Kanawha prosecutor Mark Plants (center) with his wife, and lawyer, Jim Cagle.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A family court judge has extended a domestic violence protection order against Kanawha County prosecutor Mark Plants until December. She calls his behavior “mind-boggling.”
Cabell County Family Court Judge Patricia Keller also continued an order barring all contact between Plants and his children because Plants has decided to go to trial and his sons, most likely, must testify against him.
Keller, who was assigned to the case after all Kanawha family court judges recused themselves, wrote in an order filed Thursday that Plants has been pressuring his ex-wife, Allison, and his sons to ask their mother to have the charges against him dropped.
“The fact that the behavior has continued is mind-boggling, particularly since Mark Plants is an attorney that works in a system that should have a great understanding of victims of domestic abuse,” the order states.
Plants faces a charge of domestic battery for striking his 11-year-old son with a belt, and he allegedly violated a domestic violence protection order that told him to stay away from his children and ex-wife. Plants said Thursday he will appeal the order to a circuit judge.
In an earlier order, Keller said the DVP against Plants would last until Sept. 17. It’s now in place through Dec. 16, because Allison Plants requested an extension.
According to Thursday’s order, Plants told his eldest son, “Beg your mom to drop it.” Both boys have said their father told them “their mom can end this,” the order states.
Michelle Thompson, who is one of the supervisors for Plants’ visitation, pressured Allison Plants to drop the charges, Keller wrote. Thompson, who is the early-childhood director at Bible Center Church, where the Plants attend church, sent Allison a text saying, “If it was me, I would be begging the prosecutor to make this go away,” the order states…