Panel: Kanawha County prosecuting attorney should be removed from office

Kanawha County prosecuting attorney Mark Plants could be out soon after a three-judge panel ruled he should be removed from office for malfeasance and neglect of duty.

Preston County Circuit Judge Larry Miller, Berkeley County Circuit Judge Christopher Wilkes and Pleasants County Circuit Judge Tim Sweeney issued the 44-page order on Tuesday afternoon after hearing testimony over parts of two days in September.

The order will be suspended for 30 days to give Plants time to appeal.

“Clearly, there is no winner in a difficult matter such as this,” said Kanawha County Commission president Kent Carper in a statement soon after the order was issued.

The Kanawha County Commission had filed a petition earlier this year to have Plants removed from office. At that time, the argument was he could not properly do his job while facing his own charges of domestic battery and violating a protective order.

A special prosecutor had been appointed to handle the domestic cases Plants could not because of possible conflicts.

“I strongly believe that filing this petition was the right thing to do for the taxpayers of Kanawha County,” said Kanawha County Commissioner Dave Hardy who raised questions about the costs of that special prosecutor.

The Kanawha County Commission was scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday to talk about the county’s next steps.