Local defense lawyers organize
to monitor prosecutor's office
Several area lawyers are establishing a new organization to address concerns about the local judicial system.
"We want to form a committee that oversees the Commonwealth's Attorney's office," said defense attorney David Natkin.
Natkin and a dozen other members of the Rockbridge-Buena Vista Bar Association are creating the new criminal defense bar to voice their concerns with the Rockbridge Commonwealth's Attorney's office.
How formal the organization will be remains to be seen.
Natkin and attorneys Eric Sisler and Tom Simmons hope to become the organization's liaisons with the Commonwealth's Attorney's office and local judges. Each man has practiced law for more than two decades in the Lexington-Rockbridge area.
"We're concerned about the way the prosecutor's office pursues cases too aggressively," Natkin said. "We've seen requests for jail sentences [for defendants] that just don't deserve it."
For example, Natkin says, he has seen a case where, in his opinion, the sentence should have been two days in jail, but the Commonwealth's Attorney's office requested 60 to 90 days.
"This kind of thing ruins people's lives," Natkin said. "They end up losing their jobs."
Although Natkin, Sisler and Simmons met with Commonwealth's Attorney Robert "Bucky" Joyce for the first time last week, Natkin said the conversation was productive.
"It was the kind of conversation old friends can have," he said.
No one from the Commonwealth's Attorney's office would comment on the situation or the meeting.
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