CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A three-judge panel began hearing Monday whether Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants should be removed from office. Plants sat in the Charleston courtroom staring down at the table, barely looking up during the first three hours of testimony.
It was back in March that Plants was charged for domestic battery for allegedly striking his 11-year-old son with a belt multiple times, leaving a bruise. A few weeks later he allegedly violated a domestic protection order to stay away from his two sons and his ex-wife Allison Plants. In April, Plants was forced to recuse himself and his office from hearing domestic related cases. As a result, a special prosecutor was brought in to handle those cases.
Last month, the Kanawha County Commission called on Plants to step down. That’s when the three-judge panel was appointed by the state Supreme Court. County attorney Melissa Foster-Bird told the judges during her opening statement Monday morning that Plants has violated the oath he took when he became prosecutor.
“We believe we will show clearly and convincingly that Mr. Plants has committed misconduct and malfeasance and also negligence in the duties as prosecutor,” said Foster-Bird.
Part of that misconduct, according to Foster-Bird, is the prosecutor trying to change his son’s testimony.
“Mr. Plants has spoken with his children, has tried to get his children to change their testimony, has tried to influence, intimidate and harass his children into changing their stories so that those domestic violence charges would be dropped,” Foster-Bird told the court.
Plants’ attorney Jim Cagle told the judges during his opening statement that the county’s case would not hold up in court.
“We will contest the admissibility of virtually all the evidence that has been submitted in the pre-trial of this matter,” said Cagle
The first witness to take the stand was West Virginia State Police Sgt. Matthew Adams, a member of the Crimes Against Children Task Force and the lead investigator into the domestic abuse case against Plants.
“Initially, Mr. Plants stated that he struck his son twice. I confronted him with how many time the victim said he was struck. Mr. Plants changed it to three or four times and then at the end of the statement Mr. Plants said the beating occurred for no more than 20 seconds,” according to Adams.
Adams interviewed all the main players in the case including Plants’ current wife Sarah Plants in March. He recorded their conversation which was on the record. What Adams didn’t know was Mrs. Plants was recording the conversation as well, without Adams’ knowledge and left the audio recording after the interview was complete. That six minutes of audio was played in court.
Sarah Plants asked Adams, “Do you think that (Mark) intentionally curved the belt to intentionally bruise him?”
Adams replied, “No, I don’t think he intentionally did it.”
However, in court Adams testified it wasn’t how Plants hit his son but rather the intensity.
Also testifying for the county was Charleston City Police Sgt. Anthony Colagrasso. He responded to a verbal altercation between Plants and his ex-wife at John Adams Middle School earlier this summer. By the time he arrived, Mrs. Plants was back in her vehicle and Mr. Plants was talking with another city officer. That’s when Colagrasso said Plants made a highly unusual statement.
“Did he tell you he was the prosecutor and that we wanted her arrested?” Questioned attorney Foster-Bird.
“He told me he was the prosecutor and that I was within my legal right to arrest her and he wanted her to be arrested,” testified Colagrasso. “I informed Mr. Plants that during my time on the police department and during my training I had never been advised that we were authorized or allowed to arrest a petitioner of a domestic violence petition.”
The list of other witnesses set to take the stand include Plant’s wife Sarah, Kanawha County commissioners and the special prosecutor assigned to handle Plant’s cases, Don Morris.