Lawyers in Franklin County are coming to the defense of Judge William Alexander, whose reappointment has been delayed by legislators miffed that he released a grand jury report critical of the county sheriff.

In an unusual vote Monday, the Franklin County Bar Association endorsed Alexander for another eight-year term.

Local bar associations typically don't involve themselves in judicial reappointments, which often are handled by routine votes of the General Assembly. But news that Alexander's reappointment had stalled in Richmond -- and speculation that politics was involved -- prompted the association's action. State lawmakers give great weight to local bar association recommendations on judicial appointments.

"We felt like we had to do something to stop this and say, 'Look, he's a good judge,' " Rocky Mount lawyer Carolyn Furrow said.

Two weeks ago, some lawmakers questioned Alexander's decision to make public a special grand jury report that led to the indictment of Sheriff Ewell Hunt on a misdemeanor charge of failing to properly maintain office records.

A House of Delegates subcommittee that vets judicial candidates delayed voting whether to give Alexander another term until later in the legislative session, with some members saying they intended to submit written questions to the judge.

"The unsealing is remarkable," Del. Bill Janis, a Goochland County Republican who leads the judicial systems subcommittee, said at the time. "I'd like to know the grounds for that."

Virginia law states that reports from special grand juries should be sealed and "not open to public inspection, other than by order of the court."

Alexander, a Circuit Court judge who presides mainly in Franklin County, unsealed the report at the request of the special prosecutor, Pittsylvania County Commonwealth's Attorney David Grimes.

Other judges have taken similar actions. Last week, a judge made public a special grand jury report that detailed problems at the Henry County Jail, including allegations of sexual contact between sheriff's officers and inmates. And in 2001, a Roanoke County judge unsealed the report from a panel that probed allegations of wrongdoing in the Vinton Police Department.

"People keep saying that it's unusual to release a special grand jury report," said David Furrow, another Franklin County lawyer who attended Monday's bar association meeting. "But it's unusual just to have a special grand jury."

David Furrow said he could not recall another such panel in his 31 years as a lawyer in Franklin County.

Monday's resolution from the bar association didn't address the unusual situation that Alexander finds himself in. Still, it reaffirmed the group's support for the judge.

"I would say that Judge Alexander has as good a reputation as you can get," David Furrow said.

Carolyn Furrow, who is not related to David Furrow, noted that the Virginia Supreme Court selected Alexander to preside over lawsuits brought against Virginia Tech by the families of two students killed in the 2007 campus shootings.

"I took that to mean that they had a very high regard for him," she said.

Alexander, a former county prosecutor, was appointed to the General District Court bench in 1984. Lawmakers elevated him to Circuit Court in 1994, and reappointed him eight years later without controversy.

Some legislators have questioned whether Alexander's latest reappointment was stalled by the Republican-controlled House for partisan reasons. Hunt is a Republican sheriff and his attorney, Bill Stanley, is chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party.

Stanley has said he did not talk to any legislators about Alexander and supports the judge's reappointment.

Regardless whether politics played a role, advocates of open government questioned why the release of information that led to a criminal charge against a public official should be an issue.

"This is an individual who was duly elected by the voters of Franklin County, so it would seem to me that Circuit Judge Alexander was doing the public a service by releasing the grand jury report," said Lawrence McConnell, president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

"The cause of open government, to me, is always served by the full disclosure of information so the public can better understand how its government, in this case the court system, works."