Nelson County
14,920 people, served by 3 police agencies that report to the FBI.
How a case moves here
Nelson County follows Virginia law on arrests, release, and courts. These rules are the same in every county in the state; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.
- Who decides release first
A magistrate decides bail first. Magistrates are court officers, not judges, and need not be lawyers. The law presumes release unless the magistrate finds the person likely to flee or dangerous.
Va. Code 19.2-119Va. Code 19.2-120Va. Code 19.2-37- Time to see a judge
Police must bring a person arrested without a warrant "forthwith" before a magistrate. The law sets no number of hours.
Va. Code 19.2-82- Money bail
Magistrates and judges may set secured money bonds. Virginia repealed its presumptions against bail for listed offenses in 2021 and now presumes release.
Va. Code 19.2-120- Courts
Circuit courts try felonies and hear misdemeanor appeals. General district courts hear misdemeanors and traffic cases and hold preliminary hearings in felony cases. Juvenile and domestic relations district courts hear cases involving minors and family members.
Virginia's Judicial System, General District Court- Judges and magistrates
The General Assembly elects circuit judges for eight-year terms and district judges for six-year terms; all must be lawyers. Magistrates are not judges. The Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia appoints them after consulting the chief circuit judges, and magistrates appointed since July 1, 2008 need a bachelor's degree, not a law degree.
Va. Const. art. VI, sec. 7Va. Code 16.1-69.9Va. Code 16.1-69.15Va. Code 19.2-35Va. Code 19.2-37
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Virginia's independent cities stand in for counties: each elects its own Commonwealth's attorney and sheriff. Whether every locality has a pretrial services agency was not confirmed.
What this county does differently
- Pretrial practice
OAR/Jefferson Area Community Corrections serves this locality with pretrial services, and Virginia's local pretrial agencies use the VPRAI.
Virginia DCJS, Community-Based Probation and Pretrial Services Agency Directory, locality cross reference (December 2025)Virginia DCJS, Report on Pretrial Services Agencies, FY2025 (January 2026)
Police agencies
- Nelson County Sheriff's OfficeSheriff or county police14,306 served
- Wintergreen Police DepartmentCity police department506 served
- State Police: Nelson CountyState police agency
Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29. An agency that serves several counties appears on each. Population served is the FBI's figure.
Crime
The crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 36 | 25 | 44 | 22 | 19 | 198 | 228 |
| Murder | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 5.9 | |||
| Rape | 8 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 37 | 30 |
| Robbery | 2 | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 35 | ||
| Aggravated assault | 26 | 20 | 37 | 19 | 11 | 153 | 157 |
| Property crime | 232 | 200 | 137 | 174 | 123 | 1,173 | 1,558 |
| Burglary | 50 | 24 | 30 | 34 | 16 | 209 | 114 |
| Larceny | 163 | 165 | 98 | 128 | 95 | 879 | 1,298 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 19 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 85 | 145 |
| Arson | 3 | 1 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 7 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 410 | 389 | 387 | 320 | 309 | 2,457 | 2,779 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 138 | 105 | 130 | 96 | 101 | 772 | 1,009 |
| Vandalism | 110 | 105 | 70 | 61 | 53 | 540 | 533 |
| Fraud | 65 | 78 | 75 | 55 | 43 | 428 | 462 |
| Drug abuse violations | 35 | 31 | 31 | 63 | 66 | 306 | 386 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 29 | 28 | 26 | 12 | 9 | 141 | 167 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 2 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 28 | 20 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 3 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 53 | 52 |
| Embezzlement | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 20 | |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 10 | 11 | 20 | 9 | 10 | 81 | 38 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 4.2 | ||||
| Other Group A offenses | 13 | 12 | 18 | 12 | 14 | 93 | 86 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 2 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.9 | |||
| Human trafficking (not in the total) | 2 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.9 |
Offenses agencies in Nelson County reported to the FBI in incident detail (NIBRS), each year, the second table by the arrest class each offense falls in. Per 100k: offenses per 100,000 people the reporting agencies police, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside Virginia's rate over the same years. Agencies that reported part of a year are counted with their people, as the state's rates count them. – means too few for a rate: the count is under 20.
Source: FBI NIBRS national master files, each agency's offenses and the FBI's population for it. Virginia: the crime index: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, CrimeDB's chosen value per year (the state page's figures); outside it: FBI NIBRS, agencies that sent incident detail.