By Taylor Boyd
Martinsville Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Flinn continues reviewing a citizen petition seeking to remove Mayor LC Jones from his elected position on City Council, more than three weeks after it was filed with Martinsville Circuit Court.
According to a Jan. 22 press release from Flinn, the General Registrar certified the petition as properly filed.
In that release, Flinn said his top priority is promptly reviewing the petition and determining whether valid grounds exist for Jones’ removal.
“I know some people in the public got a kick out of the top priority thing, but it really is true. Ninety percent of what I’m doing is just working on this. I still have to make the office run, but I’m chasing down everything I can with this within my realm of influence and power and what I can legally do,” he said.
Flinn said part of the challenge is handling the review largely on his own.
“I don’t have my own investigators, and I can’t really go asking for help from the police department and the Sheriff’s department because of all the conflicts here. So I am doing a lot of the legwork myself, and that is taking a good bit of time,” he said.
Flinn noted he has received cooperation from some people and none from others.
“The silver lining — the curse — of someone being cooperative is that it gives even more information that I then need to parse through,” he said.
He also said the process is complicated because removing an elected official is nearly unprecedented in Virginia.
Recently, Flinn said he spent some time going through the case law and researching other facets of the case. “We’re kind of writing the book as we go with this because there isn’t a lot of history on it. There are some cases here and there, but we’re kind of figuring this out as we go together, so it is a long process, it’s a challenging one, but I’m working as hard as I can on it,” he said.
Flinn said in the press release that there is no time limit on the review.
“This review must be thorough. As required by the statute, I will act promptly,” the release states.
While he could not give an estimate on when the review will be complete, Flinn said it will not stretch on indefinitely.
“It’s just not feasible. From my part, I need to get back to running the office and doing all the stuff that I ran on, and implementing some stuff. This isn’t going to take till the summer to get to the next stage, whatever that stage may be,” he said.
Flinn added that regardless of his decision, he plans to submit a detailed written explanation to the judge.
“That’s going to take a little bit too. I think even when I get it summed up, I still need to put it in a nice, polished bow, if you will,” he said.
Even if his review concludes soon, Flinn said the overall process could still take time as it moves through the legal system.
