For the fourth time, a Hampton judge denies bond for father of missing 4-year-old Codi Bigsby

Once again, an attorney pressed a Hampton judge to release from jail the father of a 4-year-old boy who’s been missing for more than four months.

And once again, a judge denied the request — the fourth time in as many months that Hampton judges have rejected Cory Jamar Bigsby’s bid for release.

His attorney, Amina Matheny-Willard, contended Tuesday that Bigsby should get “a reasonable bond” rather than being jailed pending trial on seven counts of felony child neglect unrelated to the boy’s disappearance.

Matheny-Willard contended during the hearing that Bigsby’s prior attorney, Jeffrey Ambrose, provided “ineffective assistance of counsel” early on in the case.

But Hampton Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Robert B. Wilson V said he heard nothing at the hearing that would change prior rulings — in juvenile court and Circuit Court — that denied Bigsby bond.

“What I’ve heard is not sufficient to change what the Circuit Court has ordered,” Wilson said. A defendant’s bond is typically changed only when there’s “a material change in circumstance” in a case.

On Jan. 31, Bigsby reported his son, Codi Bigsby, missing from the family’s Buckroe Beach home. The father told police he last saw Codi asleep in his bed about 2 a.m., but that the boy was nowhere to be found later that morning.

Hampton police have been openly skeptical of that account, and have asked for the public’s help in pinpointing when Codi was last seen.

After more than three days at Hampton police headquarters, Bigsby was charged Feb. 4 with seven counts of felony child neglect. Court documents said he admitted to leaving his four boys — ages 2 through 5 — unattended on two occasions.

He’s remained in jail ever since.

Matheny-Willard asserted Tuesday that prosecutors “overcharged” Bigsby by charging him with seven felonies for leaving his children home alone.

When someone leaves their children alone without injury, she said, the standard practice is to refer the case — without charges — to Child Protective Services, which then develops a “home safety plan” so it doesn’t happen again.

In this case, Matheny-Willard asserted that police charged Bigsby with felonies as a way to hold him “while they tried to prove this false narrative” that he had something to do with Codi’s disappearance.

“It’s outrageous ... and it’s not right,” she said after the hearing. “He still has to live in this community. How are you just going to ruin somebody’s life?”

During the hearing, Matheny-Willard also cited three instances that she said showed a breakdown in the relationship between Bigsby and his prior lawyer, Ambrose.

In one case, she told the judge, Ambrose spoke to Bigsby by phone while Bigsby was locked up at the Hampton City Jail. During that conversation, she said, Ambrose asked Bigsby if he had anything to do with his son’s disappearance.

She said that when Bigsby said no, Ambrose replied, “It’s good that you said that because this call is being recorded by the jail.” That’s a concern, she said, because attorneys must ensure that conversations with their clients are confidential.

“He had a duty to make sure that no one else was listening,” Matheny-Willard said of Ambrose after Tuesday’s hearing. “He should have told him that this was a recorded line.”

Later, when Ambrose went to the jail to talk with Bigsby, the attorney brought two other people who Matheny-Willard contended were “adversarial in nature,” causing Bigsby to be “concerned with the questions he was being asked.”

Matheny-Willard did not identify the pair during Tuesday’s hearing, and declined to identify them afterward.

Ambrose also had Bigsby sign a waiver allowing the lawyer to get Bigsby’s military records during his time in the U.S. Army. Matheny-Willard said prosecutors used the same records at bond hearings after that, though she’s not sure whether they got them from Ambrose or another avenue.

During bond hearings in February and April, Ambrose said that Bigsby — a retired Army sergeant — was honorably discharged from the military.

Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell cited Bigsby’s military AWOL conviction as a reason to deny Bigsby bond. (Prosecutors said Bigsby left his duty station in Germany without permission and flew to New Jersey, then falsely told investigators he never left Germany).

Ambrose could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and neither Bell nor Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Pamela Jones could be reached to discuss how prosecutors got the military records.

Bigsby fired Ambrose in early April, a few days after a Circuit Court hearing where he was denied bond.

Matheny-Willard contended that Ambrose should have told a judge that Bigsby had fired him, but instead told a judge that “an ethical conflict” required him to get off the case.

While that was “technically true” — given that it’s an ethical conflict to represent someone after they fire you — Matheny-Willard said it was misleading, leading to widespread speculation that Ambrose learned something about the case that caused him to step down.

Jones said a bond hearing was an improper forum to raise questions about a prior attorney’s representation.

“This attorney has appeared before this court hundreds of times,” Jones said. “And it’s not the purpose of a bond hearing.”

Bigsby faces up to 35 years if convicted on the child neglect charges.

But Matheny-Willard said that based on Bigsby’s lack of a criminal record and other factors, discretionary state sentencing guidelines call for him to get six months or less to serve. Bigsby’s probable cause hearing is scheduled for June 13.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com