April 20, 2024 • 65 mins
With over 20 years in the Wood County Magistrate's office, Heather is running to serve as the magistrate in the newly-created 5th Magisterial Division. As a Magisterial Assistant for 20+ years, she will bring a wealth of experience to the office. Please visit her Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553851604251 and email her at hscformagistrate@yahoo.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We'll get Saturday evening, everybody.
(00:21):
It's 6 30 on the East Coast, 3 30 on the West Coast, which means only one thing.
It's time for the Bobcast.
With me as always out there in beautiful downtown Murphy town, Rick Sawyer.
And over in our little own spot of the world over on North End of Parker Brook, because
that's where we have to keep her.
(00:44):
Tonight everybody we're continuing.
Calm down, it's just me.
Hey, yeah, yeah.
Now I lost my thought.
You might have ice cream.
Tonight we're continuing our election cycle.
(01:08):
And tonight we're going to have division five candidate for Wood County Magistrate Heather
Campbell.
She is going to tell us a little bit about the Magistrates Office.
She's been in the Magistrates Office for a while, but she'll explain all that.
So tonight we're going to mix it up a little bit because T is going to be in charge.
(01:31):
Why?
Because she said if we didn't, if she wasn't in charge, Rick and I would live to regret
it.
So it's scary because she knows what I'll ask.
So that's why Heather asked.
(01:53):
And just real quick before we get started with Heather, we have to give kudos to Abby.
Yes.
Hey, Abby.
Hey, Abby.
Because Abby got her mom on.
Look at Abby.
Abby.
She's my tech guru.
Abby.
Where's she at?
Abby, is the camera ready?
(02:17):
Yes, Abby.
There she is.
We had to give kudos for getting your mom on camera.
Because if not, we'd have just been talking to ourselves, which has been known to happen
before.
We actually said one night.
As long as you don't answer yourself.
Yeah.
Oh, is that a bad thing?
No, if you see me walking down the street talking to myself, just understand I'm self-employed.
(02:42):
I'm having a staff meeting.
You're looking for good things to do, aren't you, Rick?
That's right.
That's right.
Hey, join us tonight.
You know how to do it.
We're on chat.
We're live on YouTube.
We're live on Facebook.
Chat us, send us a message.
If you have any questions for Heather or if you just want to give Abby an attaboy, that's
(03:03):
fine too.
And she's let me use her laptop.
Wow.
Well, she's the bomb.
Yeah, she is.
And again, she's going to be in charge.
So without further ado, I'm going to introduce you to Heather Campbell, division five, Magisterial
(03:24):
candidate for Wood County, West Virginia.
And we'll go from there.
If you would just introduce yourself to everybody.
Tell us, you know, a little bit about you and what's going on.
Then Teresa will take over as always.
Sorry.
That's okay.
My name is Heather Scott Campbell on the ballot.
(03:45):
Scott was my maiden name and I graduated from Parkersburg South High School and I graduated
from WVU Parkersburg with an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree in business.
And I've been a magistrate assistant at Wood County Magistrate Court for Brenda K. Marshall
for almost 22 years.
(04:07):
So got a lot of court experience in all of the areas of the court.
And I
And what made you decide to run?
Pardon me?
What?
What made you decide to run for Magistrate Heather after being a Magistrate Assistant
for 22 years?
Well, the plan has always been to run once Brenda retired.
(04:30):
Don't believe in biting the hand that's fed me all these years.
And before they went to the way they do the elections now, it was a free for all.
So if you threw your hat in the ring, you ran against all the magistrates.
And the way they have it now where we have the divisions, you would pick a candidate
to run against.
So I'd have to pick an incumbent to run against, which doesn't make for the most pleasant work
(04:54):
environment for one.
So this is a whole new opportunity.
It's a whole new division, not running against any incumbent, you know.
And I was a single mom raising Abby.
And it was scary to the thought that if I didn't get elected, I wouldn't have a job.
And I wanted to focus on raising her.
(05:16):
And with a magistrate, you have to be on call when you're well, as an assistant, I'm on
call too.
But the magistrates get called out for a lot more than the assistants do.
They're called out multiple times at night for search warrants, for CPS ratifications.
The assistants get called out to do protective orders with the magistrates.
But you know, I couldn't leave Abby home alone to run down to the office and stuff when she
(05:38):
was little.
So she's grown.
Well, can you by myself and got the time to do it?
Can you explain because I don't know if a lot of people know this, but there were four
magistrates and now we've got this fifth position.
Can you explain to our audience how this fifth position came along?
(06:02):
Thank you.
Well, the our legislators gave us the fifth one.
They did a survey of and looked at all the stats of the counties used to how many magistrates
a county got was based on the population only.
And they've changed it towards not only population, they now look at the caseload with us being
(06:22):
a border county with Ohio.
You know, we get a lot of stuff there and we're surrounded by a lot of rural counties
that their people come down here to socialize or and stuff.
And now we have the rehab facilities that the smaller counties are sending their people
down here for rehab.
And then they're stuck here when they are either done or they leave early and their
(06:44):
families won't come pick them up.
So then we have a lot of homeless and we have a lot of crime as a result of that.
So our numbers have shot up.
That's not the only factors, but you know, just as you guys know, the numbers have increased
every year.
So we qualified to have an extra magistrate.
(07:05):
So it's a brand new position.
It's we're not running against any of the incumbents.
We actually got an extra assistant to work the intake window to where we actually get
to be in our offices more, so that's been a big help.
I'll have to say that's a blessing.
Oh my gosh.
(07:25):
When you spend 40 percent of your time not in it, you're up at the window.
You know, you take care of your work up there to try to get something done.
But some days the windows are so busy you can't even touch your office stuff.
So that's true.
So that was an experience for years.
Just real quick, Heather, is all the magistrates up for reelection this year?
(07:50):
Yes, all of them are up for reelection.
The incumbents are running unopposed.
But they're running unopposed.
So we're not running against any of them.
We're a separate division.
And division is different than district.
I've had a lot of people come up and ask me, you know, well, I can't vote for you because
(08:11):
I live in Monroe Wells or I live in Southside.
And I'm like, it doesn't matter.
It's countywide.
And our election is done in May.
We don't go through to November.
So May is the only opportunity that someone has to vote for one of the candidates or for
any of the magistrate candidates.
Now usually, correct me if I'm wrong here, Heather, usually when you go into the ballot
(08:36):
box and you're choosing who you want to run, you could pick up to four people before.
So now that you're there, you can do five.
Is that correct?
One per division.
Right.
One per division.
So you can vote for all all four of the incumbents if you want to cast a vote for them.
(08:57):
And then you have a fifth vote.
And within the division five race, there's six candidates and you can only pick one candidate
out of division five to vote for.
But you have five.
I was going to ask you how many were running.
Yeah.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you could.
It seems to be a crowded field.
(09:18):
I mean, it is.
It is.
Yeah.
It's a new field.
They don't have to run against an incumbent.
And so, yeah, a lot of people are taking advantage of the opportunity.
So Wood County is very lucky to have this many people step forward to serve the community.
That's what they did with the council.
Go ahead.
I was just saying that's another reason why I decided to run to.
(09:42):
I wasn't running against an incumbent.
I've always wanted to step up and have more of a voice and serve in the community and
have a bigger role in helping our community.
Just the timing.
Raising my daughter and everything wasn't right.
And I feel now is a better time for me to be able to do that.
(10:03):
So I've got a question for you.
Yes.
Now, you've been in the court system for going on 22 years.
So you probably know civil and criminal law better than most citizens, probably better
than half the cops.
But once elected, do you have to go to magistrate school and learn specific details about the
(10:29):
job or how does that work?
There is training for new magistrates, yes.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They'll be training for new magistrates.
They go down to Charleston.
Even new assistants receive training.
So when I started, I started as a temp and I was handed a big red manual and they didn't
(10:51):
send anyone from Charleston to train me because I was going to be covering someone's maternity
leave.
And then when Brenda got elected, I had some people contact me at the court and said, hey,
you know, she's looking for an assistant.
You did a great job.
You know, send her your resume.
(11:11):
So I sent her my resume and she interviewed me and hired me on the spot.
So I've been with her for 22 years.
That's great.
So just out of curiosity, the magistrate court is like a lower level court.
(11:32):
We handle as far as sentencing, we handle any misdemeanor crimes, which are crimes that
have a jail sentence of a year or less.
OK.
As far as felonies, we can do the warrants, issue warrants for a felony warrant.
We can do the felony arraignment and we have the probable cause hearing called a felony
preliminary hearing if the defendant exercises that right and to determine if there's enough
(12:00):
evidence for it to go over to probable cause for it to go over to circuit court.
But we can't do any sentencing on felonies.
If they work out a plea over in circuit court and they want us to take the plea, that means
they they're pleading it down to a misdemeanor for us to do it.
And we handle small claims, civil court for up to ten thousand.
(12:23):
We don't do like land contracts or anything like that.
That would be circuit court.
We handle personal safety order hearings.
You know, we issue the orders and also have the hearings with domestic violence protective
orders.
We do a temporary order and we set that up for family court to hear.
They have jurisdiction over those for to extend it longer.
(12:46):
Ours is only an authority until they have the family court hearing.
So and the see, gosh, like I said, domestic violence, protective orders, personal safety
orders, search warrants, warrants, evictions, landlord tenant hearings, which are similar.
(13:06):
But different than evictions.
So we do a lot.
All the tickets for the police, all the tickets for the sheriff's departments, all the city
agencies can issue tickets through our court or through their municipal court.
So we do a lot.
Basically, basically every crime that happens in Wood County, it's a crime that happens
(13:33):
in Wood County starts in magistrate court.
Pretty much.
Pretty much.
Now, some some felonies don't come through us.
They can do a direct indictment through circuit court, you know, and take it straight to a
grand jury.
But a vast majority, yes, start off with us.
(13:54):
They're either caught in the act or a warrant has been issued.
They've been picked up on the warrant and we handle the arraignment.
We're the beginning point for a lot of things for circuit court and family court.
Does magistrate have the authority to dismiss it?
Like if somebody they would bring?
No, no, I'm talking about like a misdemeanor.
(14:17):
I mean, if they come before the magistrate, can you guys say, well, you know, there's
really not enough evidence or whatever.
Is that anything that you guys, that magistrates do?
I'm just curious.
Not the way you're saying.
When an officer brings forth a criminal complaint and asks for a warrant, the magistrate
reviews the description of why the officer wants the warrant and there's certain
(14:42):
criteria for each charge that has to be met.
And if the magistrate feels that there's enough, if the description that the
officer's provided meets the criteria, the code under that charge, he's wanting to
charge the person with, then they can grant it.
If they feel like, you know, you haven't given enough information, then they can
(15:05):
deny it and it won't even be issued.
So that doesn't mean that.
I think that's probably what I was meaning, you know, as far as.
Yeah, yeah.
If there were, you know.
Yeah, once I get a trial, you know, the magistrate can rule to dismiss after both
sides are given the opportunity to present their evidence and testimony in
(15:26):
their case.
OK.
And that, yeah, they can they can deny issuing a warrant if they don't feel that
enough information has been provided in the complaint.
Now, magistrate courts at open court.
So for most cases, the public can come in and observe.
Most. Yes.
Personal safety order hearings.
(15:48):
Those are confidential.
We don't even let the, you know, friends and family go in.
Right.
And that's the party.
Both parties agree to it.
And, you know, any witnesses have to sit out in the lobby, they are called in to
testify and then they have to get back out.
They can't.
But pretty much everything else.
Now, there's certain exceptions.
(16:10):
If a juvenile is testifying or something, if a motion has been made to make it
private why they testify, you know, there's things that can be done.
But yeah, it's public proceedings.
As long as we have room in the courtroom.
As long as we have enough seats.
Exactly.
Exactly.
(16:31):
So there's three.
There's three courtrooms.
So how's this going to play out with five magistrates?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As you know, it's a scheduling nightmare for magistrates in three courtrooms.
So they are going to convert.
Do you know the off the original officers room up front at the lobby?
(16:54):
Yeah.
Remember that?
Yes, I do.
They're they're going to I don't know if they're extending it out in the lobby.
I don't think so.
I think they're going to go into our file room and have a back entrance in for
the magicians to have a secure way in and out.
And it's going to be like a little rain.
We can't even call it a corporate.
(17:16):
It doesn't need to say guidelines to be called.
