A Wythe County juvenile court judge has been arrested in an April 27 hit-and-run crash in Powhatan County.

The misdemeanor hit-and-run charge marked the second arrest in less than two months for M. Keith Blankenship, a former Wythe County commonwealth's attorney who in July 2005 became a juvenile and domestic relations judge for a district that includes Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Grayson and Wythe counties.

Virginia State Police said Blankenship, 43, was arrested at his Wytheville home Saturday with the Powhatan incident. He was released later that day on an unsecured bond.

On March 1, Blankenship was pulled over on Interstate 81 in Smyth County and charged with driving under the influence and refusing a breath test. A hearing on those charges is scheduled for May 20 in Smyth County General District Court.

Since Blankenship's arrest in March, there has been no public disciplinary action taken against him.

Blankenship did not return telephone messages seeking comment yesterday.

In the April 27 matter in Powhatan, Blankenship was driving north on Huguenot Springs Road in a 2006 Subaru Forester at 5:15 p.m. when he swerved off the right side of the road and struck a telephone-line box, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. The vehicle continued into a yard beside the telephone-line box, causing substantial damage, then crossed over to the left side of the road, hit an embankment and uprooted a tree in another yard, Geller said.

No one was injured, Geller said.

Geller said several witnesses saw the crash. State police found Blankenship that evening at a hotel in Chesterfield County.

The crash investigation is continuing, Geller said.

-- Media General News Service