Former Del. Matt Fariss, who represented Virginia’s 59th House district for a 12-year stint and left office in January after losing a re-election bid for a redistricted seat, was arrested Sunday on three pending charges in Campbell County and booked into the Amherst County Adult Detention Center, according to online jail records.
Fariss, 55, of Rustburg, is charged with one count each of violating a protective order, possessing a Schedule I or II drug with a firearm on his person and possession of a Schedule I or II drug, booking information on the Blue Ridge Regional Jail website shows.
The alleged offenses Saturday came 18 days after a jury found him not guilty of felony hit and run and malicious wounding at the conclusion of a daylong trial in Campbell County Circuit Court. Farris, who served in the state office from January 2012 to Jan. 10, 2024, was convicted March 5 of improper driving, an infraction, and ordered to pay a $500 fine.
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A former Republican lawmaker whose district covered Appomattox and Buckingham counties and parts of Albemarle, Campbell and Nelson counties, Fariss did not receive the GOP nomination for the newly drawn 51st District in 2023. He ran as an independent in November and lost a three-way race to Eric Zehr, the current House 51 representative.
Fariss was driving northbound on U.S. 501 with Julie Miles on March 2, 2023 when an argument erupted because of a flat tire, Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell, the special appointed prosecutor, said at the March 5 trial.
The former representative of the 59th District in the Virginia House of Delegates was found …
Miles testified she knew Fariss for 20 years because he was friends with her brother and the two began a romantic relationship that ended. She testified Fariss was “flying” on the roadway, pulled in to a church parking lot and was looking for a jack to begin tending to a tire when he called his son to ask for a tool.
Miles testified he became “irate and vulgar,” she walked out of the church parking lot and was heading north on U.S. 501 when Farris screamed at her to get in the vehicle, made a left turn from the road and struck her with the truck. “I thought he was going to kill me,” she said at trial.
Stephen Weaver, a witness, testified at trial he was driving on U.S. 501 when he noticed Miles walking north on the southbound side, observed Fariss’ vehicle in his lane making a left turn and saw him strike Miles. Weaver testified he saw Fariss get out of his car and charge toward Miles, and after a moment he stopped, got in his vehicle and drove off.
Fariss denied most of those claims at trial and testified the two were heading to a dinner to meet with a member of the General Assembly. He testified he wasn’t driving aggressively and after changing the tire he told her to get in the vehicle, thinking she had his phone.
According to Fariss’ testimony, Miles made contact with the side of the car, pushing the side mirror, and he didn’t think she was hurt. He testified he was “upset and frustrated” during the incident, which Caldwell described after the trial concluded as in all aspects a domestic argument.
Chuck Felmlee, who represented Fariss at trial, said the charges were “overkill” and the defense was pleased with the jury’s verdicts.
The case involving Miles was not Farris’ first brush with the law while in office. In 2016, Fariss pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge in Campbell County in connection with a July 2015 incident that damaged fencing, a highway sign and a mailbox. He also was found not guilty of breaching the peace, a misdemeanor, in a confrontation with a neighbor.
According to facts agreed to in court in 2016, Fariss was driving a Dodge Ram pickup on Red House Road on July 29 when the vehicle struck a tree, went in and out of a ditch and “went airborne.” The truck stopped but left the scene before police arrived. No one was injured in the crash.
Mark Peake, Fariss’ attorney in that case, said Fariss had reached down to retrieve a soda that had fallen into the floorboard when the crash occurred. Peake, a Republican who currently represents Virginia’ Senate 8 district that includes Lynchburg and Bedford and Campbell counties, was not serving in the state legislature at the time of the 2016 case in Campbell County General District Court.
Fariss was ordered to pay a $250 fine for causing damage between $250 and $500.
Fariss has three children, has operated a country store, managed real estate and farms and raised cattle, among other businesses; co-owns and is vice president of the Lynchburg Livestock Market, according to his website that as of Sunday was no longer active.
Justin Faulconer, (434) 473-2607