CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants says the state Supreme Court should reject the recommendations from the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel that he be suspended or stopped from prosecuting domestic-related cases.
Plants filed a response to the ODC’s recommendations Friday. The ODC made the recommendations because Plants faces two misdemeanor charges including allegedly violating a domestic violence protective order along with a charge of domestic battery in connection with spanking his son.
In that response filing–Plants called the ODC’s recommendations an overreach and premature. The response points toward a move made this week by Plants and his assistants to alert the circuit court of any possible conflicts of interest in domestic violence cases.
Plants has been arrested twice in recent months and both times released on his own recognizance. Plants says that shows a lack of seriousness of the charges.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on the City of Charleston’s request to have the prosecutor’s office removed from all domestic related cases.