Crime concerns drive divisions among Lynchburg's top prosecutor hopefuls - Lynchburg News and Advance

On issues ranging from gang violence to engaging communities in fighting everyday street crime, a close look at the views of the contenders for Lynchburg’s top prosecutor seat reveals key differences shaping the race.

Three people are running for commonwealth’s attorney — an open seat going before voters this fall — and in many ways the candidates share common approaches.

All want to work closely with community groups to give more opportunities to people at risk of turning to violent crime.

On both the Democratic and GOP sides, the candidates said they want to work more closely with police to identify, catch and put away Lynchburg’s worst and most dangerous offenders.

They part company in other areas, though, as illuminated by recent interviews the candidates gave with The News & Advance. Prosecutors Timothy Griffin and Bethany Harrison are seeking the GOP nod in a June primary. Carlos Hutcherson, a defense attorney, is running as a Democrat.

The Republicans differ sharply on whether current strategies are working and continue to dispute whether the city’s violent crime trends are getting worse or not.

Hutcherson floated several ideas of his own, among them a direct hands-on approach to working with city leaders on local issues such as installing more streetlights to deter crime.

With the race becoming increasingly tense and competitive — at least among Republicans in the run-up to the June 13 primary — the candidates are jostling to make their own visions for the prosecutor’s office stand out.

Griffin, of Lynchburg, who serves as Bedford County assistant commonwealth’s attorney, has made an issue of fighting what he sees as the status quo.

Repeatedly jabbing current Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Doucette, who is stepping down when his term ends this year, Griffin has linked him with his GOP opponent and slammed what he calls “stagnant” crime rates.

Harrison, deputy commonwealth’s attorney for Lynchburg, who won Doucette’s endorsement, has taken jabs of her own at Griffin for having less prosecutorial experience.

Often she touts her lengthy tenure in Doucette’s office — part of which entails overseeing a cadre of assistant prosecutors — as a key asset in her bid for the top job. But her rival paints that same experience as a liability.

That’s because she would continue the status quo, he said, at a time when change is needed. He put it in the perspective of the city not firing on all cylinders.

“I think Lynchburg is hurting. I think that we’re looking at raising taxes again. Our schools are not succeeding like they can, and our violent crime has slowly risen over the last 10 years,” he said.

“We need actions right now on the prosecution side,” Griffin said. “What I think we need is a strong commonwealth’s attorney, a big personality.”

Harrison forcefully has disputed the notion violent crime has gone up during the last 10 years in which she has served as a senior prosecutor, saying while there have been spikes, gradually the rates have decreased.

The rift between the two on that issue is mostly a matter of how the numbers are crunched. Griffin points to actual numbers of certain crimes rising over given periods; Harrison compares overall crime rates taking into account population growth.

They each have cited data from the Virginia State Police to bolster their positions.

Harrison said while crime rates continue a gradual downward trend, she hopes the office can work more closely with residents to catch offenders by instilling an attitude of cooperation with prosecutors and police.

“A lot of that involves getting community members to be more accountable,” and to encourage more information-sharing with prosecutors, she said.

Harrison said she envisions more community service during probation for juveniles to give them something to do when they are out of jail instead of returning to the cycle of crime.

She said the office needs to work closely with local groups and agencies providing social services and activities for youth to get them out of the rut of violent offenses. “We have a very strong community here,” she said. “These community partners ... are the ones who take it to the next level to prevent recidivism.”

Hutcherson said he envisions a prosecutor’s office that’s deeply engaged in the community and that makes recommendations to local policymakers to fight crime.

Actions as simple as making sure basketball courts are lighted can add up to a big difference, along with tough prosecution, he said. “I think that would be one of the duties of a commonwealth’s attorney, not just to prosecute crimes, but to prevent those crimes.”

Hutcherson also said he favors setting up special “courts” in areas such as mental health, which are actually just criminal dockets keyed to those issues.

Such an approach is “absolutely not coddling anyone, but simply trying to, for the betterment of everyone, prevent future crimes,” he said.

