CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston Mayor Danny Jones is no longer calling for an independent review of the decision to drop a malicious wounding charge against the son of state Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman.
Teddy Gardner, 27, had been accused of beating his sister.
“I’m out of gas on this thing. We just don’t have anywhere else to go,” Mayor Jones said of the end of his efforts to have a special prosecutor named to look again at the case of Gardner who was arrested following the Aug. 5 incident.
Jones met Wednesday with Chuck Miller, chief of staff for the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Steve Revercomb, also with the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster and Lt. Steve Cooper, chief of detectives for the Charleston Police Department to review the details of the case.
“It was not a terse exchange, but it was a frank exchange of why the case should go forward and why it couldn’t. Our meeting lasted about an hour and, in the final analysis, he’s in charge. Chuck’s the boss,” Jones said.
Miller first announced the decision to drop the charge against Gardner last week. At that time, Miller said there was not enough evidence to pursue the case.
This past Tuesday, Jones had said there had been a “miscalculation” when he called for the independent review on MetroNews “Talkline.”
The initial charge against Gardner was based on his sister Lindsey’s first claims at the scene that her brother had beaten her and kicked her multiple times in Charleston’s Quarry Creek area—near their mother’s home.
Ten days after the incident, including several days spent in the hospital, Lindsey Gardner told Charleston Police a different story when she gave an official statement about what had happened.
She claimed she had tried to take a swing at her brother, Teddy, on the night of Aug. 5 and he pushed her away to defend himself and that’s when she fell and hit her head. Teddy Gardner was not questioned.
“In the final analysis, it is the prosecutor’s office which makes the final decision whether to prosecute a case or not, and the City accepts that,” Jones said.
“(Current Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Mark) Plants is not going to last. Chuck could last. We’ve had bad relationships with that office before and, certainly with this current situation, and we would like to have a good relationship with it and we’ve made our points.”