But it'll be like in.
We can go in and talk to someone about that needs a safety order or a protective
order.
It'll be for tickets and things like that.
What?
And their tickets.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(17:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So about how much of a caseload does Wood County have for felonies and
misdemeanors a year?
Would you say?
Well, it's hard to say because under the old computer system,
each charge had its own case number.
(17:58):
Once we went with you, J.A. 2015, it looked like our numbers went down because
you could put multiple charges under one case number.
But the state has a way to look at the statistics that of each charge that
have.
So I think we usually have a couple thousand civil's couple thousand
(18:25):
misdemeanors.
Close to.
You know, felonies are going up.
Those have been the biggest increase, I think, is the felonies.
Yeah.
And there's multiple charges within those numbers.
(18:47):
You know, a couple thousand misdemeanors.
That doesn't sound bad.
Well, you know, one misdemeanor case can literally have five charges.
You know, or more.
You had this one case that had cruelty animals and within that cruelty to
animals, there was like over 20 counts of cruelty to animals.
So as an assistant, Teresa knows, you had to enter that disposition in for
(19:11):
each charge.
And they have to plead to each charge, right?
Yeah.
So the case numbers are kind of misleading.
It doesn't look as bad or sound as bad, but you dig a little deeper and find
out how many charges are within there.
It's a lot more.
Yes.
Some of them are totally confusing.
(19:34):
When I, you know, it's totally, some of them are totally.
And you're like, how did that happen?
But it was explained to me how some of the things happen.
So, but anyway, if so, you guys do.
You guys rotate.
You guys rotate, you guys rotate.
So what kind of rotation schedule is there?
I mean, is what as a magistrate on call, like two weekends or one weekend a
(19:56):
month or.
Well, it depends on how many weeks are in a month.
So right now it's every, you know, there's four of us, you know, four offices.
So it's every fourth week, your own call for basically it works out to your own
call seven days, but leading up to that call, you work your five day shift.
So you end up working 11 days in a row, seven of them on call and.
(20:19):
Magistrate Marshall and I do the old schedule where I go out at night every
night with my magistrate.
So seven of them are split shift.
You come in at noon, work the afternoon, go home for a little bit.
Then you have to come back out at night and do the arrangements.
And of course we do Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning,
Sunday night.
So you end up doing once a month, 11 days in a row, seven of them split shift.
(20:44):
So we're pretty tired by Thursday night.
Yeah.
Wow.
And I don't think people realize.
Five weeks.
So we won't have to be on call quite as often.
So that'll be nice.
And I don't think people realize it, but even though it's Christmas, 10 o'clock
Christmas Eve, Christmas night, there's Madison report.
(21:06):
I was on call for.
I was on call for.
You are there.
And Easter is not a recognized holiday.
So I got no comp time for that.
Yep.
Brendan, I got caught out Easter morning and Easter night.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know that it stays pretty busy.
I know we had nine one one deal with magistrate's office quite a lot, you
(21:31):
know, as far as.
The police are concerned, they're not going to be able to get a plea.
So I don't think people need, they're having a DV, a PPO or a.
What I want to call it.
We.
Where they were there.
They have to, the officer has to come back and reach.
(21:53):
Oh, they got a process.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some colonies are they work out a plea agreement at my district court before
it even goes over to circuit court.
So when that happens, or even if they send it back over from circuit court
for us to take the plea.
A whole new CDR is what it's called court disposition reporting.
(22:18):
So it goes to the.
Oh, NCIS.
No, that's NCIC.
Blanking out, you know what I'm.
Where there's a record of when the police want to do a check, whether
someone's been.
Yeah, thank you.
We do a triple.
We do a triple.
I.
(22:39):
Triple I.
You get a term in your head.
I'm like, I know that's wrong.
But yeah, that's me.
I had a squirrel moment on reprocess.
I just did it.
I just, I just sent an officer over today to do that.
Or yesterday.
I'm sorry.
I just sent an officer over yesterday and I knew what I wanted to say, but
that squirrels like shiny thing.
Quiet.
Yeah, because the original CDR for the felony, we've got to mark that
(23:03):
dismissed, you know, so they have to do a new CDR for the misdemeanor.
Because now Heather, who, who gets to vote for you?
Anybody in the mail.
It's a nonpartisan race.
So it doesn't matter what political party that you're registered in.
You can vote for any of the magistrates.
(23:27):
So, and it doesn't matter where you live at in the county, you're eligible to
vote for any of the magistrates.
And you can pick one magistrate per division.
So that would be five.
You have up to five that you can vote for.
That's going to be awesome.
That'll take, that'll take the load off of some of, you know, some of the
magistrates.
You know, it'll kind of distribute that out a little bit.
(23:49):
It's where you guys won't be so wore out all the time.
I think.
The rules keep changing.
They keep adding duties to the magistrate court.
You know, like before we never had to, we tried to always have a misdemeanor.
If someone doesn't bond out, we tried to have the hearing within 10 days, but
it wasn't an official requirement.
(24:12):
Well, now they want us to have a bond hearing within five days.
So, you know, we have our schedules set months in advance as far as trials.
You know, then we have felony prelims.
If they haven't bonded out, we have to have that hearing in 10 days.
If they have bonded out, we have to have it in 20 days.
Then we have personal safety order hearings.
(24:33):
Not only do we issue the temporary order, we have to have the hearings.
If the Humane Society sees someone's animal, they have, you know, they can
bring the ticket in and we have to set that hearing within five to 10 days.
So there's a lot of quick timelines that you know the last amendment is going to get added.
Pardon me.
(24:54):
That sounds like a lot.
Three courtrooms and four magistrates trying to find out.
That sounds like a lot of stuff that you keep track of.
We have officers standing around.
We can't do the arrangements because the magistrates are all tied up doing the hearings.
And then now they're trying to, and it's pretty, I've heard it's pretty much going to happen.
(25:15):
We have mental hygiene commissioners.
They're wanting the magistrates to take on more of a role for mental hygiene.
Thinking it would help the police.
But I'm like, when are we supposed to wait on the public?
I mean, I'm glad we got the fifth magistrate that would definitely help us, you know, do that.
But we have so many people appearing on tickets.
(25:37):
You know, people walking in need the protective orders.
And, you know, it's difficult.
The commissioners stay pretty busy.
The hygiene commissioners, they stay really, really busy.
And I know, well, now I'm not going to say that.
I was supposed to say something, but I'm not going to.
But anyway, go ahead, T. I'm sorry.
(25:59):
I was going to say, Heather, you've been in this for a long time.
Just to make things a little lighter.
I realize you can't name names or anything like that.
But what is the craziest thing you've seen in Magistrate Court?
Oh, to me personally, in the old building, the way the new building is set up,
(26:23):
we're not in with the dependents as much.
Even at night with the courtroom, there's a lot more space behind a desk area.
But in the old building, we actually used to do motion hearings and arraignments
and even some civil hearings in our offices.
The Magistrate came from their office.
(26:44):
There was a bench that they stood behind, and then our desks were at the end.
So there's like a little walkway with the doorway.
And they would bring the arraignments right there.
My desk's right there.
And when people would find out they weren't going to bond,
this one guy totally wigged out, started throwing himself up against the wall.
(27:05):
I had a big dent in my wall.
Threw himself across my desk.
I'd have to push, thank God for the wheels on our chairs, push myself back.
I learned to keep sharp objects like my pins and scissors on the credenza on this side,
not in the front of the desk.
Oh gosh, I've been told I was going to burn in hell that I worked for Satan,
the government's Satan.
(27:27):
I've been followed home.
When I first started and Abby was little, I went out to the fair, to the fairgrounds,
and these guys just started talking horrible and saying awful things.
And Brenda had just arraigned them.
Oh boy.
(27:48):
And before we were on call.
And of course I'm called out with her so they recognized me.
And I had Abby with me.
It was just the two of us because it was daytime.
It was night and I thought I would be safe.
And thank heavens a couple of the deputies, because I made a beeline for a deputy,
recognized me and I told them what was going on.
And they had to physically detain the guys and a deputy escort them to my car.
(28:11):
And they would not let them leave the fairgrounds until my car was out of sight.
And they told me, go.
What the heck?
I never went to the fairgrounds.
That is crazy.
I've been followed at City Park at events.
So I would never take Abby, just her and I.
I'd have to go in a group.
(28:33):
Yeah.
A funny story.
That's kind of sad.
A funny story.
We had a big dude over six feet.
Just a DUI.
Nothing major.
And when he found out his little like five foot nothing sister was there to bond him,
he turned white and he's like, do I have to post bond?
(28:58):
He did not want to go over there.
He was scared to death.
That's funny right there.
That's what kept me out of trouble as a child.
Because if the police would have caught me and brought me home, I would have been like,
no, take me to jail.
Please don't get me to my mother.
(29:19):
That's what I would have done.
I guarantee it.
My grandfather would have found out.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
That's okay.
That's okay.
One of the funniest stories was this guy.
I don't even remember now.
It was in the old building probably 15 years ago.
Probably DUI.
(29:40):
Got arrested.
And his wife and his girlfriend showed up to bond him.
And they fought over who was going to get to bond him.
And we thought it was going to turn physical.
I love it.
Yes.
And Brenda's like, have you looked at him?
He's not all that.
(30:01):
She's like totally calm down and everything.
We thought it was going to turn into a brawl there in the courtroom.
And he was going to get to bond him.
And he just stand there with a smirk on his face.
Stuff like that.
You just want to go.
And he just stood there with a smirk on his face.
And he just stood there with a smirk on his face.
Yeah.
(30:22):
Did I do that in public? I did.
Yeah.
But I'll never forget.
Edit.
14, 55, 16.
Okay.
Before we post it.
I'm telling you what that now anyway.
Yeah.
I worked there.
(30:44):
And I was in the same room with my friend.
And this guy was dressed up for Halloween.
And his friends dumped him out in front of the jail and he was
dressed up like a ballerina.
So that was fun to watch him.
She's qualified to run for Congress.
Now.
(31:05):
He was mortified.
I felt so bad for him.
I had to walk him over to the old building.
We weren't all in one facility.
So.
Wow.
That's something else.
Hair sticking up different colors.
There's a joke behind that.
(31:27):
There's a lot of funny stuff and a lot of sad stuff.
Do what?
You said he had different color hair sticking up.
And I said, there's a joke behind that, but I'm not going to say,
cause that.
Yeah.
I'll get, I'll get deep trouble for that one.
I'll get deep trouble for that one.
Hey, Jody.
Jody. Jody's with us tonight.
(31:48):
Is Jody with us? Jody's with us tonight.
How you doing?
How you feeling? He was a sick boy this week.
He missed work.
Hey, there's Abby. Hi, Abby.
Abby's on.
Thanks, Amanda. I'm not. My wife said, don't tell that joke.
(32:09):
She was in an emergency room.
She was in a emergency room.
I said, there's something I need to do.
I need to do something.
I was like, that would be bad.
Oh, good. He says he's feeling better.
Can you see the chat?
Yes. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know anybody.
I could see it. I thought it was just like.
A me thing.
You know that I'm seeing that I can read this.
(32:31):
So.
Jody.
You see what happened?
Mr. Perky was.
I look, Jody's my buddy.
Jody is the man, I'm sorry.
He was a sick feller.
I'm sorry, Jody is the man.
Dreda said it was bad.
Well, Jody, when Jody gets sick, Jody gets sick.
Yeah.
That's the thing about it.
When Jody gets sick, Jody gets sick.
(32:53):
Wow, wow.
His mom was magic strip for like ever, wow.
Everybody loves Joyce.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
So you're making a lot of appearances or anything, Heather,
or is there anything going on that you're doing
that people can come and see you?
(33:14):
Well.
And talk to you?
Well, this Thursday at Hungry Amigo at what time?
Six, at six o'clock, having another meet and greet.
If anyone wants to meet me and has any questions
or just to show their support,
they're more than welcome to come.
(33:35):
Marta at Hungry Amigo has been a friend of mine
and she's been very supportive and hosting it for me.
How can people, do you have a Facebook page
or how can people reach out to you?
I mean, just to know what you're,
a little bit more about you if they don't.
Besides following you home.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I used to get, I used to get threatened.
(33:58):
Watch the rear view mirror, go different ways home
and all that.
I used to get threatened at it when I worked at the jail.
You know.
Facebook at, I'm sorry.
