Plants will get trial but no dates set

A special magistrate will decide when Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants gets his day in court.

Plants and his attorney asked Mercer County Magistrate Mike Flanigan again Wednesday to set trial dates on the two misdemeanor domestic-related counts Plants faces. Flanigan said he’ll issue a ruling at a later date.

Special Prosecutor Sid Bell said Plants should be required to complete a batterers intervention program before the trials. Bell maintained in Wednesday’s hearing that Plants has waived his right to a speedy trial.

Plants attended his first batterers intervention session Tuesday night in Putnam County.

In a related development, an attorney for the Kanawha County Commission filed a motion Wednesday for a judge to order Plants to give a deposition ahead of a late-September removal from office hearing. Plants’ attorney maintains removal hearings are different and a deposition isn’t required.

A three-judge panel will hear the county commission’s removal petition beginning Sept. 22.