Reports of corruption, lavish overspending, and abuses of authority on the part of West Virginia’s four sitting Supreme Court justices have dominated area headlines in recent months — and state lawmakers have finally decided to do something about it.
All four of West Virginia’s Supreme Court justices were impeached by a vote in the state House of Delegates on Monday.
Overstepping their bounds
According to The Hill, all four justices were impeached for abusing their authority. Two of them were also impeached for overspending taxpayer money on office renovations, and one was also impeached for using state-owned equipment and vehicles for personal activities.
Justice Allen Loughry was impeached on eight separate counts that included spending more than $363,000 on office renovations, as well as for transferring a $42,000 antique desk and state-owned computers to his home. He was also charged with using state-owned vehicles for personal use and for lying to members of the House Finance Committee about the issues.
Aside from being impeached from the court, Loughry faces other trouble in the form of a federal indictment on multiple felony counts that include mail and wire fraud, lying to federal investigators, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, among others, according to NBC News.
Justice Robin Davis was impeached for her abuse of authority and for spending more than $500,000 on office renovations.
More scandal
Chief Justice Margaret Workman and Justice Beth Workman were let off the hook for the cost of their own office renovations — $111,000 and $131,000, respectively — but were nevertheless impeached for abuse of authority.
At issue for Workman was her signing off on allowing senior status judges to receive higher wages than were allowed by state law.
A former justice who would have been the fifth sitting justice — and likely would have been impeached along with the others — was Menis Ketchum, who resigned from the bench in disgrace in July and has since pleaded guilty to one count of federal wire fraud.
The impeachment process will now move to the state Senate for a trial with Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell specially sworn in to serve as chief justice temporarily. The trial should begin in September, though a clear timeline for the procedure has yet to be set.
[show_poll poll_id=720]
Should the four justices ultimately be found guilty and removed from office by the state Senate, West Virginia’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice will be allowed to appoint justices to replace them who would serve until at least 2020, at which point new elections would be held. Had the justices been impeached prior to August 14, their seats would have been placed on this year’s ballot.
These four state supreme court justices are all alleged to have abused the authority vested in them and wasted taxpayer money on frivolous and personal expenses — and evidently, corruption like that simply won’t be tolerated in West Virginia.
1,009 Responses
Aw, this was an incredibly good post. Taking the time and actual effort to create a superb article… but what can I say… I put things off a lot and never manage to get anything done.
I seriously love your blog.. Pleasant colors & theme. Did you make this site yourself? Please reply back as I’m hoping to create my very own blog and would love to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Appreciate it!
Wow, that’s what I was looking for, what a material! existing here at this webpage, thanks admin of this web site.|
I used to be able to find good information from your articles.
Saved as a favorite, I love your website!
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a colleague who had been doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me dinner due to the fact that I discovered it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to discuss this matter here on your blog.
You made some good points there. I checked on the web to find out more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this website.|
Quality posts is the main to invite the users to visit the site, that’s what this web site is providing.|
Hey there! I simply want to give you a huge thumbs up for your great info you have got right here on this post. I’ll be returning to your website for more soon.
You should take part in a contest for one of the greatest blogs on the web. I will highly recommend this website!
Excellent pieces. Keep writing such kind of information on your site. Im really impressed by it.
334835 647663Oh my goodness! an incredible post dude. Thanks a ton Nonetheless We are experiencing issue with ur rss . Dont know why Cannot enroll in it. Can there be any person locating identical rss dilemma? Anyone who knows kindly respond. Thnkx 212043
Hi there, just wanted to tell you, I loved this post. It was helpful. Keep on posting!|
Thanks for finally writing about > blog_title < Loved it!|
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate to this outstanding blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will share this blog with my Facebook group. Talk soon!|
I’ve recently started a site, the information you offer on this site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work.
Nice response in return of this question with solid arguments and telling everything on the topic of that.|
Very good write-up. I definitely appreciate this website. Stick with it!
I am now not sure the place you are getting your info, but good topic. I must spend a while learning much more or working out more. Thanks for fantastic information I was looking for this info for my mission.|
I’m not sure exactly why but this site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.|
An interesting discussion is definitely worth comment. I think that you should write more about this subject, it might not be a taboo subject but typically people don’t talk about these issues. To the next! Best wishes!!
Hello! Quick question that’s entirely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My web site looks weird when browsing from my iphone 4. I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able to fix this issue. If you have any suggestions, please share. Appreciate it!
Hi there, I found your site by the use of Google while looking for a related matter, your site got here up, it appears to be like good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
What i don’t realize is in reality how you’re not actually a lot more well-preferred than you might be now. You’re so intelligent. You already know therefore considerably in terms of this matter, produced me personally imagine it from numerous varied angles. Its like women and men don’t seem to be involved unless it’s one thing to accomplish with Woman gaga! Your individual stuffs nice. All the time care for it up!
Spot on with this write-up, I really believe this amazing site needs far more attention. I’ll probably be returning to read more, thanks for the information!
The following time I learn a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I imply, I know it was my choice to read, but I really thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you may repair in case you werent too busy looking for attention.
I used to be more than happy to find this web-site.I needed to thanks for your time for this glorious read!! I definitely having fun with each little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up and the rest of the site is also really good.
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz respond as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to know where u got this from. appreciate it
It’s amazing in favor of me to have a web page, which is helpful in support of my experience. thanks admin|
I am extremely impressed along with your writing abilities and also with the format on your weblog. Is this a paid subject or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the nice high quality writing, it is rare to look a nice blog like this one today..|
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after looking at a few of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Regardless, I’m certainly pleased I discovered it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back often!
May I just say what a relief to discover somebody that genuinely understands what they are discussing over the internet. You definitely understand how to bring an issue to light and make it important. A lot more people must read this and understand this side of the story. It’s surprising you are not more popular given that you certainly possess the gift.
You are so awesome! I don’t believe I’ve read through something like that before. So good to discover somebody with some genuine thoughts on this subject. Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. This web site is something that is required on the internet, someone with some originality!|
Wonderful blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Many thanks
An intriguing discussion is worth comment. There’s no doubt that that you need to write more on this subject, it may not be a taboo matter but generally folks don’t talk about such subjects. To the next! Best wishes!!
Hello, everything is going nicely here and ofcourse every one is sharing data, that’s in fact fine, keep up writing.|
Hello friends, how is all, and what you wish for to say about this article, in my view its truly awesome in favor of me.|
There’s definately a great deal to find out about this issue. I love all the points you have made.
You should take part in a contest for one of the best sites online. I am going to recommend this web site!