I said, I used to, I used to get threatened
at when I worked at the jail.
They'd say, when I get out of here, what are you gonna do?
I'm gonna kill you.
You're gonna beat me up.
(34:19):
Anyway, go ahead.
Anyway, Heather, I'm sorry.
It was a squirrel moment.
That's okay.
It was a squirrel moment in my defense.
That's okay.
So, we'll have a link to your Facebook page
down below.
Yeah.
Down in the comment section.
Yeah, it's Heather Scott Campbell for Magistrate.
(34:39):
And.
And she's on Facebook people.
On my email.
She's on Facebook.
Yeah.
Heather Scott Campbell for Magistrate.
Yep.
All right.
My email's hsc for magistrate.com.
And don't let us catch.
At yahoo.com.
And don't let us catch you giving her a hard time.
That will not go over well.
Yeah.
We will not allow, we will not do that.
(34:59):
We're not.
Yeah.
Are we ready for the burning question, Bob?
It's not a boring place to work.
Uh oh.
T has a burning question.
Are we ready for the burning question?
Yes.
Heather, we've got the burning question.
I'm holding on tight.
Yes.
Okay.
So.
I'm ready.
You watched the bowl game with West Virginia.
(35:22):
Or did you?
Oh, did you?
Yeah.
Did you watch the, you did not.
I don't have cable.
Okay.
You know that, Theresa.
That cable is.
Well, we'll just say.
Two some years.
We'll just say West Virginia wise.
But anyway, it was the Duke's.
Okay.
It was the Duke's mayo bowl.
Okay.
Okay.
(35:42):
And during this whole time, throughout the whole show,
they were putting Duke's mayo on nachos.
They were putting Duke's mayo on different things.
But what took the cake was,
they put Duke's mayo on our sacred pepperoni rolls.
(36:06):
Boom.
Heard about that.
Now my question is to you, Heather,
would you eat mayonnaise on a pepperoni roll?
Absolutely not.
No.
No.
And my friend Heather Weigel Myers,
who's just said that I have her vote.
She makes delicious homemade pepperoni rolls.
(36:27):
Is that Heather Rooney?
To go from scratch.
She would kill me.
Is that Heather Rooney?
No.
Heather Rooney.
Is that Heather Rooney?
Hi, Heather Rooney.
Yep.
Aw, that's darling, guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
We went to high school together.
Been friends since high school.
I told this story once before we were talking about,
(36:48):
because every time we have an interview,
Theresa brings up the mayo on the pepperoni roll.
So I was at a conference in Wheeling.
Right, Mandiboo.
I was at a conference in, not Wheeling, Beckley.
He can't remember.
It was somewhere in the state.
It was somewhere in the state.
You were somewhere in the state of West Virginia.
Somewhere south of Cleveland.
(37:09):
Yeah.
Get off me, T.
Okay, gotcha.
You know I'm sensitive.
I'll get Brother Perky on you, Brother Perky.
He knows.
Wah!
So anyway, this guy was from California.
Our instructor was from California.
He was like the mega emergency management man
(37:29):
for the state of California.
And he went out to lunch with some of the people
and they went and stopped at Sheetz and Beckley.
And they said, you ought to try
one of our famous pepperoni rolls.
And he made the bad mistake of saying,
(37:51):
is that like a hot pocket?
Wah, wah, wah.
And he came back and told us,
and we're like, what time do you leave?
Right.
I mean.
So is there anything else you want to tell us
about yourself, Ms. Heather?
I mean, we've enjoyed this.
(38:12):
Well, I know we've kind of gotten off the,
but that's what we do here at the Funny Farm.
I just, I would appreciate the consideration.
I've put the time in.
I've been there 20, almost 22 years.
A new office, you know, to come up to speed
(38:33):
and be fully functioning and be a true asset
to the court and to the public.
It would be beneficial for the court
and for the public to have an experienced person in there.
Yes, I'd have to train my assistant,
but being an assistant myself,
I can already do a lot of the job with her,
(38:55):
for her or him until they're up to speed.
Teach them a little bit at a time or whatever.
So that would be beneficial,
not only to the court, but to the public.
My wife wants to know if you have a sign
that we can put in our yard.
I only have a couple left.
(39:16):
But yeah, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Well, because if not, she'll hit me with an iron.
That's what most of our problem is now, is that iron.
It's a hot topic in our house.
Go ahead.
Well, I guess, not about me personally,
(39:38):
but about the court, I guess to kind of defend us,
because a lot of people don't understand.
I know with setting bonds and with sentencing,
most sentences are worked out as plea agreements
between the prosecutors and the defense attorneys.
The magistrate can veto it basically and reject it
(39:58):
and tell them to go back to the table.
But when that happens, then a lot of times
people exercise the right for their trial,
which don't begrudge on that,
but that would really clog up the system
if we didn't do the plea agreements.
And with bonds, with sentences and with bonds,
there's guidelines that they have to follow.
(40:21):
They can, a magistrate cannot create
or they can only enforce policy.
They're sworn to uphold the codes.
But I know like my parents are always like,
well, why didn't they go to jail?
Why didn't they serve time in jail?
And I'm like, because the grim reality is
the counties would go broke if everyone went to jail.
(40:43):
So the magistrates face pressure every day
as far as public opinion, pleas in the prosecutors,
the defense attorneys, the county commissions
who want the regional jail bills kept low,
the Supreme Court sends us a weekly report
that they're supposed to go through and check
and make sure that we don't miss anyone,
that we're sending our hearings the way we should
(41:05):
and to try to keep the costs down.
But magistrates also gotta keep an eye,
and they do keep an eye on public safety,
wanting to do the best they can that way.
But a lot of times they're hamstring.
They're tied with what the code says they're allowed to do,
(41:25):
maximum and minimum penalties are set forth in the code
and they have to work within those guidelines,
maximum and minimum bonds, depending on the fine
and the charge are within the code.
So, you know.
One thing to cross my mug more than anything.
I wish there was more public awareness
about that kind of thing, that the magistrates
get blamed for a lot of things that are actually
(41:47):
not within their total control by any means.
And more and more of the magistrates' autonomy
is getting taken away.
They're wanting to standardize and bonds
and certain sentences and stuff to where a magistrate
right now can have more of like,
(42:08):
okay, yes, the two crimes are the same,
but the individuals are different.
You've got one individual that's never been in trouble
and you've got another individual who's habitual about it.
Do you give them the same sentence or the same bond?
Especially bonds, you know.
You've got someone who bitchily misses court
and never shows up.
(42:28):
You've got another person that's never been in trouble
before, do you give them the benefit of the doubt?
And right now, magistrates can do that more,
but more changes are coming down the pike
or they're trying to make changes to take a lot of that
away from magistrates.
So I think that's-
One thing that thoroughly crossed my mug though
is the Facebook follies is what I call them.
(42:51):
They get on there and I mean, I've been that way
for eight years on city council
and I know what you guys are going through.
City council gets blamed for things
that happen in accounting.
And we don't have a dog in the race.
And that's how you guys, you guys have to do what you have
to do, the magistrates have to do what they have to do.
And people don't-
(43:11):
They have rules they have to follow.
Exactly, and people don't understand that,
but they get on there.
I can't believe they did that.
Well then read up on it.
Learn about what's going on.
I mean, you know-
A lot of it is that people complain that,
well, they just arrested them.
And before the reports even written,
they're back out on the street
(43:31):
and the magistrate gets the blame for that.
And you hear it all the time.
Same with our police officers.
I mean, it just absolutely, just irritates me all to death
when they start in on things they know absolutely nothing
about with the court, with our police officers, with 911.
(43:52):
And I'm like you, Heather.
I mean, everything I think that there needs to be,
and I've been trying to do it,
but they're not gonna do it at 911, is have a weekly forum.
Hey, why do you guys do what you do?
Aaron started that.
Aaron started that with WTAP on daybreak.
And when he got sick with his foot and everything,
(44:13):
he said, told me now that he said,
I have to get back into it.
And I wanna start bringing it back up.
It's more like a, why do we do what we do thing?
And that, and I've been trying to get them
to put something like every Sunday, 911 moment
or something like that, or why we do what we do
or something that we can, and go ahead, I'm done.
(44:37):
No, I was just saying, that's a great idea.
As Teresa knows, we get calls all the time
for circuit court, for family court, for probate court,
for even the county courthouse,
people saying they wanna get married
or they're getting divorced or they need a death certificate
and they don't understand which court,
(44:59):
even if we got different representatives from all of that,
here's the services we provide
to better educate the public would be wonderful.
I think so.
I think so.
Because that's frustrating for them
to have to feel like they're getting tossed around,
like, oh, well, they didn't really wanna help me.
They just pawned me off on someone else.
And I can't help you, our computers aren't linked.
I'm not trained for that, you know what I mean?
(45:20):
Because it's frustrating when you're trying to get help
and someone's giving you a different number
and that person gives you a different number,
you know what I mean?
It's almost like every department.
I've always wished there was a better way.
It's almost like every agency, every department
needs a public information officer,
somebody to be the cheerleader.
(45:40):
Say, hey, look, here's what we did right,
here's what we did wrong, we're gonna fix that.
And let the, keep the public in the link.
Yep. Yep.
Tia, do you have any other questions for Ms. Heather?
Well, Heather, now I'm going blank.
Well, I mean-
(46:03):
Lord, I don't believe that, not at all.
Not to put you on the spot, Teresa,
but you worked with me for a lot of years.
You know, I was one of the first ones in
and one of the last ones out of.
I'm a hard worker
and I would continue to work hard for
the citizens of Wood County as the magistrate.
I'm dedicated and loyal.
(46:25):
That's awesome.
I just would appreciate the opportunity.
Well, absolutely.
I usually get there by the hour ahead
and stay there after five.
She did too, she should get there late,
or stay there late, I mean, we both put in lots of work.
I get there late, yeah.
Lee Burley, that's me, get there late and leave early.
(46:48):
Absolutely, we appreciate you and Abby being on.
So, you know, this is, you know, I tell everybody,
this is a very important election coming up
and you need to pick the person who you believe
absolutely will do the very best job.
(47:10):
I mean, we've had congressional candidates on the Bobcast,
gubernatorial, senatorial, attorney generals,
stuff like that.
Pick the very best one that you think's
absolutely gonna do the job.
And it doesn't make a difference whether it's city council
on up, magistrate court, the very important spot
(47:32):
in the judicial system.
Make sure, I keep telling her if it was a job interview,
she is as much calling as you're interviewing.
God love Abby, she thinks a lot of you.
You probably wanted me to say that
and I wasn't thinking of that.
I just, I know I'm not gonna make promises I cannot keep
that are beyond my control as a magistrate.
(47:53):
Any changes to magistrate court have to be done
through the legislature and the Supreme Court
to issue the rules that we have to follow.
Now, just like a regular citizen,
you have the right to contact those people
and express yourself and the changes
and concerns that you have.
But when you're in the thick of it,
(48:13):
when you're in the middle of the trial or the sentencing,
you're in the middle of an arraignment
and setting the bond, you are sworn as a magistrate
to uphold what is already there.
And you don't have the authority or autonomy
to just cowboy it up and go road.
I mean, you can try it, but you get in trouble for it.
You know, they have rules that have to follow.
(48:35):
We have a question here from Mr. Jeff Klein.
He wants to know if you've seen a lot of people
that has had drug abuse problems
and has used the IDD defense.
What's the IDD defense?
(48:55):
I don't-
I'm not sure you have.
I didn't do it.
I didn't do it?
Okay, thank you.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Let me see if I'm right.
I'm guessing, I'm guessing here.
Jeff, is that what it is?
I didn't do it defense?
Come on, Jeff, cough it up.
Intellectual disabilities.
(49:19):
Oh, I was far off.
Intellectual disabilities.
Not exactly like that.
Of course they allege it's not theirs,
that they don't know how it got there.
Or, you know-
My friend borrowed my pants.
Some medications they say is theirs,
they just don't have it in their prescription bottle
(49:40):
like you're supposed to.
Some of them, you know, are alleging
that they need it to self-medicate,
that they can't afford the medicines
or they don't like how the prescribed medicines
make them feel.
Our biggest one is the younger generation
(50:01):
just don't understand that marijuana is illegal
in West Virginia.
It's just pot, you know.
Like, still right now against the wall,
even though, you know.
Okay, Rick, we'll get to that momentarily.
