A circuit judge on Friday dismissed the case to remove Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones from office, ruling that a citizens’ petition filed against Jones did not include the legally required percentage of signatures.
Substitute Judge Marcus Brinks, after ruling in Jones’ favor, awarded $40,000 for attorneys’ fees to Jones’ lawyers and expense reimbursements to the special prosecutor, Colonial Heights Commonwealth’s Attorney Alfred Gray Collins III.
The city is liable for those fees.
There were 401 valid signatures in a petition that Martinsville resident Patti Covington filed in January, lawyers on both sides agreed. According to state law, such petitions require signatures from 10% of those who voted in the most recent election for a position. Mark Krudys, one of Jones’ representatives, argued in court on Friday that 6,818 voters participated in November 2022, when Jones won his seat.
The signatures on the petition were 280 short of the 681 the law required, Krudys argued, citing the Virginia Elections Database for the ballot total.
Collins conceded that point with a billiards reference.
“We’re behind the eight ball here,” Collins told the court.
Covington said after the hearing that the city registrar had told her that she needed 375 signatures.
A Virginia State Police investigation into city spending during the tenure of Martinsville’s former city manager, Aretha Ferrell-Benavides, is ongoing. Martinsville City Attorney Patrick Flinn has said that the investigation was tied to the removal case against the mayor.
The petition to recall Jones accused the mayor of bribery, failure to disqualify himself from certain transactions, failure to disclose an alleged conflict of interest, neglect of ministerial duties and incompetence under Virginia law.
Jones, who has not been charged criminally, has denied any wrongdoing.
Standing outside the Martinsville Municipal Building with his lawyers and some supporters afterward, Jones said he was not worried about the state police investigation. He declined to comment on whether he might pursue his own civil remedy related to the petition.
“Today was a good day for me, and it’s been a long time coming,” Jones said. “I’m going on vacation. My focus is on turning the page.”
Collins is the case’s third prosecutor. Flinn assumed the case in January, as the law required, but asked then-Circuit Judge G. Carter Greer to recuse him, due to personal and professional conflicts of interest. Greer declined, leaving Flinn to determine that a civil trial against Jones should proceed.
Flinn renewed his motion to withdraw in early April, two months after Greer’s retirement. Substitute Judge James McGarry granted it and appointed Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison to take on both the civil matter and the criminal investigation, which onetime Bedford County prosecutor Wes Nance had helmed before the General Assembly appointed him to a judgeship.
Harrison managed the cases for less than a month before she, too, withdrew, citing a “material conflict” found in a 150-page document delivered to her a few days before a motions hearing. Harrison has declined to identify the conflict.
The document’s origin, however, emerged in Friday’s hearing. Krudys said that Martinsville City Council Member Aaron Rawls provided it. Krudys said that Rawls gave Flinn an affidavit used to certify the case to circuit court and that later he sent Harrison the 150-page document.
Rawls, in a message exchange after the hearing, said he believes Krudys was referring to information that Virginia State Police have. Rawls said he used AI to compile “disparate docs” into a single file — a composite of items including a forensic audit that the city council commissioned to investigate spending during Ferrell-Benavides’ tenure. It addressed “a number of individuals and activities” and included Jones, but he was not the main focus, Rawls wrote.
“I sent Ms. Harrison a copy when I heard she may not have received materials,” he wrote on Facebook Messenger.
Brinks didn’t hear arguments on the recall petition’s legal merits, having, at Collins’ suggestion, ruled first on whether there were enough signatures. Krudys has argued in court documents and to the judge that the petition was “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.
The bribery charge, in particular, is not covered by the removal petition law, Krudys said. Brinks said from the bench, though, that the law does allow for accusations of incompetence and neglect of ministerial duties.
Covington, who spearheaded the petition effort, said after the hearing that she had not decided whether she would attempt another petition. Collins said he hopes to meet with state police in the next three weeks and give the investigator an outline of his needs in order to make determinations on the case.
The city last month released to the public the city spending audit, 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.
Jones, whom Greer suspended from the mayorship in February, returned to the city council after Brinks reinstated him on April 21. He has said he is running for another term.
Clarification 1:40 p.m. May 19, 2026: Colonial Heights Commonwealth’s Attorney Alfred Gray Collins III, special prosecutor in the civil removal case against Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones and a related Virginia State Police investigation, will receive reimbursement for his expenses, a judge in the case ruled, while Jones’ lawyers will receive attorneys’ fees.
