Circuit court judges have chosen an interim to fill the remaining seven months of former commonwealth’s attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill’s term, and it is someone who will head into the November elections as the de facto incumbent.
And that is not sitting well with his opponent.
On Wednesday, the chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit, which covers Dinwiddie, Petersburg and three adjoining counties, named defense lawyer Jonathan Bourlier to succeed Baskervill, who resigned Wednesday to pursue graduate studies overseas. Bourlier, whose 10 years of practice have focused largely on family law, was selected unanimously by chief judge Joseph Teefey and colleagues Paul Cella and Dennis Martin, according to the order filed Wednesday in Dinwiddie Circuit Court.
Bourlier is running against Amanda Nicole Mann in the Nov. 7 election. Baskervill, who had been commonwealth’s attorney since 2015, said before she resigned that she was not seeking re-election.
Mann told The Progress-Index she was “disappointed” in the decision to appoint her opponent. She claims Bourlier has a limited practice in criminal cases, saying the appointment “was a disservice to our citizens.”
According to the online lawyer directory Avvo,, Bourlier specializes in four areas — family, real estate, estate planning and criminal. Avvo says 40% of his practice has been in family law, but he has had more than 250 criminal cases as a defense attorney.
That same directory listed Mann’s three main areas of practice as elder law, child custory and juvenile, with each occupying one-third of her business.
“It’s hard not to feel like I’m at a disadvantage,” Mann said when asked if the appointment appears to have her running against an incumbent instead of a challenger. However, she said she does not plan to quit the race and will run even harder between now and November.
Thursday was Bourlier’s first day on the new job, but a reminder of what he will have to deal with over the next few months prominently sat on a couch next to his desk – a file with the name “Irvo N. Otieno” on it.
Otieno died March 6 while in custody of Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies at Central State Hospital. Those seven deputies and one employee of Central State have been charged with second-degree murder in the high-profile case that has generated national media attention for the circumstances surrounding Otieno’s death.
“It definitely will be one of the top priorities,” Bourlier said.
His first time at the prosecutor’s table in Circuit Court will be next Wednesday, and one of the first tasks he will have could be an amended motion his predecessor filed Wednesday to combine all eight defendants into a maximum of three trials instead of individual trials for each.
Teefey, who denied Baskervill’s original request last May for one trial, is expected to rule on that new motion soon.
“There’s no winner in this tragedy,” Bourlier said of the case. “We need to ensure that everyone receives their day in court.”
Bourlier is no stranger to running for the county’s prosecutor position. In 2015, he ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign against Baskervill after she came under fire for criticizing the county sheriff for using a racial slur during an interrogation of a murder suspect.