FLOYD -- A former Floyd County prosecutor accused of taking the computer hard drives from his office after failing in his bid to keep his job has agreed to perform 100 hours of community service to avoid a criminal trial.
Gordon E. Hannett Jr., the former commonwealth's attorney, also agreed in Floyd General District Court yesterday to pay the county $3,500 in restitution for the hard drives, which have never been recovered.
Special prosecutor Douglas Vaught, brought in from Grayson County to prosecute Hannett, said he still does not know why the hard drives were removed from the three computers. He also said he does not know what is on the hard drives.
Hannett and his attorney, Chris Kowalczuk of Roanoke, left the courtroom yesterday without comment after reaching the deal with Vaught to avoid trial.
Hannett has been charged with six misdemeanors -- three counts of petit larceny and three counts of disabling computer software. Under the terms of the agreement, Vaught will drop the charges if Hannett does the 100 hours of community service and pays the $3,500 by April 16.
"If he doesn't do what we've agreed on, there's a chance he'll come to trial," Vaught told District Judge T. Tristram Hyde IV, a retired judge who had been brought in from Lancaster County to hear the case.
Hannett won election as Floyd's Commonwealth's Attorney in 2003 but lost his re-election bid when he failed to win the Republican primary in 2007.
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement