Traffic D: Where Beach conflict-of-interest cases go

VIRGINIA BEACH

Welcome to Traffic D.

It's a courtroom where cases that could pose a conflict of interest for the city's General District Court judges are heard about once a month.

Lawyers, a police sergeant and a judge involved in legal action of their own have appeared there recently. A former mayor's husband was there last week.

Like other courtrooms, the proceedings are public. But unlike similar venues, there was no docket posted outside Traffic D on June 30, when such cases were being heard. Those matters showed up on dockets outside other courtrooms.

And even a former substitute judge whose case was being heard in Traffic D didn't know she was supposed to be there.

Cases get assigned to the conflict docket after they are vetted by court officials.

General District Court Clerk Andre H. Mayfield said he makes recommendations that go before the General District Court judges about cases that could pose a conflict. Prosecutors also inform the clerk's office when they are seeking a special prosecutor in a case because of a potential conflict.

Once Mayfield hears back from the judges, he requests that the Virginia Supreme Court designate a substitute judge, he said. He said signs were posted on courtroom doors that conflict cases would be heard in Traffic D and that the transfer of cases was announced in court.

Norfolk-based attorney Mary G. Commander, who used to serve as a substitute judge in Virginia Beach, said she was never told that her case was going to be heard in Traffic D.

"I had no idea they had a separate courtroom where they hear conflict cases," Commander said.

She had been sued by a former client and the matter had been continued several times, she said. On June 30, she went to the courthouse looking to get the case dismissed.

She found her name on a docket outside another courtroom and waited for her case to be heard. There was no announcement that her case had been transferred, she said.

Meanwhile, in Traffic D, Retired Judge Merlin M. Renne heard the case. Because Commander wasn't there, Renne entered a default judgment against her for $5,000 - the amount her former client had sought.

Mayfield acknowledged that dockets may not always list the correct courtroom and that he didn't know whether a sign was on the door of the courtroom Commander was originally in.

"I wish I could say that every system in the world is foolproof," Mayfield said.

Other people who had matters in Traffic D that day did know where to go.

Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Randall M. Blow came to the courtroom as a plaintiff and obtained a $3,800 judgment against a tenant who hadn't paid his rent.

Joshua B. Shapiro, who has filed several lawsuits in the court system over the years - and once got a circuit judge's ruling reversed at the Virginia Supreme Court level - represented himself on several matters. Renne ruled in favor of the defendant in one case and another was continued.

Virginia Beach attorney Mark A. Andrews was convicted of first-offense drunken driving and hit-and-run.

And former Mayor Meyera Oberndorf's husband, Roger, appeared on a dog barking charge.

Renne deferred that matter for a year, ruling that the charge would be dismissed if there were no other dog barking citations against Oberndorf in the meantime.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com