By Taylor Boyd
Martinsville’s Commonwealth Attorney Patrick Flinn is currently seeking another special prosecutor to review the pending removal petition for suspended Martinsville Mayor LC Jones and the criminal and civil cases regarding Martinsville’s former and current council and city administration.
Flinn’s request for Attorney General Jay Jones to oversee the case was declined late last week.
Wes Nance, the former special prosecutor, stepped down from the role to take a position as Bedford County’s Circuit Court Judge.
“I’ve already got a meeting set up this week with somebody. I’m hoping that will be a fruitful endeavor where I basically just lay everything out to this person, and hopefully this person will be able to help,” Flinn said.
He’s reached out to other commonwealth attorneys in Virginia as well.
“Basically, right now I’m trying to find the right person who will actually do it,” Flinn said, and maintains that a completely objective, neutral prosecutor is needed to handle these types of cases.
“At the end of the day, our number one job as the commonwealth attorney isn’t to prosecute cases and put people in jail. The number one job is to protect the integrity of the system. That means that, at the end of the day, I need to make sure that I’m playing by the rules. I need to make sure that defense attorneys are playing by the rules. I need to make sure judges are playing by the rules. Everyone needs to be above board on everything that we do,” he said.
In this case, Flinn maintains that he has a conflict of interest because he has a professional relationship with Jones, the rest of the city council, and the city administration.
“We are peers. Me, other constitutional officers, elected people in the city of Martinsville, people come and vote for us. We are at the same level of” representing the people. “Professionally, we work together frequently on a lot of different issues for the city. We’re in constant communication with just the normal running of the city,” he said.
Flinn said he also frequently attended the council’s community meetings last year, and noted he often rode in a van to those meetings with council members and city administrators.
“So in a professional capacity, we’re working together hand-in-hand, and I’m a big believer that you don’t investigate your own. It’s not right to investigate yourself or people that are too close, because then at the end of the day, if someone were to do that, the people would look back on it and say, ‘Hey, was that fair? Did they dig as far as they should? Did they dig too much? Did they have an ulterior motive,’” Flinn said.
Because the city helps fund his office, Flinn said there’s also a financial conflict of interest.
Although the lion’s share of funding comes from the state, “the money the state gives us is not enough to run an office. The numbers just don’t line up to run an office without the local jurisdictions’ help. So at the end of the day, there’s a financial discussion happening between me and council and me and city administration. That’s also a concern. That is also an inappropriate situation to be in,” he said.
As it’s a “small town America” locality, Flinn said there’s also a personal conflict of interest.
“I can’t go running to a special prosecutor every single time there’s a hint of someone knowing everyone. I think it’s very prominent roles that we play, so I know a lot of people are going to know us, but how personally do you know people?
“I’ve literally had dinner with council members in personal settings, in more of a professional setting, where it’s just like a city event or a community event, so literally having meals with these people shows that personally you’re close with people,” Flinn said.
“I think that is a concern that people need to have is that you need to have an objective party that’s not involved with or know these people on a personal level. That is a concern right there,” he said.
Flinn said the court agreed with him on this issue last year when it was a criminal matter.
However, the court disagreed; now-retired Circuit Court Judge G. Carter Greer declined to appoint a special prosecutor to review the civil petition.
“I respectfully disagree with his conclusion,” Flinn said. “I think that has put a lot of unnecessary pressure in this case, and you can see that by the party’s motions that are being filed. That is now an argument that has to be discussed, because of this bias, because of this conflict, what effect does that have on this proceeding.”
Flinn believes it makes sense to have the same person who is looking at possible criminal wrongdoing to also handle the civil side that directly discusses possible criminal wrongdoing.
“One leads directly into the other. The person that’s investigating the criminal side is going to have more tools in their toolbox. They can actually do a search warrant, they can do an actual bona fide investigation with state troopers, special investigators, special agents,” he said.
Flinn said he’s had none of that during his handling of the civil matter.
“If I’m the one who continues all of this, I have part of the story. Which I gave my notice to the court. I know I don’t have the full story. There’s no way for me to get the full story. I’m only presented with what people who came to me and talked to me and presented to me,” he said.
Flinn said there are only three ways to get the state police to investigate an elected official: the Attorney General, the Governor, or a grand jury.
“Those are the only ways, statutorily, that the state police can investigate an elected official or a political subdivision. I simply can’t just go to the state police and say, ‘Hey, can you investigate so and so,’” he said.
“I just can’t go out and get a grand jury to do this because of the conflict of interest in the situation. Even if I wanted to, the office has been recused from handling the criminal side. That happened last year. So even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. That has to be the special prosecutor now handling that,” he said.
Flinn also said a statute allows him to request the state police to investigate non-elected issues.
“Even the statute and everything that’s under that, it’s still a request,” he said. “It is still me asking nicely. I can ask politely, and they can say, ‘Yes or No.’”