On the new design for City Park Center,
is there a floor plan that could be posted?
It looks outstanding.
(50:21):
I think they're getting ready to do that, Rick.
I think, I know they, we had a meeting,
I'm sorry Heather, we had a meeting Thursday,
and I think they're getting ready to start.
Because we're hoping, and lucky me,
I am on the committee to help design the building.
(50:43):
So, I'm feeling pretty good about that.
But yeah, I'm sure there is,
I'm sure that they're gonna be doing that very soon,
and if not, and we can see if we can figure out
a way to get you a copy of it.
Because it is an amazing, it's gonna be an amazing place.
All right, so Heather, we're gonna let you go.
If you'd like to wanna hang out.
(51:04):
Can I just say one more thing
as far as the intellectual disabilities?
It's your show.
Yes ma'am.
Okay, there is what's called
mental competency examination that a defense attorney,
if they want to, as far as intellectual disabilities,
have a person evaluated to see if they were competent
(51:25):
enough to stay in trial.
So, there is that, but that's not handled
at the time of arraignment.
That's once the case is before a magistrate,
and they have counsel appointed,
then that can be filed, and that goes through circuit court,
and we have to, everything stayed until circuit court,
and they have their evaluation through a mental facility
(51:46):
to see if they were competent enough to stay in trial.
But okay, I'll let you go.
Thank you for having me.
I greatly appreciate it.
No, thank you for being here.
We welcome you anytime.
Thank you.
And we wish you nothing but the very best, and good luck.
And- Thank you, I appreciate it.
I'm sure I'll be talking to you every once in a while,
when you call up to say,
(52:08):
oh, this is Heather from Magistrate's Office,
same with Mary Ann.
Mary Ann calls quite a lot.
Yeah, Heather DB.
So, but if you, you know, we appreciate you being on,
and we appreciate you letting everybody know,
because I really, honest to God,
don't think a lot of people realize
what the actual job of the magistrate court is,
(52:31):
but you pretty much explained a lot of it tonight.
And so I'm hoping that-
It's gonna take a lot more time to go into more detail.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, unfortunately, until I retire in a few months,
the Bobcast is gonna go for two days a week,
thanks to Rick,
and after I retire.
(52:52):
And that's gonna be probably August 1st.
I was waiting until December,
but I'm gonna do it August 1st for other reasons
that I will not get into,
but I'm gonna do that.
And I've been with the county,
I've been with the county 20 years.
So I figure that's, you know, I'm gonna retire.
And I'm only 18, so that's pretty good.
(53:13):
And that's pretty good.
Well, I wish you well,
and thank you for your service to our county
as a 911 dispatcher in on city council.
But I know the dispatch job,
I don't envy you guys at all.
I don't know how you do your job.
It's a lot more stressful than people give you credit for,
(53:35):
and we appreciate all that you all do
to serve the community.
Well, if you ever get a chance,
just sit and talk with Jodi.
Jodi was there a long time and-
Joe Cool.
And I've talked to Teresa about it.
Joe Cool, Teresa, my buddy T.
And yeah-
I've been everywhere, man.
I've been everywhere.
That's a song.
I'm gonna write a song about that.
(53:56):
Let me just say, no.
So, all right, Heather, it's been real fun.
We'll do it again.
And again, we thank Abby for the IT expertise
to get you online here.
Definitely.
She said you're the best mom.
Aw.
It's right there.
She's the best daughter.
She's getting married May 4th.
Wow, congratulations.
(54:17):
Wow, Abby.
May the 4th be with her.
Yeah.
Way to go.
Yeah.
I plan on getting married one day.
Don't tell your wife.
Well, early voting starts May 1st,
and the election's May 14th,
and we don't go to November,
so it's your one shot to vote for the magistrate race.
And I hope your friends and family
(54:39):
and the public who've watched have learned more about me
and about my district court
and will consider me when they're voting.
Well, just let everybody know that-
If your candidate doesn't win,
then shut up if you didn't vote.
Yeah.
But let everybody know that we are live
on Facebook and YouTube,
(55:01):
and afterwards where the audio version is available
wherever you get your podcasts at,
iHeart, Spotify, whatever, all of them, Rumble, everything.
So again, Heather, it's been a pleasure.
Everything that you told us about you
(55:22):
will be on our website.
Thank you.
And so by all means, you're welcome to-
It looks like Amanda says,
when is the date?
May 1st, early voting starts,
and the election itself is May 14th.
Sorry, there was a question in there.
Oh, that's okay.
No, no, that's my wife.
She's sitting like right over there.
(55:44):
Right, right over there.
It's like texting from across the room.
Right over there.
And put the chair down, I'm just joking.
Yeah.
Bye, Heather.
Bye-bye, thank you.
Bye, Heather.
We'll have a good evening.
Bye, Heather.
Oh, that's funny as heck.
That was pretty fun.
(56:05):
Oh yeah, yeah.
She's a pretty cool-
She's a nice lady.
Pretty cool.
Nice lady, I like her.
Hey, I gotta give a shout out to my former boss,
Jody Perkey, for showing up there tonight.
The man.
Way to go, Jody.
The man, the myth, Jody Perkey.
Like to know Jody's out there watching,
and you know if Jody's there, Dread is with her.
Hey, hey.
Bob says hi.
(56:25):
Hey, he's a dreader too.
But I gotta say something real quick.
Back to the new pavilion
that's gonna be put over in the new city,
over to City Park.
It's an amazing, amazing building.
I didn't have time to do it tonight,
(56:46):
but I've got pictures I'm gonna send Rick.
And probably next week when we have Heather's
on next week, right?
Mary Ann.
What'd I say, Heather?
Mary Ann.
Mary Ann, yeah.
And so Mary Ann, so next week we'll have,
if you haven't seen it already, it's all over Facebook.
The new pictures of the pavilion,
(57:07):
it's just going to be an amazing, an amazing building.
It is just, it's beautiful.
From the outside, and for those of you who are,
who sit back and say, oh my god, it's gonna be gaudy.
No, it's not.
It's not gonna mess up any parking.
We're gonna have just as much as we had then,
(57:29):
probably a few more,
because we figured out how we can do that.
And so just give it a chance.
I mean, like I told the mayor the other day,
and he quoted me on it,
this pavilion we have now served its generation as well.
Now it's time for this generation to have their building.
(57:54):
So, just give it a chance.
Don't, it's like any other thing,
and John Reed and I talk a lot about this,
like PHS, where PHS was built,
Mr. Van Dievender, he caught all kinds of straight up heck.
Why would you put a school on a swamp?
(58:14):
Well, now people love PHS,
and that's the same with the city park.
Back when the city park was first started,
everybody's like, why would you put a park that big
where only the rich people can get to it?
It's ridiculous.
And now look how many people,
it's not for the rich people, it's for everybody.
(58:36):
Give the pavilion a chance.
It's not a civic center.
The civic center's 400,000 people,
the civic center's 400,000 square feet,
and our new beautiful pavilion is 47,000 square feet.
So, the big difference between a civic center
and a pavilion.
(58:58):
And it's gonna have just amazing stuff
that once it starts, everybody who's against it will say,
what a great idea.
And I'm honest to God,
I feel like I gotta be a part of helping plan that building.
I mean, the mayor, God love the mayor,
he said, I want Councilman Mercer on the committee.
(59:21):
And that made me feel really good.
Somebody wanted you, Bob.
Imagine that.
Now I got the vapors again.
So, we have a few announcements
to make, Parkinsburg Police Department's getting ready
to hire, they're giving their tests coming up here.
(59:41):
And I think Rick's, yes.
Saturday, June 15th at 10 a.m.
in the Parkinsburg Municipal Building, second floor.
There's all the information that'll be on the web,
Bob Cast site.
So, and who else, Rick, you said Vienna?
I didn't see Vienna.
(01:00:03):
Who'd you tell me?
No, Orchard was with all of us.
Oh, I thought you said, I'm sorry.
I thought you, I misunderstood what you said.
Anybody have any birthdays they wanna bring up, T?
Birthdays.
Anniversaries, bar mitzvahs.
Anniversary bar mitzvahs.
(01:00:24):
I don't know.
I would like to say something there, Bob.
You say what you're showing me.
Your name's first, okay, T.
I'm gonna back you for a moment
and say to all these people out here
that wanna be negative and be keyboard warriors,
and then they have something to say,
(01:00:46):
you know, get involved if you don't like it.
If you don't like what's going on, get involved.
It's simple.
Exactly.
That is fact.
That is fact because most generally,
I mean, you know, and I've said this before, T,
one of the most important things that we do is the budget.
(01:01:06):
Every year.
Big, big money.
That many people show up
and city council gets hammered for it.
Remember everybody, Bob Mercer for Parkersburg
or for Wood County Board of Education.
My name's the last one on the ballot because,
well, that's just what we want.
(01:01:27):
The Bible says the last should be first, so.
Yeah, but that's just the way they wanted it.
They said,
because they kept spelling my name backwards
and that upset me, so.
Anyway, does anybody have anything they wanna say
before we leave?
Yep, he had one she wanted to talk about.
Yeah, I've got one here.
Believe it or not, people, we've got Carrie the musical
(01:01:50):
that is going to be on the Sternwheeler.
The dates are on the screen.
We'll have it up for you.
And yes, you heard that right.
It is Carrie the musical on the Sternwheeler.
And if that is something that you are interested in,
you're gonna wanna get your tickets
because I hear they're selling fast already.
(01:02:11):
So that's Carrie the musical.
I just can't imagine how that would work.
Yeah.
That's why you need a ticket, Bob.
Just see.
I'm gonna have to get a ticket
to find out how they're gonna pull off Carrie the musical.
I mean, that woman scared the holy snot out of me.
Now she goes sing to me.
(01:02:32):
Yeah.
Sing to you about pig blood in her hair.
All right.
Yeah, one more, one more.
One more, one more.
Let's not let the people go by.
I knew that I did.
Yes.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Guess what, people?
We need help.
Yeah, we need help.
Really, really, really.
So the Soapbox Derby, we're trying very hard.
(01:02:52):
Rick and I have been working on this for a long time.
We appreciate that.
We appreciate the, you're welcome, Heather.
But the Soapbox Derby,
we're trying very hard to raise funds to get it going.
We're gonna work on something with the homecoming,
(01:03:13):
I think that we'll see,
but we really need your help.
And we have a PayPal page on our Facebook,
a PayPal link.
Yeah, a link.
On our page.
Yes.
And so, if you can help us, fine.
We still need volunteers.
(01:03:34):
We need people who, to be on the board.
We need a treasurer who's familiar
with the 501c3 rules and regulations.
It's a pretty difficult situation, I think, for me.
Rick's SMRT, so he knows what he's doing.
So, anything, T?
I need to just support the Humane Society,
(01:03:56):
as always, people.
Have those pets spayed and neutered,
and they always need help.
Don't ever think they don't.
Rick?
That's it for me.
Well, all right.
We're gonna close out tonight.
We thank you, everybody who tuned in.
We thank Heather Campbell again.
And we have to give a shout out to Abby.
(01:04:17):
She'll get upset.
Yeah, Abby!
We'll never hear the end of it.
She's a bitch.
She's a bitch.
You give girl five minutes of fame,
and it's just not the same.
Okay?
So, we appreciate you, Heather, being on.
And we wish you very well.
We hope you do very well.
If anybody, I can't read.
(01:04:38):
What's that say?
What did Abby say?
Thank you.
Oh, okay.
The nice girl she is, she said thank you.
Instead of, I will kill you!
So, just next week we have Marianne.
What's Marianne's last name?
I'm sorry.
I knew that.
(01:05:00):
I'm sorry, Marianne.
We have Marianne Copeland on.
Marianne's also with the magistrate's office right now,
and she's running for magistrate.
So, we're gonna have her on,
and terrorize her like we did Heather.
And so, we appreciate everybody.
If you have any birthdays, anniversaries, comments,
(01:05:21):
if you wanna come on and talk to us,
come on and talk to us, we'll put you on.
We don't care.
We're like that.
And we love you guys very much,
and we look forward to next week.
T, thank you for taking over today.
Thank you, Paul.
Rick. Thank you, Rick.
Thank you for being Rick.
For being me.
For just being Rick.
Just a great guy.
(01:05:41):
That's it, that's it.
That's me.
All right, somebody give me 20 bucks, hurry.
Yeah, okay.
