The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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    Dotson
March 27, 2008

Assistant prosecutor says he’s still on the job

Despite reports, Dotson says he has not resigned or been fired after arrest

By Christian Giggenbach

A Braxton County assistant prosecutor said Thursday he has neither resigned nor been fired from his position despite at least two separate news reports that indicated otherwise after he was arrested on a domestic assault charge last weekend.

Nicholas County Sheriff’s Deputy D.J. Holdren arrested Daniel Dotson Sunday at his Webster County home following an alleged incident with his wife at a Craigsville convenience store. Officials at Central Regional Jail in Flatwoods confirmed Dotson was photographed and processed on a domestic assault charge and was released after posting $2,000 bond.

The Charleston Gazette and Charleson Daiy Mail reported Thursday that Dotson had left his position as an assistant prosecutor under Braxton County Prosecutor Bill Martin. The Braxton Citizen News also published a story that Dotson was “no longer an employee” of Martin’s office, and the Pocahontas Times published the Braxton Citizens News story about Dotson on its Web site.

When reached by phone Thursday, Dotson denied those claims.

“Regardless of what was in the paper, I have not been terminated and I have been staying out of the office for a while until I can take care of other matters,” he said.

Martin did not return phone messages left with his secretary Thursday.

Dotson, who has been prosecuting cases since 1989 and was elected Webster County prosecutor in 1996, was appointed special prosecutor by the state Supreme Court last year in the case of a Greenbrier County sheriff’s deputy accused of beating county Prosecutor Kevin Hanson. The deputy, Kevin Sawyers, was indicted last week by a special grand jury on a misdemeanor battery charge.

“This will not affect my status as the special prosecutor in the Greenbrier County case,” Dotson said.

The director of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute in Charleston said Thursday that Dotson was individually named special prosecutor in the Greenbrier case and only an order by a circuit court judge could remove him.

A special judge had not been named to hear the case as of late Thursday. Both Greenbrier County circuit court judges asked to be recused from the case.

Dotson, who was also named special prosecutor in a Pocahontas County case involving a sherif’f’s deputy, is scheduled to appear in court there for a hearing this morning. Dotson said he will be present for the hearing.

Although Dotson declined to specifically talk about the charges pending against him in Nicholas County, he did indicate his innocence.

“I am ready to defend myself in a court of law concerning those charges,” Dotson said.

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com

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