Lynchburg judge defers on recusal issue in cases where local lawyers may be witnesses

This story from the Lynchburg paper says that the circuit court judge was unprepared to determine that he and his peers from the 24th circuit were automatically disqualified from hearing the evidence in a case where one side claimed that two lawyers were likely to be witnesses. The opposing counsel in the case were identified as Wyatt Durrette and Bill Poff, which sounds like a clash of titans to me.