A General District Court judge dismissed the criminal stalking case against the clerk of Danville Circuit Court at the victim’s request during proceedings Friday.
Gerald Gibson was charged with stalking Barbara Lyn Burkett after she filed a criminal complaint May 27. She wrote that Gibson threatened her boyfriend’s life and cited five different instances when Gibson followed her in his car or threatened her.
Luis Abreu and Ronald Williams represented Gibson and filed a plea of satisfaction and discharge during the brief trial. Burkett signed the plea, which said she has “received satisfaction from Gerald A. Gibson in this matter, and request that the criminal charge against him be dismissed.”
Abreu said that an independent attorney, Mark Holland, advised Burkett about the case and plea. Holland was not available for comment.
“I always caution folks when we do this,” said Judge R. Morgan Armstrong of Henry County about the plea before accepting it.
The Virginia Supreme Court appointed Armstrong to hear the case after Danville General District Judge Lee Stilwell dismissed himself because he and Gibson work in the same building.
Armstrong also gave Gibson some advice.
“I would caution the defendant,” Armstrong said. “If you are going to get back in touch … that you require that she give you a written invitation.”
Armstrong said that Gibson should treat Burkett “as a stranger” if the two ran into each other by chance.
Robert Adams Jr., senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said that he did not have a reason that the plea should not be accepted. Adams represented the state along with William H. Fuller III, the common-wealth’s attorney of Danville.
Gibson was first elected Danville’s Clerk of the Circuit Court in 1979. He faces re-election in 2011.
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