The check's in the mail.
Yeah.
All right, guys, take care.
We'll see you later, and take care of yourselves, okay?
Yep, good night.
Thank you guys.
We'll get Saturday evening, everybody.
(00:21):
It's 6 30 on the East Coast, 3 30 on the West Coast, which means only one thing.
It's time for the Bobcast.
With me as always out there in beautiful downtown Murphy town, Rick Sawyer.
And over in our little own spot of the world over on North End of Parker Brook, because
that's where we have to keep her.
(00:44):
Tonight everybody we're continuing.
Calm down, it's just me.
Hey, yeah, yeah.
Now I lost my thought.
You might have ice cream.
Tonight we're continuing our election cycle.
(01:08):
And tonight we're going to have division five candidate for Wood County Magistrate Heather
Campbell.
She is going to tell us a little bit about the Magistrates Office.
She's been in the Magistrates Office for a while, but she'll explain all that.
So tonight we're going to mix it up a little bit because T is going to be in charge.
(01:31):
Why?
Because she said if we didn't, if she wasn't in charge, Rick and I would live to regret
it.
So it's scary because she knows what I'll ask.
So that's why Heather asked.
(01:53):
And just real quick before we get started with Heather, we have to give kudos to Abby.
Yes.
Hey, Abby.
Hey, Abby.
Because Abby got her mom on.
Look at Abby.
Abby.
She's my tech guru.
Abby.
Where's she at?
Abby, is the camera ready?
(02:17):
Yes, Abby.
There she is.
We had to give kudos for getting your mom on camera.
Because if not, we'd have just been talking to ourselves, which has been known to happen
before.
We actually said one night.
As long as you don't answer yourself.
Yeah.
Oh, is that a bad thing?
No, if you see me walking down the street talking to myself, just understand I'm self-employed.
(02:42):
I'm having a staff meeting.
You're looking for good things to do, aren't you, Rick?
That's right.
That's right.
Hey, join us tonight.
You know how to do it.
We're on chat.
We're live on YouTube.
We're live on Facebook.
Chat us, send us a message.
If you have any questions for Heather or if you just want to give Abby an attaboy, that's
(03:03):
fine too.
And she's let me use her laptop.
Wow.
Well, she's the bomb.
Yeah, she is.
And again, she's going to be in charge.
So without further ado, I'm going to introduce you to Heather Campbell, division five, Magisterial
(03:24):
candidate for Wood County, West Virginia.
And we'll go from there.
If you would just introduce yourself to everybody.
Tell us, you know, a little bit about you and what's going on.
Then Teresa will take over as always.
Sorry.
That's okay.
My name is Heather Scott Campbell on the ballot.
(03:45):
Scott was my maiden name and I graduated from Parkersburg South High School and I graduated
from WVU Parkersburg with an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree in business.
And I've been a magistrate assistant at Wood County Magistrate Court for Brenda K. Marshall
for almost 22 years.
(04:07):
So got a lot of court experience in all of the areas of the court.
And I
And what made you decide to run?
Pardon me?
What?
What made you decide to run for Magistrate Heather after being a Magistrate Assistant
for 22 years?
Well, the plan has always been to run once Brenda retired.
(04:30):
Don't believe in biting the hand that's fed me all these years.
And before they went to the way they do the elections now, it was a free for all.
So if you threw your hat in the ring, you ran against all the magistrates.
And the way they have it now where we have the divisions, you would pick a candidate
to run against.
So I'd have to pick an incumbent to run against, which doesn't make for the most pleasant work
(04:54):
environment for one.
So this is a whole new opportunity.
It's a whole new division, not running against any incumbent, you know.
And I was a single mom raising Abby.
And it was scary to the thought that if I didn't get elected, I wouldn't have a job.
And I wanted to focus on raising her.
(05:16):
And with a magistrate, you have to be on call when you're well, as an assistant, I'm on
call too.
But the magistrates get called out for a lot more than the assistants do.
They're called out multiple times at night for search warrants, for CPS ratifications.
The assistants get called out to do protective orders with the magistrates.
But you know, I couldn't leave Abby home alone to run down to the office and stuff when she
(05:38):
was little.
So she's grown.
Well, can you by myself and got the time to do it?
Can you explain because I don't know if a lot of people know this, but there were four
magistrates and now we've got this fifth position.
Can you explain to our audience how this fifth position came along?
(06:02):
Thank you.
Well, the our legislators gave us the fifth one.
They did a survey of and looked at all the stats of the counties used to how many magistrates
a county got was based on the population only.
And they've changed it towards not only population, they now look at the caseload with us being
(06:22):
a border county with Ohio.
You know, we get a lot of stuff there and we're surrounded by a lot of rural counties
that their people come down here to socialize or and stuff.
And now we have the rehab facilities that the smaller counties are sending their people
down here for rehab.
And then they're stuck here when they are either done or they leave early and their
(06:44):
families won't come pick them up.
So then we have a lot of homeless and we have a lot of crime as a result of that.
So our numbers have shot up.
That's not the only factors, but you know, just as you guys know, the numbers have increased
every year.
So we qualified to have an extra magistrate.
(07:05):
So it's a brand new position.
It's we're not running against any of the incumbents.
We actually got an extra assistant to work the intake window to where we actually get
to be in our offices more, so that's been a big help.
I'll have to say that's a blessing.
Oh my gosh.
(07:25):
When you spend 40 percent of your time not in it, you're up at the window.
You know, you take care of your work up there to try to get something done.
But some days the windows are so busy you can't even touch your office stuff.
So that's true.
So that was an experience for years.
Just real quick, Heather, is all the magistrates up for reelection this year?
(07:50):
Yes, all of them are up for reelection.
The incumbents are running unopposed.
But they're running unopposed.
So we're not running against any of them.
We're a separate division.
And division is different than district.
I've had a lot of people come up and ask me, you know, well, I can't vote for you because
(08:11):
I live in Monroe Wells or I live in Southside.
And I'm like, it doesn't matter.
It's countywide.
And our election is done in May.
We don't go through to November.
So May is the only opportunity that someone has to vote for one of the candidates or for
any of the magistrate candidates.
Now usually, correct me if I'm wrong here, Heather, usually when you go into the ballot
(08:36):
box and you're choosing who you want to run, you could pick up to four people before.
So now that you're there, you can do five.
Is that correct?
One per division.
Right.
One per division.
So you can vote for all all four of the incumbents if you want to cast a vote for them.
(08:57):
And then you have a fifth vote.
And within the division five race, there's six candidates and you can only pick one candidate
out of division five to vote for.
But you have five.
I was going to ask you how many were running.
Yeah.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you could.
It seems to be a crowded field.
(09:18):
I mean, it is.
It is.
Yeah.
It's a new field.
They don't have to run against an incumbent.
And so, yeah, a lot of people are taking advantage of the opportunity.
So Wood County is very lucky to have this many people step forward to serve the community.
That's what they did with the council.
Go ahead.
I was just saying that's another reason why I decided to run to.
(09:42):
I wasn't running against an incumbent.
I've always wanted to step up and have more of a voice and serve in the community and
have a bigger role in helping our community.
Just the timing.
Raising my daughter and everything wasn't right.
And I feel now is a better time for me to be able to do that.
(10:03):
So I've got a question for you.
Yes.
Now, you've been in the court system for going on 22 years.
So you probably know civil and criminal law better than most citizens, probably better
than half the cops.
But once elected, do you have to go to magistrate school and learn specific details about the
(10:29):
job or how does that work?
There is training for new magistrates, yes.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They'll be training for new magistrates.
They go down to Charleston.
Even new assistants receive training.
So when I started, I started as a temp and I was handed a big red manual and they didn't
(10:51):
send anyone from Charleston to train me because I was going to be covering someone's maternity
leave.
And then when Brenda got elected, I had some people contact me at the court and said, hey,
you know, she's looking for an assistant.
You did a great job.
You know, send her your resume.
(11:11):
So I sent her my resume and she interviewed me and hired me on the spot.
So I've been with her for 22 years.
That's great.
So just out of curiosity, the magistrate court is like a lower level court.
(11:32):
We handle as far as sentencing, we handle any misdemeanor crimes, which are crimes that
have a jail sentence of a year or less.
OK.
As far as felonies, we can do the warrants, issue warrants for a felony warrant.
We can do the felony arraignment and we have the probable cause hearing called a felony
preliminary hearing if the defendant exercises that right and to determine if there's enough
(12:00):
evidence for it to go over to probable cause for it to go over to circuit court.
But we can't do any sentencing on felonies.
If they work out a plea over in circuit court and they want us to take the plea, that means
they they're pleading it down to a misdemeanor for us to do it.
And we handle small claims, civil court for up to ten thousand.
(12:23):
We don't do like land contracts or anything like that.
That would be circuit court.
We handle personal safety order hearings.
You know, we issue the orders and also have the hearings with domestic violence protective
orders.
We do a temporary order and we set that up for family court to hear.
They have jurisdiction over those for to extend it longer.
(12:46):
Ours is only an authority until they have the family court hearing.
So and the see, gosh, like I said, domestic violence, protective orders, personal safety
orders, search warrants, warrants, evictions, landlord tenant hearings, which are similar.
(13:06):
But different than evictions.
So we do a lot.
All the tickets for the police, all the tickets for the sheriff's departments, all the city
agencies can issue tickets through our court or through their municipal court.
So we do a lot.
Basically, basically every crime that happens in Wood County, it's a crime that happens
(13:33):
in Wood County starts in magistrate court.
Pretty much.
Pretty much.
Now, some some felonies don't come through us.
They can do a direct indictment through circuit court, you know, and take it straight to a
grand jury.
But a vast majority, yes, start off with us.
(13:54):
They're either caught in the act or a warrant has been issued.
They've been picked up on the warrant and we handle the arraignment.
We're the beginning point for a lot of things for circuit court and family court.
Does magistrate have the authority to dismiss it?
Like if somebody they would bring?
No, no, I'm talking about like a misdemeanor.
(14:17):
I mean, if they come before the magistrate, can you guys say, well, you know, there's
really not enough evidence or whatever.
Is that anything that you guys, that magistrates do?
I'm just curious.
Not the way you're saying.
When an officer brings forth a criminal complaint and asks for a warrant, the magistrate
reviews the description of why the officer wants the warrant and there's certain
(14:42):
criteria for each charge that has to be met.
And if the magistrate feels that there's enough, if the description that the
officer's provided meets the criteria, the code under that charge, he's wanting to
charge the person with, then they can grant it.
If they feel like, you know, you haven't given enough information, then they can
(15:05):
deny it and it won't even be issued.
So that doesn't mean that.
I think that's probably what I was meaning, you know, as far as.
Yeah, yeah.
If there were, you know.
Yeah, once I get a trial, you know, the magistrate can rule to dismiss after both
sides are given the opportunity to present their evidence and testimony in
(15:26):
their case.
OK.
And that, yeah, they can they can deny issuing a warrant if they don't feel that
enough information has been provided in the complaint.
Now, magistrate courts at open court.
So for most cases, the public can come in and observe.
Most. Yes.
Personal safety order hearings.
(15:48):
Those are confidential.
We don't even let the, you know, friends and family go in.
Right.
And that's the party.
Both parties agree to it.
And, you know, any witnesses have to sit out in the lobby, they are called in to
testify and then they have to get back out.
They can't.
But pretty much everything else.
Now, there's certain exceptions.
(16:10):
If a juvenile is testifying or something, if a motion has been made to make it
private why they testify, you know, there's things that can be done.
But yeah, it's public proceedings.
As long as we have room in the courtroom.
As long as we have enough seats.
Exactly.
Exactly.
(16:31):
So there's three.
There's three courtrooms.
So how's this going to play out with five magistrates?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As you know, it's a scheduling nightmare for magistrates in three courtrooms.
So they are going to convert.
Do you know the off the original officers room up front at the lobby?
(16:54):
Yeah.
Remember that?
Yes, I do.
They're they're going to I don't know if they're extending it out in the lobby.
I don't think so.
I think they're going to go into our file room and have a back entrance in for
the magicians to have a secure way in and out.
And it's going to be like a little rain.
We can't even call it a corporate.
(17:16):
It doesn't need to say guidelines to be called.
But it'll be like in.
We can go in and talk to someone about that needs a safety order or a protective
order.
It'll be for tickets and things like that.
What?
