27-60 - Department to conduct investigations in certain cases; investigations may be private. - Virginia Statutes

§ 27-60. Department to conduct investigations in certain cases;investigations may be private.

The Department may petition an appropriate judicial officer to summons andcompel the attendance of witnesses to testify in relation to any matter whichis, by the provisions of this chapter, a subject of inquiry andinvestigation. It may also administer oaths and affirmations to suchwitnesses, and false swearing in any such matter shall be deemed perjury, andshall be punished as such. It may in its discretion take or cause to be takenthe testimony on oath of all persons supposed to be cognizant of any facts orto have means of knowledge in relation to the matters as to which anyexamination is, in this chapter, required to be made, and shall cause thesame to be reduced to writing. Investigations in relation to such mattersmay, in the discretion of the Department, be private, and persons other thanthose required to be present by the provisions of this chapter may beexcluded from that place where such examination is held, and witnesses may bekept separate and apart from each other, and not allowed to communicate witheach other until they have been examined.

(Code 1919, § 4189; 1977, c. 613.)