CORRIDOR CHRONICLE
Gregory’s Web brief
by Ron Gregory
Several readers have asked about the outcome in the Mercer County Prosecutor’s race.
That’s the race I detailed Sunday before the election as demanding attention.
At the end of the column item I said that maybe Mercer voters would give Prosecutor George Sitler a “taste of justice” on election day.
They did.
Challenger Brian Cochran defeated Sitler by a wide margin in the Republican primary. After that result, Sitler finally did the right thing and recused himself from the Travis Lambert case.
To remind readers, Charleston attorney Ryan Donovan, Lambert’s attorney, filed an affidavit saying Sitler told him he could not agree to a plea deal in Lambert’s case because it might cost him votes.
Donovan further alleged that Sitler said that if he agreed to a plea deal on Lambert, he would encounter the wrath of Bluefield Daily Telegraph Editor Samantha Perry.
Prior to the election, Sitler steadfastly refused to recuse himself from the case despite the bias he articulated.
But apparently the loss changed his mind and he has now withdrawn from the case in which Lambert passed a polygraph exam.
Sitler told some courthouse observers he recused to “speed up the case.” But the required appointment of a special prosecutor will now likely slow down resolution of the matter.
It looks like Mercer voters took the right action and justice will prevail.