And their tickets.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(17:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So about how much of a caseload does Wood County have for felonies and
misdemeanors a year?
Would you say?
Well, it's hard to say because under the old computer system,
each charge had its own case number.
(17:58):
Once we went with you, J.A. 2015, it looked like our numbers went down because
you could put multiple charges under one case number.
But the state has a way to look at the statistics that of each charge that
have.
So I think we usually have a couple thousand civil's couple thousand
(18:25):
misdemeanors.
Close to.
You know, felonies are going up.
Those have been the biggest increase, I think, is the felonies.
Yeah.
And there's multiple charges within those numbers.
(18:47):
You know, a couple thousand misdemeanors.
That doesn't sound bad.
Well, you know, one misdemeanor case can literally have five charges.
You know, or more.
You had this one case that had cruelty animals and within that cruelty to
animals, there was like over 20 counts of cruelty to animals.
So as an assistant, Teresa knows, you had to enter that disposition in for
(19:11):
each charge.
And they have to plead to each charge, right?
Yeah.
So the case numbers are kind of misleading.
It doesn't look as bad or sound as bad, but you dig a little deeper and find
out how many charges are within there.
It's a lot more.
Yes.
Some of them are totally confusing.
(19:34):
When I, you know, it's totally, some of them are totally.
And you're like, how did that happen?
But it was explained to me how some of the things happen.
So, but anyway, if so, you guys do.
You guys rotate.
You guys rotate, you guys rotate.
So what kind of rotation schedule is there?
I mean, is what as a magistrate on call, like two weekends or one weekend a
(19:56):
month or.
Well, it depends on how many weeks are in a month.
So right now it's every, you know, there's four of us, you know, four offices.
So it's every fourth week, your own call for basically it works out to your own
call seven days, but leading up to that call, you work your five day shift.
So you end up working 11 days in a row, seven of them on call and.
(20:19):
Magistrate Marshall and I do the old schedule where I go out at night every
night with my magistrate.
So seven of them are split shift.
You come in at noon, work the afternoon, go home for a little bit.
Then you have to come back out at night and do the arrangements.
And of course we do Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning,
Sunday night.
So you end up doing once a month, 11 days in a row, seven of them split shift.
(20:44):
So we're pretty tired by Thursday night.
Yeah.
Wow.
And I don't think people realize.
Five weeks.
So we won't have to be on call quite as often.
So that'll be nice.
And I don't think people realize it, but even though it's Christmas, 10 o'clock
Christmas Eve, Christmas night, there's Madison report.
(21:06):
I was on call for.
I was on call for.
You are there.
And Easter is not a recognized holiday.
So I got no comp time for that.
Yep.
Brendan, I got caught out Easter morning and Easter night.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know that it stays pretty busy.
I know we had nine one one deal with magistrate's office quite a lot, you
(21:31):
know, as far as.
The police are concerned, they're not going to be able to get a plea.
So I don't think people need, they're having a DV, a PPO or a.
What I want to call it.
We.
Where they were there.
They have to, the officer has to come back and reach.
(21:53):
Oh, they got a process.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some colonies are they work out a plea agreement at my district court before
it even goes over to circuit court.
So when that happens, or even if they send it back over from circuit court
for us to take the plea.
A whole new CDR is what it's called court disposition reporting.
(22:18):
So it goes to the.
Oh, NCIS.
No, that's NCIC.
Blanking out, you know what I'm.
Where there's a record of when the police want to do a check, whether
someone's been.
Yeah, thank you.
We do a triple.
We do a triple.
I.
(22:39):
Triple I.
You get a term in your head.
I'm like, I know that's wrong.
But yeah, that's me.
I had a squirrel moment on reprocess.
I just did it.
I just, I just sent an officer over today to do that.
Or yesterday.
I'm sorry.
I just sent an officer over yesterday and I knew what I wanted to say, but
that squirrels like shiny thing.
Quiet.
Yeah, because the original CDR for the felony, we've got to mark that
(23:03):
dismissed, you know, so they have to do a new CDR for the misdemeanor.
Because now Heather, who, who gets to vote for you?
Anybody in the mail.
It's a nonpartisan race.
So it doesn't matter what political party that you're registered in.
You can vote for any of the magistrates.
(23:27):
So, and it doesn't matter where you live at in the county, you're eligible to
vote for any of the magistrates.
And you can pick one magistrate per division.
So that would be five.
You have up to five that you can vote for.
That's going to be awesome.
That'll take, that'll take the load off of some of, you know, some of the
magistrates.
You know, it'll kind of distribute that out a little bit.
(23:49):
It's where you guys won't be so wore out all the time.
I think.
The rules keep changing.
They keep adding duties to the magistrate court.
You know, like before we never had to, we tried to always have a misdemeanor.
If someone doesn't bond out, we tried to have the hearing within 10 days, but
it wasn't an official requirement.
(24:12):
Well, now they want us to have a bond hearing within five days.
So, you know, we have our schedules set months in advance as far as trials.
You know, then we have felony prelims.
If they haven't bonded out, we have to have that hearing in 10 days.
If they have bonded out, we have to have it in 20 days.
Then we have personal safety order hearings.
(24:33):
Not only do we issue the temporary order, we have to have the hearings.
If the Humane Society sees someone's animal, they have, you know, they can
bring the ticket in and we have to set that hearing within five to 10 days.
So there's a lot of quick timelines that you know the last amendment is going to get added.
Pardon me.
(24:54):
That sounds like a lot.
Three courtrooms and four magistrates trying to find out.
That sounds like a lot of stuff that you keep track of.
We have officers standing around.
We can't do the arrangements because the magistrates are all tied up doing the hearings.
And then now they're trying to, and it's pretty, I've heard it's pretty much going to happen.
(25:15):
We have mental hygiene commissioners.
They're wanting the magistrates to take on more of a role for mental hygiene.
Thinking it would help the police.
But I'm like, when are we supposed to wait on the public?
I mean, I'm glad we got the fifth magistrate that would definitely help us, you know, do that.
But we have so many people appearing on tickets.
(25:37):
You know, people walking in need the protective orders.
And, you know, it's difficult.
The commissioners stay pretty busy.
The hygiene commissioners, they stay really, really busy.
And I know, well, now I'm not going to say that.
I was supposed to say something, but I'm not going to.
But anyway, go ahead, T. I'm sorry.
(25:59):
I was going to say, Heather, you've been in this for a long time.
Just to make things a little lighter.
I realize you can't name names or anything like that.
But what is the craziest thing you've seen in Magistrate Court?
Oh, to me personally, in the old building, the way the new building is set up,
(26:23):
we're not in with the dependents as much.
Even at night with the courtroom, there's a lot more space behind a desk area.
But in the old building, we actually used to do motion hearings and arraignments
and even some civil hearings in our offices.
The Magistrate came from their office.
(26:44):
There was a bench that they stood behind, and then our desks were at the end.
So there's like a little walkway with the doorway.
And they would bring the arraignments right there.
My desk's right there.
And when people would find out they weren't going to bond,
this one guy totally wigged out, started throwing himself up against the wall.
(27:05):
I had a big dent in my wall.
Threw himself across my desk.
I'd have to push, thank God for the wheels on our chairs, push myself back.
I learned to keep sharp objects like my pins and scissors on the credenza on this side,
not in the front of the desk.
Oh gosh, I've been told I was going to burn in hell that I worked for Satan,
the government's Satan.
(27:27):
I've been followed home.
When I first started and Abby was little, I went out to the fair, to the fairgrounds,
and these guys just started talking horrible and saying awful things.
And Brenda had just arraigned them.
Oh boy.
(27:48):
And before we were on call.
And of course I'm called out with her so they recognized me.
And I had Abby with me.
It was just the two of us because it was daytime.
It was night and I thought I would be safe.
And thank heavens a couple of the deputies, because I made a beeline for a deputy,
recognized me and I told them what was going on.
And they had to physically detain the guys and a deputy escort them to my car.
(28:11):
And they would not let them leave the fairgrounds until my car was out of sight.
And they told me, go.
What the heck?
I never went to the fairgrounds.
That is crazy.
I've been followed at City Park at events.
So I would never take Abby, just her and I.
I'd have to go in a group.
(28:33):
Yeah.
A funny story.
That's kind of sad.
A funny story.
We had a big dude over six feet.
Just a DUI.
Nothing major.
And when he found out his little like five foot nothing sister was there to bond him,
he turned white and he's like, do I have to post bond?
(28:58):
He did not want to go over there.
He was scared to death.
That's funny right there.
That's what kept me out of trouble as a child.
Because if the police would have caught me and brought me home, I would have been like,
no, take me to jail.
Please don't get me to my mother.
(29:19):
That's what I would have done.
I guarantee it.
My grandfather would have found out.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
That's okay.
That's okay.
One of the funniest stories was this guy.
I don't even remember now.
It was in the old building probably 15 years ago.
Probably DUI.
(29:40):
Got arrested.
And his wife and his girlfriend showed up to bond him.
And they fought over who was going to get to bond him.
And we thought it was going to turn physical.
I love it.
Yes.
And Brenda's like, have you looked at him?
He's not all that.
(30:01):
She's like totally calm down and everything.
We thought it was going to turn into a brawl there in the courtroom.
And he was going to get to bond him.
And he just stand there with a smirk on his face.
Stuff like that.
You just want to go.
And he just stood there with a smirk on his face.
And he just stood there with a smirk on his face.
Yeah.
(30:22):
Did I do that in public? I did.
Yeah.
But I'll never forget.
Edit.
14, 55, 16.
Okay.
Before we post it.
I'm telling you what that now anyway.
Yeah.
I worked there.
(30:44):
And I was in the same room with my friend.
And this guy was dressed up for Halloween.
And his friends dumped him out in front of the jail and he was
dressed up like a ballerina.
So that was fun to watch him.
She's qualified to run for Congress.
Now.
(31:05):
He was mortified.
I felt so bad for him.
I had to walk him over to the old building.
We weren't all in one facility.
So.
Wow.
That's something else.
Hair sticking up different colors.
There's a joke behind that.
(31:27):
There's a lot of funny stuff and a lot of sad stuff.
Do what?
You said he had different color hair sticking up.
And I said, there's a joke behind that, but I'm not going to say,
cause that.
Yeah.
I'll get, I'll get deep trouble for that one.
I'll get deep trouble for that one.
Hey, Jody.
Jody. Jody's with us tonight.
(31:48):
Is Jody with us? Jody's with us tonight.
How you doing?
How you feeling? He was a sick boy this week.
He missed work.
Hey, there's Abby. Hi, Abby.
Abby's on.
Thanks, Amanda. I'm not. My wife said, don't tell that joke.
(32:09):
She was in an emergency room.
She was in a emergency room.
I said, there's something I need to do.
I need to do something.
I was like, that would be bad.
Oh, good. He says he's feeling better.
Can you see the chat?
Yes. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know anybody.
I could see it. I thought it was just like.
A me thing.
You know that I'm seeing that I can read this.
(32:31):
So.
Jody.
You see what happened?
Mr. Perky was.
I look, Jody's my buddy.
Jody is the man, I'm sorry.
He was a sick feller.
I'm sorry, Jody is the man.
Dreda said it was bad.
Well, Jody, when Jody gets sick, Jody gets sick.
Yeah.
That's the thing about it.
When Jody gets sick, Jody gets sick.
(32:53):
Wow, wow.
His mom was magic strip for like ever, wow.
Everybody loves Joyce.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
So you're making a lot of appearances or anything, Heather,
or is there anything going on that you're doing
that people can come and see you?
(33:14):
Well.
And talk to you?
Well, this Thursday at Hungry Amigo at what time?
Six, at six o'clock, having another meet and greet.
If anyone wants to meet me and has any questions
or just to show their support,
they're more than welcome to come.
(33:35):
Marta at Hungry Amigo has been a friend of mine
and she's been very supportive and hosting it for me.
How can people, do you have a Facebook page
or how can people reach out to you?
I mean, just to know what you're,
a little bit more about you if they don't.
Besides following you home.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I used to get, I used to get threatened.
(33:58):
Watch the rear view mirror, go different ways home
and all that.
I used to get threatened at it when I worked at the jail.
You know.
Facebook at, I'm sorry.
I said, I used to, I used to get threatened
at when I worked at the jail.
They'd say, when I get out of here, what are you gonna do?
I'm gonna kill you.
You're gonna beat me up.
