Floyd County prosecutor gets called up to Iraq, judge replaces him

In this wild story ("Lawyer's battles: Judge, insurgents," 5/7/05), the Roanoke paper reports that the Commonwealth's Attorney for Floyd County is in Iraq, and plans to run his office from there, by e-mail, with a hired lawyer to handle the courtroom work. Back in Virginia, however, Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs has taken a different view, and appointed someone else to replace the elected official while he is gone. The article says a brand new AG opinion concludes "that a commonwealth's attorney is not required to relinquish his office when involuntarily called to active military duty," which makes the soldier/prosecutor think he will not lose his office. The matter will have to be resolved by the Virginia Supreme Court.