Tackling gangs

One issue coming to the fore just as the prosecutor’s race heats up: crime possibly tied to gang activity in Lynchburg.

The recent arrests of three men with alleged ties to the international MS-13 gang following the homicide of local teenager Raymond Wood has spurred concern over the presence of gangs in Central Virginia.

While MS-13 gained notoriety for its violence and brutality, it still is unclear the extent to which the Wood slaying represents a larger problem in Lynchburg. It is also unknown how many gangs of criminals are active in the city.

All the candidates agreed simply belonging to an identified group or even a gang does not intrinsically mean someone is a lawbreaker. What counts is the crime, if it occurs, they said, though the candidatesdiffer on whether enough is being done to prosecute those cases.

Virginia has a gang statute that aims to help prosecutors go after criminal organizations.

Hutcherson said it’s crucial police and prosecutors make the distinction between those just associating in groups and actual gang criminals.

“I know just from my practice, a group of guys could be classified or identified by law enforcement as a gang, and perhaps that’s not the correct word for them,” Hutcherson said. “A gang is an organized group of criminals. I would dare say that all groups of guys, you can’t say they’re groups of criminals.”

Hutcherson said the Wood slaying and the implication of MS-13 by law enforcement “ups the ante” in terms of local worries about gangs.

“That’s absolutely not a local group of young men or people. That’s absolutely a gang,” he said. “I think we have as much of a gang problem as every other city in the U.S. When you have national gangs [getting] down to this area, that’s a problem.”

Harrison said the commonwealth’s attorney in Lynchburg has focused properly on the gang issue by having a dedicated prosecutor for gangs. The same attorney also can represent the state in federal cases involving gang activity.

The police gather intelligence on gangs and “our role is to hold people accountable,” she said. “You can’t prosecute someone for being a member of a gang alone. … It's case-by-case because you can only prosecute individuals.”

Harrison also indirectly criticized her GOP opponent’s broad promise to “crush the gangs,” saying many factors are in play.

“It’s more multifaceted than just ‘we’re going to prosecute everybody.’ We do that now,” Harrison said. “We take all violent crime seriously.”

Griffin has made defeating gangs a central issue, arguing criminal activity has spun out of control in Lynchburg and gangs largely are to blame.

“We basically have a criminal enterprise. We have these groups that are working to undermine everything else we’re doing in law enforcement,” he said. “Coming down hard on these guys will send a message. We need a change in strategy because what we’re doing is not working.”

GOP finish line looms

As June 13 fast approaches, the intraparty contest looks like it’s shifting into high gear.

Campaign signs are popping up along streets and highways. Candidate endorsements and letters of support are rolling in.

And the campaigns are starting to launch more direct attacks on each other, signaling a far more political race for top prosecutor than has been seen in years or even decades.

In a recent skirmish, Griffin and Harrison ended up locked in a dispute over whether she had declined to participate in an upcoming GOP debate.

Griffin claimed she was dodging a public opportunity to debate him; Harrison insisted she had a prior engagement that could not be broken but the debate was set without her anyway, for Monday at 7 p.m. at New Covenant School. Both sides traded barbs over the issue.

They are scheduled to appear together at least once, along with Hutcherson, in a May 16 event at Liberty University by the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance Young Professionals.

As the divisions mount between the candidates, they are scrambling to raise money for the primary and looking further out toward the endgame this fall.

While it’s not clear where the campaigns’ finances stand right now, Harrison was well ahead in the last official numbers.

According to the Virginia Department of Elections, by the end of the last reporting period of Jan. 1 to March 31, Harrison’s camp had received almost $32,000 in contributions and had more than $26,000 in the bank.

Over the same period, Griffin had received almost $5,000 and had more than $800 in the ending balance.

Harrison said she was pleased to have brought in donations from a wide diversity of sources, and Griffin said his next financial report would be much stronger.

Hutcherson did not have to file a report for the period as he was not a candidate in the primary. He is expected to be named the Democratic candidate in that party’s caucus on Monday.

The general election for the next commonwealth’s attorney is Nov. 7.

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