Opinion ID: 1059715
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appointment of Special Assistant Prosecutor

Text: In assignment of error number 1, Yarbrough asserts that the trial court erred in granting the Commonwealth's renewed motion to appoint as a special assistant prosecutor an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney from another jurisdiction. Yarbrough contends that by its express terms Code § 19.2-155, the statute relied upon by the Commonwealth in originally seeking the appointment and cited by the trial court in its original order, applies only where the attorney for the Commonwealth ... is unable to act, or to attend to his official duties as attorney for the Commonwealth, due to sickness, disability or other reason of a temporary nature, such as a fiduciary or familial relationship to the accused, or some other ethical bar. Yarbrough correctly asserts that no conflict or disability was present that would have prohibited the Commonwealth's Attorney for Mecklenburg County from prosecuting the case. Indeed, the Commonwealth's Attorney served as lead counsel for the Commonwealth throughout the trial. Additionally, Yarbrough asserts that a further provision of Code § 19.2-155 permitting a trial court to appoint as a special assistant attorney for the Commonwealth, without additional compensation, an attorney employed by a state agency upon request of the Commonwealth and upon a finding by the trial court that such appointment will aid in the prosecution of a particular case or cases is also inapplicable. Yarbrough asserts that this is so because the special assistant prosecutor named by the trial court in this instance was an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney and, thus, he was an employee of a locality, not a state agency. [3] We need not address these contentions, however, because the trial court vacated its original ex parte order citing Code § 19.2-155. In the subsequent order appointing the special assistant prosecutor, entered after Yarbrough was afforded an opportunity to be heard and oppose the Commonwealth's renewed motion, the trial court relied solely on its inherent authority to administer cases on its docket. Thus, we need only be concerned with whether the appointment of a special prosecutor on motion of the Commonwealth falls within this broad discretion afforded to a trial court. This is a matter of first impression and one of obvious import to the conduct of criminal trials in this Commonwealth. Code § 15.2-1628(C), requiring the Commonwealth's Attorneys of most counties and their assistants to devote full time to their duties, provides that [n]otwithstanding any other provisions of law, no attorney for the Commonwealth or assistant required to devote full time to his duties shall receive any additional compensation from the Commonwealth or any county or city for substituting for or assisting any other attorney for the Commonwealth or his assistant in any criminal prosecution or investigation. The clear import of this statute, and an identical provision of Code § 15.2-1630 applicable to the Commonwealth's Attorneys for independent cities and their assistants, is that the prosecutors from one locality may call upon the prosecutors of another locality to assist in complex litigation. Indeed, because a Commonwealth's Attorney, no less than any other member of the bar, is subject to the rules of professional responsibility, the duty of competence may require a Commonwealth's Attorney of lesser experience to seek the association of more experienced counsel when prosecuting a difficult, complex case. This being true, certainly a trial court does not abuse its discretion in permitting the Commonwealth to obtain the assistance of a Commonwealth's Attorney or assistant Commonwealth's Attorney from another jurisdiction who has greater familiarity with the issues involved in such prosecutions and whose services are to be rendered without additional expense to the taxpayers. Yarbrough contends, however, that [a] prosecutor from outside the county will not have the same sense of dedication to the citizens of the county, including the defendant and, thus, [t]he out-of-county prosecutor has a legal disability analogous to that of the disability of a prospective juror who is excused from jury service because he or she has not been a resident of the locality in which a trial occurs for at least six months. See Code § 8.01-337. We disagree. The statutory residency requirements for determining the pool of potential jurors in a locality may arguably be taken as securing the right of a defendant to a trial by a jury of his peers. To suggest, however, that a similar residency requirement should be imposed upon a prosecutor is totally without merit. In the first place, the statutes governing the appointment of assistant Commonwealth's Attorneys contain no requirement of residency in the locality in which they are employed. See Code §§ 15.2-4628 and -1630. Secondly, as noted above, the rules of professional responsibility place upon a Commonwealth's Attorney the same burdens and duties as any attorney. Paramount among these responsibilities is the duty to perform competently and to perform his duties to the fullest extent permitted and required by the law. We presume that any Commonwealth's Attorney, cognizant of his or her professional responsibility, will perform the duties required of the office without regard to the locality in which he or she is called upon to render service. Finally, and moreover, the appointment of a special assistant attorney for the Commonwealth does not prejudice the defendant. This is necessarily so simply because such an appointment does not alter the truth-finding process of the defendant's trial. For these reasons, we hold that it rests within the sound discretion of the trial court to appoint a Commonwealth's Attorney or an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney to assist the regular Commonwealth's Attorney where the Commonwealth requests the appointment for good cause. In the present case, the trial court did not err in granting the Commonwealth's requested appointment of a special assistant prosecutor.