Martinsville Commonwealth’s Attorney Andy Hall does not plan to seek reelection in the upcoming November election. Instead, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Flinn plans to seek the position.
Hall, who has served two terms in the role, said eight years is enough.
“I’m a big believer that an executive shouldn’t stay in office but for so long. I think two terms is enough, and the fact that I had Patrick in the office and waiting in the wings I felt it was an ideal time to step down,” he said.
When Hall first took the job, he had served as former Commonwealth’s Attorney Clay Gravely’s chief deputy for four years and worked as an assistant deputy for about two years.
Gravely “was a politician, I wasn’t,” Hall said. “He of course resigned, and I took the position. I was worried because I didn’t know anything about politics — I was a prosecutor, I was a trial attorney.”
As an elected official, Hall said one must meet people and get to know them, and he believes that was the best part of the job.
“I think any leadership position must be predicated to dedication to service. And I’m going to say that because I think we lose sight of that. Any leadership position must be predicated on a desire to serve. If you don’t have that you have no business being in elected office, none whatsoever,” he said.
While Hall doesn’t yet know what his next step will be, he said that as a Christian, he believes God will lead him.
“I believe the Holy Spirit will lead me exactly where I’m supposed to go. That’s where my faith is,” he said.
Hall said he plans to continue serving Martinsville in other ways, including on the Charter Review Committee.
“That’s been outstanding. I’ve been blessed in that I’ve been able to do a couple of things other than the law in the past 10 years. I served briefly with the school board, and I’m serving now with the Carter Review Committee. It’s been so refreshing learning things that I did not know before, just trying new things,” he said.
A lot of people, Hall believes, get decades into their careers and become too comfortable.
“The great thing about the school board or the Charter Review Committee is that it’s beyond my area of expertise. When they invited me to join the committee, I said, ‘Okay, but I know you’re probably thinking, well he’s a lawyer and can probably help us out in that way.’ I don’t know anything about that area of the law. But it’s been so much fun delving into the minutia of our city charter, other city charters, and learning new stuff, so I’ve enjoyed that immensely,” he said.
While serving as his chief deputy, Hall said Flinn has handled complex cases, including serving as second chair in a recent first-degree murder trial.
“I feel very confident that he would do a good job, and I wouldn’t leave otherwise unless I felt like there was good leadership waiting in the wings. But this is one of the reasons I felt like it was the ideal time for me to step down,” Hall said. Flinn is “much younger than me, he’s waiting in the wings, and I think he’ll probably be a career prosecutor.”
Flinn has worked in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office since graduating from law school and passing the bar exam in 2021. In addition to having fallen in love with the area, Flinn said he is seeking the position because he feels prosecution is what he’s been called to do.
“I think that there are some things I would like to do, that I think I would be in a good position to do, with everything that’s going around in this small town. I think it’s the next step that I can do to really have an impact,” Flinn said.
Because he’s been busy in the office, Flinn hasn’t yet completed the necessary paperwork to get his name on the ballot. But he said he plans to do so soon.
If elected, one of his goals is to get the community more involved with the office.
Throughout his time in the office, one of the biggest challenges he’s seen is getting cooperation from witnesses, even when they report a crime.
“Let’s say they do report it, they cooperate with the police, well then fast forward a few months to when the file lands on our desk and we start to go to court, and then we don’t have any witnesses, we don’t have any victims that show up,” he said.
While it’s natural for people to not be tuned into the criminal justice system — “and probably a blessing for most people to not have to worry about that” — Flinn said the community is affected by crime and it also participates in the jury and legal process.
“I really want the community to see what’s really going on. I think that a crime happens, either we’re able to get charges and move forward, or it kind of gets out of people’s minds and then several months down the road, now we start having court proceedings. We still need to have people engaged and ready to go,” he said.
Flinn said this has impacted several cases, including one earlier this week when a witness wasn’t ready to go to trial.
He praised Hall as a mentor and boss who helped him learn the nuances of the job.
“I’m not going in as a sledgehammer because he kind of set the stage and we’re kind of one accord of a lot of things. One of the things that he has said, and I’m absolutely stealing this phrase, is he says that our main job really isn’t to lock people up and worry about jail, it’s to maintain the integrity of the system,” Flinn said.
He believes the next step is getting the community plugged into that system.
“We can’t have cases charged until we have cooperation and we can’t get cases across the finish line with the community’s involvement. So that’s kind of my overarching goal,” Flinn said, adding that Hall will continue to be his mentor.
“He definitely said he’d stick around and help me and be a resource to me. I know he’s still going to be plugged into Martinsville, he loves this area. One of the things he’s really gotten a lot of enjoyment out of is the Charter Committee, he’s loving that so I know he’s still going to be around. On one hand it’s a big step, it’s a big opportunity for both me and him, so I’m sad to see him go, but it’s also an exciting next step so I look forward to where that goes,” he said.
