A recent candidate for Raleigh County circuit judge has been hired as the newest assistant for the Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
During a meeting on Tuesday, the Raleigh County Commission approved the hiring of Marie Bechtel as a Raleigh County assistant prosecuting attorney.
Bechtel has been an attorney for 22 years and has spent half of that time working for Legal Aid of West Virginia, a statewide nonprofit organization that provides free legal services and advocacy.
She recently ran against four other attorneys to replace Raleigh County Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick, who is retiring, where she placed third.
Recently appointed Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman said he’s known Bechtel for the past seven or eight years and has admired her work.
“She’s been at Legal Aid for 14 years … and in the law business, if you’re at Legal Aid for 14 years, you’re a special person,” Truman said. “I got to see her work when I was (Raleigh County Circuit Judge Andrew) Dimlich’s law clerk, and she was just the perfect fit.”
Truman said his staff is drowning in work, and Bechtel will help relieve some of that.
He added that Bechtel had already been scheduled cases and would begin attending hearings for them on Wednesday after being sworn in that morning.
The Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is down three assistant prosecuting attorneys from what they started the year with, though Truman said he has no plans to hire anyone else.
“Seems to me like we’re in pretty good shape now,” he said.
The prosecuting attorney’s office started the year with 10 assistant prosecuting attorneys.
Todd Kirby resigned in July after being appointed by the governor to serve as a Raleigh County circuit judge.
Then, in the fall, Bill Roop, who is also the county attorney, resigned in preparation for his appointment to fill Kirby’s seat in the Legislature. Roop went on to win the seat in the fall general election.
The final assistant attorney to leave was Chad Lilly, who was fired by then Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield on the day that Hatfield returned from a nearly month-long voluntary leave.
The reason for Lilly’s firing was never released.
At the time, Hatfield was facing a domestic violence petition, which was later granted, and civil lawsuits from employees, one of whom was Lilly, claiming discrimination, harassment, hostile work environment, deprivation of civil rights and more. Those lawsuits have yet to be filed.
Hatfield resigned on Oct. 25, and Truman was appointed as his replacement.
Despite the challenges the office has faced in the past few months, Bechtel said she’s excited and looking forward to stepping into her new role.
“I can’t think of a finer person to lead that ship than Tom Truman and the staff over there, and the attorneys there, they’re just outstanding,” Bechtel said.
Starting out, Bechtel will be primarily handling child abuse and neglect cases, which she said she has experience with.
“Those cases are enormously important,” she said. “Trying to help and stabilize families in the worst scenarios and remove children from those situations – it’s absolutely necessary and important work.”
Though the work will be familiar given her background, Bechtel said she’s never been a prosecutor and is excited to get to know a new area of law as well as serve the people of her hometown.
“Our legal community has been through a lot of changes over the past year, and I know there’s certainly a need for some help over there – just given the opportunity to help in my hometown is very important to me,” she said.