Interview with new Pocahontas County magistrates

Marlinton, W.Va. –

Pocahontas County has two new magistrates: Cynthia Broce Kelly and Carrie Wilfong, both PCHS graduates of the class of 1994, as is county commissioner Jamie Walker.

I asked Carrie Wilfong what were her goals when she graduated almost 20 years ago. Carrie said that she wanted to go to college, but had to help her single Mom raise her 4 younger brothers and started public work at Dairy Queen her senior year of high school, “and from there, just worked every single day of my life.”

I asked Cynthia Broce-Kelly the same question. Cynthia said she had wanted to be a dental hygienist, but after a year of school, “I decided real quick I didn’t want to look in people’s mouth for the rest of my life.” She then studied criminal justice at Bluefield State, “and knew then that was a field I had a knack for maybe – and maybe it was just in the family genes.” Her grandfather was a constable and her brother is in law enforcement.

Carrie ran for Circuit clerk four years ago and hadn’t thought about running for magistrate, “until a few months before January some people asked me if I had thought about it. and after a while I thought, you know, I would be really good at that, because I like helping people.”
I asked them what about their new job (they’ve been in office just over a month) was different from what they expected. Cynthia noted the large paperwork load, and Carrie said “sitting behind that bench and listening to a case and having to hear both parties and having to make that decision . But I believe myself and Magistrate Kelly are on the same lines of how we’re going to run policies and how we’re going to handle these cases as they come in.”

Carrie Wilfong and Cynthia Broce Kelly, new Pocahontas County magistrates and proud members of the PCHS class of 1994!