Boykin trial postponed again after judge's recusal – Smithfield Times

For more than a year, Jennifer Boykin of Isle of Wight County and Dawn Jones of Suffolk have waited for their day in court to resolve assault charges against Boykin, which stem from a Republican Party meeting to nominate a Republican candidate for the state's 17th Senate District primary.

You will have to wait three months longer.

On August 22, the day of the hearing, Judge Nicole Belote declared herself biased and postponed the hearing until November 7. She had previously announced that she was a close friend and appointee of the candidate who ultimately won the race.

Jones, the former chairwoman of the Suffolk GOP branch, filed the criminal complaint against Boykin six days after the two attended a March 8, 2023, meeting of the Legislative District Committee, a panel of city and county GOP leaders tasked with deciding on a nomination process.

Earlier in the trial, Sussex County District Attorney Regina Sykes, who was appointed by the court as a special prosecutor, heard testimony from Jones. Jones said Boykin grabbed Jones by the arm as the two left the Ruritans' clubhouse in Walters, where the meeting had taken place, and yelled at Jones, “You are a farce, you have been disbanded.”

When Fred Taylor, Boykin's attorney, cross-examined Jones, she testified that she was a supporter of Emporia businessman Hermie Sadler, who was running against Boykin's preferred candidate, then-Republican Rep. Emily Jordan of Isle of Wight, for the Republican nomination, which Jordan would ultimately win in a primary election on June 20, 2023.

At that point, Belote interjected, “I know Emily Jordan,” and explained that she has a “personal relationship” with the senator now in the state legislature. Jordan was also a “major reason” for her appointment as a judge in 2019, Belote said.

After a brief recess during which each party could discuss Belote's disclosure, Sykes moved to recuse Belote over the objection of Taylor, who accused Jones of “trying to drag this out.”

“This case has been full of obstacles,” Taylor said. “Here we are a year and a half later.”

Sykes, however, insisted that it was ultimately her decision, not Jones', to push for a mistrial.

“I have great confidence … in Judge Belote,” Sykes said.

Nevertheless, Belote granted her request because there was “an appearance of impropriety.”

The issue could come up again at the Nov. 7 court hearing, as Chief Judge Robert Barclay IV, the only General District Court judge previously assigned to the case, was also appointed to the bench by a unanimous Senate vote on March 7, 2024, in which Jordan also participated. The same vote also reappointed General District Court Judge Hellivi Holland, who was originally assigned to the case.

Holland ordered Boykin's trial delayed indefinitely in July 2023 until a special prosecutor is appointed after Isle of Wight County District Attorney Georgette Phillips resigned from office and Jones filed a motion for “misdemeanor assistance,” which allows the alleged victim of a misdemeanor to request that a prosecutor prosecute the case.

Jones and Sykes both declined to comment on the recent delay in the case.

“It's really disappointing,” Taylor said. His client maintained her innocence throughout the trial and claimed the charges were “political retaliation” on Jones' part.

Jones filed a lawsuit in March 2023 alleging that “certain high-ranking officials of the Republican Party,” including the offices of Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, “worked to support” one candidate over the other in the 2023 Brewer-Sadler primary by allegedly pressuring the Virginia Department of Elections to change the nomination process from a primary to a convention. Although a March 27 hearing did not address exactly how Youngkin or Miyares' representatives allegedly pressured the change, a Richmond judge ordered a primary, and Jordan won.

State Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson had written to Election Commissioner Susan Beals on March 7 and again on March 9, 2023, in a letter obtained by The Smithfield Times last year through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Virginia State Board of Elections, claiming that “internal party dysfunction” had “become evident within the Suffolk Republican Committee” and that on February 25 of that year, the party “dissolved” the Suffolk GOP, removed Jones as its chair and installed Steve Trent — who had financially supported Jordan’s campaign — in her place. Anderson claimed in a written statement submitted as evidence at the March 27 hearing that Jones exceeded her authority when she — not Trent — cast Suffolk’s vote on the legislative district committee to hold a primary rather than a convention and then certified that vote to the state as chair of the LDC.