(34:19):
Anyway, go ahead.
Anyway, Heather, I'm sorry.
It was a squirrel moment.
That's okay.
It was a squirrel moment in my defense.
That's okay.
So, we'll have a link to your Facebook page
down below.
Yeah.
Down in the comment section.
Yeah, it's Heather Scott Campbell for Magistrate.
(34:39):
And.
And she's on Facebook people.
On my email.
She's on Facebook.
Yeah.
Heather Scott Campbell for Magistrate.
Yep.
All right.
My email's hsc for magistrate.com.
And don't let us catch.
At yahoo.com.
And don't let us catch you giving her a hard time.
That will not go over well.
Yeah.
We will not allow, we will not do that.
(34:59):
We're not.
Yeah.
Are we ready for the burning question, Bob?
It's not a boring place to work.
Uh oh.
T has a burning question.
Are we ready for the burning question?
Yes.
Heather, we've got the burning question.
I'm holding on tight.
Yes.
Okay.
So.
I'm ready.
You watched the bowl game with West Virginia.
(35:22):
Or did you?
Oh, did you?
Yeah.
Did you watch the, you did not.
I don't have cable.
Okay.
You know that, Theresa.
That cable is.
Well, we'll just say.
Two some years.
We'll just say West Virginia wise.
But anyway, it was the Duke's.
Okay.
It was the Duke's mayo bowl.
Okay.
Okay.
(35:42):
And during this whole time, throughout the whole show,
they were putting Duke's mayo on nachos.
They were putting Duke's mayo on different things.
But what took the cake was,
they put Duke's mayo on our sacred pepperoni rolls.
(36:06):
Boom.
Heard about that.
Now my question is to you, Heather,
would you eat mayonnaise on a pepperoni roll?
Absolutely not.
No.
No.
And my friend Heather Weigel Myers,
who's just said that I have her vote.
She makes delicious homemade pepperoni rolls.
(36:27):
Is that Heather Rooney?
To go from scratch.
She would kill me.
Is that Heather Rooney?
No.
Heather Rooney.
Is that Heather Rooney?
Hi, Heather Rooney.
Yep.
Aw, that's darling, guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
We went to high school together.
Been friends since high school.
I told this story once before we were talking about,
(36:48):
because every time we have an interview,
Theresa brings up the mayo on the pepperoni roll.
So I was at a conference in Wheeling.
Right, Mandiboo.
I was at a conference in, not Wheeling, Beckley.
He can't remember.
It was somewhere in the state.
It was somewhere in the state.
You were somewhere in the state of West Virginia.
Somewhere south of Cleveland.
(37:09):
Yeah.
Get off me, T.
Okay, gotcha.
You know I'm sensitive.
I'll get Brother Perky on you, Brother Perky.
He knows.
Wah!
So anyway, this guy was from California.
Our instructor was from California.
He was like the mega emergency management man
(37:29):
for the state of California.
And he went out to lunch with some of the people
and they went and stopped at Sheetz and Beckley.
And they said, you ought to try
one of our famous pepperoni rolls.
And he made the bad mistake of saying,
(37:51):
is that like a hot pocket?
Wah, wah, wah.
And he came back and told us,
and we're like, what time do you leave?
Right.
I mean.
So is there anything else you want to tell us
about yourself, Ms. Heather?
I mean, we've enjoyed this.
(38:12):
Well, I know we've kind of gotten off the,
but that's what we do here at the Funny Farm.
I just, I would appreciate the consideration.
I've put the time in.
I've been there 20, almost 22 years.
A new office, you know, to come up to speed
(38:33):
and be fully functioning and be a true asset
to the court and to the public.
It would be beneficial for the court
and for the public to have an experienced person in there.
Yes, I'd have to train my assistant,
but being an assistant myself,
I can already do a lot of the job with her,
(38:55):
for her or him until they're up to speed.
Teach them a little bit at a time or whatever.
So that would be beneficial,
not only to the court, but to the public.
My wife wants to know if you have a sign
that we can put in our yard.
I only have a couple left.
(39:16):
But yeah, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Well, because if not, she'll hit me with an iron.
That's what most of our problem is now, is that iron.
It's a hot topic in our house.
Go ahead.
Well, I guess, not about me personally,
(39:38):
but about the court, I guess to kind of defend us,
because a lot of people don't understand.
I know with setting bonds and with sentencing,
most sentences are worked out as plea agreements
between the prosecutors and the defense attorneys.
The magistrate can veto it basically and reject it
(39:58):
and tell them to go back to the table.
But when that happens, then a lot of times
people exercise the right for their trial,
which don't begrudge on that,
but that would really clog up the system
if we didn't do the plea agreements.
And with bonds, with sentences and with bonds,
there's guidelines that they have to follow.
(40:21):
They can, a magistrate cannot create
or they can only enforce policy.
They're sworn to uphold the codes.
But I know like my parents are always like,
well, why didn't they go to jail?
Why didn't they serve time in jail?
And I'm like, because the grim reality is
the counties would go broke if everyone went to jail.
(40:43):
So the magistrates face pressure every day
as far as public opinion, pleas in the prosecutors,
the defense attorneys, the county commissions
who want the regional jail bills kept low,
the Supreme Court sends us a weekly report
that they're supposed to go through and check
and make sure that we don't miss anyone,
that we're sending our hearings the way we should
(41:05):
and to try to keep the costs down.
But magistrates also gotta keep an eye,
and they do keep an eye on public safety,
wanting to do the best they can that way.
But a lot of times they're hamstring.
They're tied with what the code says they're allowed to do,
(41:25):
maximum and minimum penalties are set forth in the code
and they have to work within those guidelines,
maximum and minimum bonds, depending on the fine
and the charge are within the code.
So, you know.
One thing to cross my mug more than anything.
I wish there was more public awareness
about that kind of thing, that the magistrates
get blamed for a lot of things that are actually
(41:47):
not within their total control by any means.
And more and more of the magistrates' autonomy
is getting taken away.
They're wanting to standardize and bonds
and certain sentences and stuff to where a magistrate
right now can have more of like,
(42:08):
okay, yes, the two crimes are the same,
but the individuals are different.
You've got one individual that's never been in trouble
and you've got another individual who's habitual about it.
Do you give them the same sentence or the same bond?
Especially bonds, you know.
You've got someone who bitchily misses court
and never shows up.
(42:28):
You've got another person that's never been in trouble
before, do you give them the benefit of the doubt?
And right now, magistrates can do that more,
but more changes are coming down the pike
or they're trying to make changes to take a lot of that
away from magistrates.
So I think that's-
One thing that thoroughly crossed my mug though
is the Facebook follies is what I call them.
(42:51):
They get on there and I mean, I've been that way
for eight years on city council
and I know what you guys are going through.
City council gets blamed for things
that happen in accounting.
And we don't have a dog in the race.
And that's how you guys, you guys have to do what you have
to do, the magistrates have to do what they have to do.
And people don't-
(43:11):
They have rules they have to follow.
Exactly, and people don't understand that,
but they get on there.
I can't believe they did that.
Well then read up on it.
Learn about what's going on.
I mean, you know-
A lot of it is that people complain that,
well, they just arrested them.
And before the reports even written,
they're back out on the street
(43:31):
and the magistrate gets the blame for that.
And you hear it all the time.
Same with our police officers.
I mean, it just absolutely, just irritates me all to death
when they start in on things they know absolutely nothing
about with the court, with our police officers, with 911.
(43:52):
And I'm like you, Heather.
I mean, everything I think that there needs to be,
and I've been trying to do it,
but they're not gonna do it at 911, is have a weekly forum.
Hey, why do you guys do what you do?
Aaron started that.
Aaron started that with WTAP on daybreak.
And when he got sick with his foot and everything,
(44:13):
he said, told me now that he said,
I have to get back into it.
And I wanna start bringing it back up.
It's more like a, why do we do what we do thing?
And that, and I've been trying to get them
to put something like every Sunday, 911 moment
or something like that, or why we do what we do
or something that we can, and go ahead, I'm done.
(44:37):
No, I was just saying, that's a great idea.
As Teresa knows, we get calls all the time
for circuit court, for family court, for probate court,
for even the county courthouse,
people saying they wanna get married
or they're getting divorced or they need a death certificate
and they don't understand which court,
(44:59):
even if we got different representatives from all of that,
here's the services we provide
to better educate the public would be wonderful.
I think so.
I think so.
Because that's frustrating for them
to have to feel like they're getting tossed around,
like, oh, well, they didn't really wanna help me.
They just pawned me off on someone else.
And I can't help you, our computers aren't linked.
I'm not trained for that, you know what I mean?
(45:20):
Because it's frustrating when you're trying to get help
and someone's giving you a different number
and that person gives you a different number,
you know what I mean?
It's almost like every department.
I've always wished there was a better way.
It's almost like every agency, every department
needs a public information officer,
somebody to be the cheerleader.
(45:40):
Say, hey, look, here's what we did right,
here's what we did wrong, we're gonna fix that.
And let the, keep the public in the link.
Yep. Yep.
Tia, do you have any other questions for Ms. Heather?
Well, Heather, now I'm going blank.
Well, I mean-
(46:03):
Lord, I don't believe that, not at all.
Not to put you on the spot, Teresa,
but you worked with me for a lot of years.
You know, I was one of the first ones in
and one of the last ones out of.
I'm a hard worker
and I would continue to work hard for
the citizens of Wood County as the magistrate.
I'm dedicated and loyal.
(46:25):
That's awesome.
I just would appreciate the opportunity.
Well, absolutely.
I usually get there by the hour ahead
and stay there after five.
She did too, she should get there late,
or stay there late, I mean, we both put in lots of work.
I get there late, yeah.
Lee Burley, that's me, get there late and leave early.
(46:48):
Absolutely, we appreciate you and Abby being on.
So, you know, this is, you know, I tell everybody,
this is a very important election coming up
and you need to pick the person who you believe
absolutely will do the very best job.
(47:10):
I mean, we've had congressional candidates on the Bobcast,
gubernatorial, senatorial, attorney generals,
stuff like that.
Pick the very best one that you think's
absolutely gonna do the job.
And it doesn't make a difference whether it's city council
on up, magistrate court, the very important spot
(47:32):
in the judicial system.
Make sure, I keep telling her if it was a job interview,
she is as much calling as you're interviewing.
God love Abby, she thinks a lot of you.
You probably wanted me to say that
and I wasn't thinking of that.
I just, I know I'm not gonna make promises I cannot keep
that are beyond my control as a magistrate.
(47:53):
Any changes to magistrate court have to be done
through the legislature and the Supreme Court
to issue the rules that we have to follow.
Now, just like a regular citizen,
you have the right to contact those people
and express yourself and the changes
and concerns that you have.
But when you're in the thick of it,
(48:13):
when you're in the middle of the trial or the sentencing,
you're in the middle of an arraignment
and setting the bond, you are sworn as a magistrate
to uphold what is already there.
And you don't have the authority or autonomy
to just cowboy it up and go road.
I mean, you can try it, but you get in trouble for it.
You know, they have rules that have to follow.
(48:35):
We have a question here from Mr. Jeff Klein.
He wants to know if you've seen a lot of people
that has had drug abuse problems
and has used the IDD defense.
What's the IDD defense?
(48:55):
I don't-
I'm not sure you have.
I didn't do it.
I didn't do it?
Okay, thank you.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Let me see if I'm right.
I'm guessing, I'm guessing here.
Jeff, is that what it is?
I didn't do it defense?
Come on, Jeff, cough it up.
Intellectual disabilities.
(49:19):
Oh, I was far off.
Intellectual disabilities.
Not exactly like that.
Of course they allege it's not theirs,
that they don't know how it got there.
Or, you know-
My friend borrowed my pants.
Some medications they say is theirs,
they just don't have it in their prescription bottle
(49:40):
like you're supposed to.
Some of them, you know, are alleging
that they need it to self-medicate,
that they can't afford the medicines
or they don't like how the prescribed medicines
make them feel.
Our biggest one is the younger generation
(50:01):
just don't understand that marijuana is illegal
in West Virginia.
It's just pot, you know.
Like, still right now against the wall,
even though, you know.
Okay, Rick, we'll get to that momentarily.
On the new design for City Park Center,
is there a floor plan that could be posted?
It looks outstanding.
(50:21):
I think they're getting ready to do that, Rick.
I think, I know they, we had a meeting,
I'm sorry Heather, we had a meeting Thursday,
and I think they're getting ready to start.
Because we're hoping, and lucky me,
I am on the committee to help design the building.
(50:43):
So, I'm feeling pretty good about that.
But yeah, I'm sure there is,
I'm sure that they're gonna be doing that very soon,
and if not, and we can see if we can figure out
a way to get you a copy of it.
Because it is an amazing, it's gonna be an amazing place.
All right, so Heather, we're gonna let you go.
If you'd like to wanna hang out.
(51:04):
Can I just say one more thing
as far as the intellectual disabilities?
It's your show.
Yes ma'am.
Okay, there is what's called
mental competency examination that a defense attorney,
if they want to, as far as intellectual disabilities,
have a person evaluated to see if they were competent
(51:25):
enough to stay in trial.
So, there is that, but that's not handled
at the time of arraignment.
That's once the case is before a magistrate,
and they have counsel appointed,
then that can be filed, and that goes through circuit court,
and we have to, everything stayed until circuit court,
and they have their evaluation through a mental facility
(51:46):
to see if they were competent enough to stay in trial.
But okay, I'll let you go.
Thank you for having me.
I greatly appreciate it.
No, thank you for being here.
We welcome you anytime.
Thank you.
And we wish you nothing but the very best, and good luck.
And- Thank you, I appreciate it.
I'm sure I'll be talking to you every once in a while,
when you call up to say,
(52:08):
oh, this is Heather from Magistrate's Office,
same with Mary Ann.
Mary Ann calls quite a lot.
Yeah, Heather DB.
So, but if you, you know, we appreciate you being on,
and we appreciate you letting everybody know,
because I really, honest to God,
don't think a lot of people realize
what the actual job of the magistrate court is,
(52:31):
but you pretty much explained a lot of it tonight.
And so I'm hoping that-
It's gonna take a lot more time to go into more detail.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, unfortunately, until I retire in a few months,
the Bobcast is gonna go for two days a week,
thanks to Rick,
and after I retire.
(52:52):
And that's gonna be probably August 1st.
I was waiting until December,
but I'm gonna do it August 1st for other reasons
that I will not get into,
but I'm gonna do that.
And I've been with the county,
I've been with the county 20 years.
So I figure that's, you know, I'm gonna retire.
And I'm only 18, so that's pretty good.
(53:13):
And that's pretty good.
Well, I wish you well,
and thank you for your service to our county
as a 911 dispatcher in on city council.
But I know the dispatch job,
I don't envy you guys at all.
I don't know how you do your job.
It's a lot more stressful than people give you credit for,
(53:35):
and we appreciate all that you all do
to serve the community.
Well, if you ever get a chance,
just sit and talk with Jodi.
Jodi was there a long time and-
Joe Cool.
And I've talked to Teresa about it.
Joe Cool, Teresa, my buddy T.
And yeah-
I've been everywhere, man.
I've been everywhere.
That's a song.
I'm gonna write a song about that.
(53:56):
Let me just say, no.
So, all right, Heather, it's been real fun.
We'll do it again.
And again, we thank Abby for the IT expertise
to get you online here.
Definitely.
She said you're the best mom.
Aw.
It's right there.
She's the best daughter.
She's getting married May 4th.
Wow, congratulations.
(54:17):
Wow, Abby.
May the 4th be with her.
Yeah.
Way to go.
Yeah.
I plan on getting married one day.
Don't tell your wife.
Well, early voting starts May 1st,
and the election's May 14th,
and we don't go to November,
so it's your one shot to vote for the magistrate race.
And I hope your friends and family
(54:39):
and the public who've watched have learned more about me
and about my district court
and will consider me when they're voting.
Well, just let everybody know that-
If your candidate doesn't win,
then shut up if you didn't vote.
Yeah.
But let everybody know that we are live
on Facebook and YouTube,
(55:01):
and afterwards where the audio version is available
wherever you get your podcasts at,
iHeart, Spotify, whatever, all of them, Rumble, everything.
So again, Heather, it's been a pleasure.
Everything that you told us about you
(55:22):
will be on our website.
Thank you.
And so by all means, you're welcome to-
It looks like Amanda says,
when is the date?
May 1st, early voting starts,
and the election itself is May 14th.
Sorry, there was a question in there.
Oh, that's okay.
No, no, that's my wife.
She's sitting like right over there.
(55:44):
Right, right over there.
It's like texting from across the room.
Right over there.
And put the chair down, I'm just joking.
Yeah.
Bye, Heather.
Bye-bye, thank you.
Bye, Heather.
We'll have a good evening.
Bye, Heather.
Oh, that's funny as heck.
That was pretty fun.
(56:05):
Oh yeah, yeah.
She's a pretty cool-
She's a nice lady.
Pretty cool.
Nice lady, I like her.
Hey, I gotta give a shout out to my former boss,
Jody Perkey, for showing up there tonight.
The man.
Way to go, Jody.
The man, the myth, Jody Perkey.
Like to know Jody's out there watching,
and you know if Jody's there, Dread is with her.
Hey, hey.
Bob says hi.
(56:25):
Hey, he's a dreader too.
But I gotta say something real quick.
Back to the new pavilion
that's gonna be put over in the new city,
over to City Park.
It's an amazing, amazing building.
I didn't have time to do it tonight,
(56:46):
but I've got pictures I'm gonna send Rick.
And probably next week when we have Heather's
on next week, right?
Mary Ann.
What'd I say, Heather?
Mary Ann.
Mary Ann, yeah.
And so Mary Ann, so next week we'll have,
if you haven't seen it already, it's all over Facebook.
The new pictures of the pavilion,
(57:07):
it's just going to be an amazing, an amazing building.
It is just, it's beautiful.
From the outside, and for those of you who are,
who sit back and say, oh my god, it's gonna be gaudy.
No, it's not.
It's not gonna mess up any parking.
We're gonna have just as much as we had then,
(57:29):
probably a few more,
because we figured out how we can do that.
And so just give it a chance.
I mean, like I told the mayor the other day,
and he quoted me on it,
this pavilion we have now served its generation as well.
Now it's time for this generation to have their building.
(57:54):
So, just give it a chance.
Don't, it's like any other thing,
and John Reed and I talk a lot about this,
like PHS, where PHS was built,
Mr. Van Dievender, he caught all kinds of straight up heck.
Why would you put a school on a swamp?
(58:14):
Well, now people love PHS,
and that's the same with the city park.
Back when the city park was first started,
everybody's like, why would you put a park that big
where only the rich people can get to it?
It's ridiculous.
And now look how many people,
it's not for the rich people, it's for everybody.
(58:36):
Give the pavilion a chance.
It's not a civic center.
The civic center's 400,000 people,
the civic center's 400,000 square feet,
and our new beautiful pavilion is 47,000 square feet.
So, the big difference between a civic center
and a pavilion.
(58:58):
And it's gonna have just amazing stuff
that once it starts, everybody who's against it will say,
what a great idea.
And I'm honest to God,
I feel like I gotta be a part of helping plan that building.
I mean, the mayor, God love the mayor,
he said, I want Councilman Mercer on the committee.
(59:21):
And that made me feel really good.
Somebody wanted you, Bob.
Imagine that.
Now I got the vapors again.
So, we have a few announcements
to make, Parkinsburg Police Department's getting ready
to hire, they're giving their tests coming up here.
(59:41):
And I think Rick's, yes.
Saturday, June 15th at 10 a.m.
in the Parkinsburg Municipal Building, second floor.
There's all the information that'll be on the web,
Bob Cast site.
So, and who else, Rick, you said Vienna?
I didn't see Vienna.
(01:00:03):
Who'd you tell me?
No, Orchard was with all of us.
Oh, I thought you said, I'm sorry.
I thought you, I misunderstood what you said.
Anybody have any birthdays they wanna bring up, T?
Birthdays.
Anniversaries, bar mitzvahs.
Anniversary bar mitzvahs.
(01:00:24):
I don't know.
I would like to say something there, Bob.
You say what you're showing me.
Your name's first, okay, T.
I'm gonna back you for a moment
and say to all these people out here
that wanna be negative and be keyboard warriors,
and then they have something to say,
(01:00:46):
you know, get involved if you don't like it.
If you don't like what's going on, get involved.
It's simple.
Exactly.
That is fact.
That is fact because most generally,
I mean, you know, and I've said this before, T,
one of the most important things that we do is the budget.
(01:01:06):
Every year.
Big, big money.
That many people show up
and city council gets hammered for it.
Remember everybody, Bob Mercer for Parkersburg
or for Wood County Board of Education.
My name's the last one on the ballot because,
well, that's just what we want.
(01:01:27):
The Bible says the last should be first, so.
Yeah, but that's just the way they wanted it.
They said,
because they kept spelling my name backwards
and that upset me, so.
Anyway, does anybody have anything they wanna say
before we leave?
Yep, he had one she wanted to talk about.
Yeah, I've got one here.
Believe it or not, people, we've got Carrie the musical
(01:01:50):
that is going to be on the Sternwheeler.
The dates are on the screen.
We'll have it up for you.
And yes, you heard that right.
It is Carrie the musical on the Sternwheeler.
And if that is something that you are interested in,
you're gonna wanna get your tickets
because I hear they're selling fast already.
(01:02:11):
So that's Carrie the musical.
I just can't imagine how that would work.
Yeah.
That's why you need a ticket, Bob.
Just see.
I'm gonna have to get a ticket
to find out how they're gonna pull off Carrie the musical.
I mean, that woman scared the holy snot out of me.
Now she goes sing to me.
(01:02:32):
Yeah.
Sing to you about pig blood in her hair.
All right.
Yeah, one more, one more.
One more, one more.
Let's not let the people go by.
I knew that I did.
Yes.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Guess what, people?
We need help.
Yeah, we need help.
Really, really, really.
So the Soapbox Derby, we're trying very hard.
(01:02:52):
Rick and I have been working on this for a long time.
We appreciate that.
We appreciate the, you're welcome, Heather.
But the Soapbox Derby,
we're trying very hard to raise funds to get it going.
We're gonna work on something with the homecoming,
(01:03:13):
I think that we'll see,
but we really need your help.
And we have a PayPal page on our Facebook,
a PayPal link.
Yeah, a link.
On our page.
Yes.
And so, if you can help us, fine.
We still need volunteers.
(01:03:34):
We need people who, to be on the board.
We need a treasurer who's familiar
with the 501c3 rules and regulations.
It's a pretty difficult situation, I think, for me.
Rick's SMRT, so he knows what he's doing.
So, anything, T?
I need to just support the Humane Society,
(01:03:56):
as always, people.
Have those pets spayed and neutered,
and they always need help.
Don't ever think they don't.
Rick?
That's it for me.
Well, all right.
We're gonna close out tonight.
We thank you, everybody who tuned in.
We thank Heather Campbell again.
And we have to give a shout out to Abby.
(01:04:17):
She'll get upset.
Yeah, Abby!
We'll never hear the end of it.
She's a bitch.
She's a bitch.
You give girl five minutes of fame,
and it's just not the same.
Okay?
So, we appreciate you, Heather, being on.
And we wish you very well.
We hope you do very well.
If anybody, I can't read.
(01:04:38):
What's that say?
What did Abby say?
Thank you.
Oh, okay.
The nice girl she is, she said thank you.
Instead of, I will kill you!
So, just next week we have Marianne.
What's Marianne's last name?
I'm sorry.
I knew that.
(01:05:00):
I'm sorry, Marianne.
We have Marianne Copeland on.
Marianne's also with the magistrate's office right now,
and she's running for magistrate.
So, we're gonna have her on,
and terrorize her like we did Heather.
And so, we appreciate everybody.
If you have any birthdays, anniversaries, comments,
(01:05:21):
if you wanna come on and talk to us,
come on and talk to us, we'll put you on.
We don't care.
We're like that.
And we love you guys very much,
and we look forward to next week.
T, thank you for taking over today.
Thank you, Paul.
Rick. Thank you, Rick.
Thank you for being Rick.
For being me.
For just being Rick.
Just a great guy.
(01:05:41):
That's it, that's it.
That's me.
All right, somebody give me 20 bucks, hurry.
Yeah, okay.
The check's in the mail.
Yeah.
All right, guys, take care.
We'll see you later, and take care of yourselves, okay?
Yep, good night.
Thank you guys.
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