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Wytheville judge pleads guilty, will face JIRC hearing in June

MARION—A Wytheville juvenile and domestic relations district judge facing charges of driving under the influence has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving and will lose his operator’s license for a year.

Judge Michael K. Blankenship, 44, also will pay a $100 fine for his charges, which included refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test.

Blankenship is scheduled to appear June 27 in Powhatan County General District Court to face a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge for another driving incident.

Officers pulled Blankenship over along Interstate 81 between Chilhowie and Marion on March 1.

In the other incident, state police charged Blankenship on May 3 after witnesses identified him as the driver who left the scene of a Powhatan County crash that occurred April 27.

Michael Barbour, Blankenship’s attorney, told the Bristol Herald Courier that the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission has suspended Blankenship pending a hearing before the commission on whether he violated judicial ethics.

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