Former Amherst prosecutor Andrew Childress has moved offices to Lynchburg as a deputy commonwealth’s attorney.
Childress, 45, started working in the Lynchburg office Jan. 24 and said he took on his caseload straightaway. Although he’s spent the past two and a half years prosecuting in the Amherst County courthouse as assistant commonwealth’s attorney, he’s no stranger to the Lynchburg courtrooms, since he also worked out of the Public Defender Office in the city for 10 years, the last few of which as deputy public defender. He’s the current president of the Lynchburg Bar Association.
Childress serves as a deputy commonwealth’s attorney alongside Michael Pflieger.
Although Childress moved from an office with four full-time prosecutors to an office with nearly three times as many, he said the individual caseload between the two offices is similar.
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“There has to be a lot of teamwork and coordination in a larger jurisdiction but also between the different service branches,” he said. “It really, to be effective, requires everybody to be able to work together as a team … and I really like that.”
He said he’s on board with the Lynchburg office’s work to break cycles of domestic abuse and drug addiction, which beget more crime — and even just the location of the new job is a plus.
“Lynchburg’s my home; it’s where I live and where I have my family,” he said. “Being able to serve the community where I rest my head is important to me.”
Besides working closer to home, he said he’d always held respect for Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison and the other “honest, straight-shooter” prosecutors in the office.
Harrison spoke to Childress’ well-rounded experience and said in terms of cases, he’s handling “a little bit of everything.” She said Childress shares her vision for the Lynchburg Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney, which includes goals of developing prosecutor specialties, mentorship and building advocacy skills.
“For someone who had the type of experience he had — not just in trial work but also in management and leadership — he had those kind of dual qualities that you want in your deputy,” she said. “And so he just seemed like a natural fit.”
Amherst County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lyle Carver said Childress was among his first fires since taking over the chief prosecutor’s role in 2015.
“Andrew’s fantastic,” Carver said. “He’s a great prosecutor. I wish him the best in Lynchburg. He’ll be missed.”