Some of the candidates running for Kanawha County magistrate sparred Tuesday over the way domestic violence cases in the county are handled.
As part of a special domestic violence program that's been in place for the past four years, Magistrate Julie Yeager is assigned all of the cases that include charges of domestic violence. The approach allows Yeager to become familiar with a defendants case, she said in a meeting with Gazette-Mail editors on Tuesday.
Some incumbent magistrates and candidates agree with the approach to streamline cases. Others expressed frustration over the arrangement.
"It's nothing personal, but I feel a change is needed," said Melanie Rucker, who chose to run against Yeager in Division 7. (The divisions have no geographic meaning, and all Kanawha voters can vote in each of the county's 10 magistrate races.)
Rucker, who has worked as an assistant for longtime magistrate Ward Harshbarger, said other magistrates work on cases involving domestic violence, too - maybe more than they should, she added. If Yeager re-organized her office staff, perhaps by staggering her employees' shifts, according to Rucker, Yeager would handle more of the domestic violence cases she's been assigned.
"I liked the system the way it was before," said Magistrate Tim Halloran, who is running for reelection. "A magistrate is supposed to handle the entire caseload."
Halloran, who has served as magistrate 17 years, said Yeager is given special treatment because she oversees the domestic violence program. She doesn't work nights, weekends or holidays, Halloran said. "Magistrate court is open 365 days a year," he said.
Steve Harper, a former Charleston police officer, said he thought the cases should be distributed among magistrates.
"What happens when Julie's not there?" Harper said. He is one of four candidates running against Halloran in Division 9.
The domestic violence program, which started as an experiment by the West Virginia Supreme Court in Kanawha, has been expanded by the governor to run in several other counties around the state. It initially directed cases involving domestic violence to Yeager and Family Judge Mike Kelly. When Kelly retired two years ago, Yeager agreed to implement the program alone.
The success is hard to deny, as rates of those who repeatedly offend are down, said Yeager. There also - "knock on wood," Yeager said - hasn't been a domestic violence-related death involving anyone who has been a defendant in the domestic violence court in Kanawha County since the program began in 2012.
"That's huge," Yeager said. "Especially since when we started we had the highest" number in the state.
Yeager has served as a Kanawha magistrate 11 years. Margaret Chico-Eddy and Paris Workman said they like that Yeager oversees all of the cases involving charges of domestic violence in magistrate court.
Workman, a police officer in Montgomery, served as a Kanawha magistrate from 2008 through 2012, when he lost a reelection bid. Chico-Eddy has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from West Virginia State University.
Chico-Eddy, Workman, Harper and Dianna Graves filed to run against Halloran. Dianna Graves did not attend the meeting.
The candidates who filed to run against Halloran who attended Tuesday's meeting said they filed against him, in part, because he came in last in the 2012 election.
All of the candidates who attended Tuesday like that judicial election in the state are now nonpartisan.
Many expressed concern, though, that the primary in May is the only election for judicial candidates. Magistrate races are also now divided into "divisions," but those divisions don't represent specific parts of the county. Instead, candidates choose which district they want to run in. In this election, that means challengers picked which incumbent to go up against.
Also Tuesday, after challenger Todd Chevalier accused 13-year incumbent Kim Aaron of slacking on the job, which Aaron denied. Aaron said that Chevalier had only decided to run against her in Division 8 at the last minute. Chevalier, a Kanawha County Schools' teacher, changed his mind about running against Halloran in the final moments before the deadline to file. He said that's because Halloran already had several challengers.
Pam Nixon is running against incumbent Mike Sisson, a retired St. Albans police officer. He met with editors Monday.
Nixon described herself as an outsider, as most all of the other candidates have some sort of law enforcement experience.
Nixon, though, who worked as the environmental advocate at the state Department of Environmental Protection for 15 years, said in that role she had to regularly deal with the public and help them understand the law. That will help her as magistrate, she said. Nixon said she randomly chose Sisson to run against.
"I like a challenge," Nixon said.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.