Published: April 22, 2008 04:33 pm            

Candidates express views at forum

OAK HILL — The youthfulness of a magistrate hopeful was one of the many topics of conversation at a candidate forum last Tuesday night.

But that candidate, 20-year-old Ben Love, says age is relative.

When asked by moderator Martin Staunton how his life experiences have prepared him to seek one of four Fayette County magistrate posts in the May 13 primary election, Love posed a question himself. “What is young?” he asked Staunton, an anchor/reporter for WVNS 59, which sponsored the forum along with the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. “Anything that begins with 20-something,” Staunton replied.

Saying he is “fully capable and fully prepared,” Love offered, “Half the guys I went to school with are fighting in Iraq and they’re not too young for that.”

Love and five other magistrate candidates were among those to share their views along with incumbents and challengers in numerous other races in the forum at Oak Hill High School. Also fielding questions from Staunton were incumbent magistrates Danita Young, Sharon McGraw, Mike Parsons and Charles Garvin, as well as another challenger, Roger Boone Sr.

Young told Staunton magistrates, instead of family judges, should issue domestic violence petitions. The availability of four magistrates as opposed to one judge makes it easier for those seeking protection to deal with a magistrate. “There are victims that need them 7 (days)-24 (hours),” Young said. She also noted that petitions do protect most potential victims, but “not everyone pays attention to them.”

In response to a question about magistrates’ safety, McGraw said bailiffs are not present in magistrate court, unless a jury trial is in progress. But, she added that magistrates can summon nearby law enforcement for assistance if a volatile situation arises, and in most cases, police are in court presenting cases anyway. McGraw said the job can be satisfying. “When people come to magistrate court, they normally come on their own (without representation). Sometimes they’ve tried everything else and they feel we are their last resort. If we can help, then I feel like we’ve done something good.”

Parsons said objectivity is the backbone to being a successful magistrate. “The most important thing is that a magistrate is fair and impartial and openly judges all the evidence brought before him,” he said. “Whatever is presented, I have an obligation to weigh the evidence; you would want me to be fair and honest.”

In regards to the use of bail bondsmen, Boone said the system doesn’t always work but “the groundwork has been set so it should work.” The bondsmen become the “defendant’s jailer” and “we need to revoke some of those bonds and make bail bondsmen live up to them. We should focus on the bondsmen themselves.”

Garvin joked about the youth question, saying, “I’m way past young.” He said his background as an educator and the fact that he worked with students and their parents for 36 years is a plus. “I developed some skills that are very necessary,” Garvin said. Reading up on magistrate decorum is useful, he added, but the main goal is to rule in “an even-handed, fair and rational manner. Not every case is the same, and it is necessary to listen to both sides.”

A crowd of about 140 attended to listen to 26 participating candidates.

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skeenan@register-herald.com

        

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