, along with the city’s budget amendment process and hiring practices. It lists transactions that are in direct violation of the city’s purchasing card policy, but says the lack of paper trails does not prove fraud or abuse.
On a parallel track, Virginia State Police are investigating the audit, but have not released the results.
Jones’ recall trial is scheduled for June 5, but his attorney, Mark Krudys, argued that his months out of office amount to a due process violation, while also depriving voters of their elected mayor.
Krudys told the court that the special prosecutor, Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison, informed him late last week that she planned to drop the case against Jones, finding insufficient evidence to move forward. Later, he said, she told Jones’ team that she had received 150 pages of new documents and would ask the judge for more time to examine them, along with the possibility that the documents would reveal a personal conflict of interest.
Harrison, who took over the case on April 1, did not dispute that account but told the judge that she had not yet noted a disqualifying conflict.
The parties will return to the courtroom on April 29.
The petition, which a Martinsville woman filed on Jan. 13, charged Jones with bribery, failure to disqualify himself from certain transactions, failure to disclose an alleged conflict of interest, and neglect of ministerial duties and incompetence under Virginia law.
Brinks’ verbal order returning Jones to his position came at the end of a hearing in which Krudys argued to have the case dismissed. According to a motion he filed Monday, the petition is “facially and fatally deficient,” lacking “sufficient factual detail to give fair notice of the grounds for removal” and simply stating the language of applicable statutes.
Martinsville Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Flinn, the case’s original prosecutor, sought to be recused from the case, citing conflicts of interest. After Greer denied his request for a special prosecutor, Flinn investigated the petition’s claims and found cause to move forward. He filed a document with the court in February relating the charges against Jones to his association with former City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides.
Krudys this week argued that Flinn’s self-documented conflicts of interest disqualified him from investigating the case at all. Another judge eventually allowed Flinn to step down from the case and appointed Harrison in his place.
Brinks, who is among at least three substitute judges who have been involved with the case since Greer’s retirement, did not rule on Krudys’ motion.
Brinks did, however, allow the mayor back on the city council. Before the judge made his decision, he asked Harrison for her thoughts on the topic. She left it to the court’s discretion, she said, as the law in question states that a judge “may” remove a municipal official in such a circumstance.
A second attorney for Jones, Perry Harrold, said by phone Tuesday afternoon that the team would renew its motion to dismiss on April 29.
Harrison, who has previously said she would not comment on pending litigation, did not return messages left for her after the hearing.
Should she recognize a conflict and ask the judge to recuse her, she would give way to a fourth prosecuting attorney in the case so far.
After Greer retired, Flinn renewed his motion to be relieved, this time in front of substitute Judge James McGarry, who affirmed the motion and appointed Harrision — whom he also appointed to oversee a Virginia State Police investigation into the forensic audit of spending during Ferrell-Benavides’ tenure.
Former Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance, who had been named special prosecutor in the State Police investigation, had to step aside after the legislature appointed him to a circuit judgeship.
Richmond-based Krudys and Harrold, of Martinsville, only recently came on to represent Jones, who had another lawyer earlier this year but represented himself in some filings.
Jones has been the only constant in the recall case, and he has denied wrongdoing throughout. He said he looked forward to getting back to the job.
“There’s a lot of things that’s happened since I’ve been gone,” he told reporters outside the city municipal building and courthouse. “So I want to dive into it and get up to speed as quickly as possible.”
Krudys added that he thinks his client will stay there.
“We think that when the court has more time to look at it, not only will it have put Mayor Jones back on city council, but we think that it will outright dismiss the case,” he said. “I think that’s the only proper thing to do.”
