“Messy” is a gentle word to describe events last week at Nottoway Courthouse, where a jury trial was postponed after commodes flushing upstairs resulted in sewage water entering the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office downstairs and saturating part of the carpet.
Prosecutor Leanne Watrous’ motion to continue Friday’s felony Animal Cruelty case was granted. She said that generally speaking, “Sewage water was coming out from the cleanout for the system, which evidently is located inside the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. Several of the toilets in the Circuit Court are evidently connected to the same system, so if one of those was flushed, it caused sewage water to come out of the cleanout and onto the carpet in the office.”
Prosecutor Watrous said she closed the office Friday for the health of her staff and to be safely out of the way of repairs.”
Ms. Watrous expressed appreciation to the County “working with my office so quickly to remedy the immediate concern.”
Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Collins told the Courier-Record at deadline Monday, “An inmate plugged the toilet in the jail cell, adjacent to Ms. Watrous’ office.”
Nottoway County is under a judges’ order to make improvements to its court facilities. Last week’s incident follows a strong odor in August in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office that turned-out to be a rotting rodent. There was another incident several months ago during a Circuit Court jury trial — water from a leak was dripping into the jury box, and that trial was moved to General District Court.
Also in August in the General District Court building, water from a HVAC failure caused partial ceiling collapse and a mess to mop-up in the Judge’s chambers.
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