The Madison County supervisor accused of violating the state’s conflict of interest policy has struck a deal to avoid a trial.
Supervisor Pete Elliott Jr. will pay a $500 fine and perform 50 hours of community service and, in exchange, prosecutor Rusty McGuire will drop the charge, according to court documents filed last week.
“It’s the way I would treat anybody else charged with a class 3 misdemeanor,” said McGuire. He said Elliott has no criminal record and is paying the maximum fine he could face if convicted. McGuire also said that the charge stems only from a preliminary vote and that Elliott recused himself from a later vote on the same issue. Records show that Elliott is charged with committing the offense the same day the supervisors considered the zoning of a property Elliott uses for his auction business. (The property is the former W.J. Carpenter Company “chicken coop” factory site off U.S. 29 in Brightwood).
The county itself requested that the property be rezoned. The board eventually voted to withdraw the request.
“He clearly realized his mistake and took actions to correct it,” McGuire said.
Elliott’s attorney, John J. “Butch” Davies III, said that he didn’t think Elliott had committed a violation.
The community service will likely include driving a barrel “train” that the Madison County Sheriff’s Office operates for children and cleaning up a piece of county property, Davies said.
Davies said Elliott does plenty of community service anyway.
“That’s how he got elected,” Davies said. “He’s just a super guy. He’ll just be doing what Pete normally does.”
McGuire is the deputy commonwealth’s attorney in Louisa County. He was designated special prosecutor to look into the matter. Other examples of class 3 misdemeanors include calling seeds certified when they aren’t, shining a spotlight on another’s agricultural land without written permission and using an X-ray machine to fit shoes.
Elliott did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story.
James Arrington, chairman of the county’s board of supervisors, declined to comment.
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