CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia lawmakers have impeached all four of the state's Supreme Court justices in an effort to put the entire court on trial over spending issues.
The Republican-led House of Delegates on Monday night impeached Justice Beth Walker and the other justices for abusing their authority. The article of impeachment says they failed to control office expenses and did not maintain policies over important matters such as working lunches, the use of state vehicles and office computers at home.
Walker was the last of the four justices to be impeached. She had avoided impeachment earlier when the House voted not to pass an article against her for $131,000 in renovations she made after taking office last year.
Some lawmakers said they didn't condone Walker's spending but said it paled in comparison to other justices.
After Walker avoided that article of impeachment, lawmakers then voted to withdraw an impeachment charge against Chief Justice Margaret Workman over $111,000 in renovations to her office.
The state House of Delegates had voted first to impeach Justice Allen Loughry, who faces a 23-count federal indictment.
Lawmakers approved articles against Loughry for spending $363,000 in renovations to his office; having a $42,000 antique desk and computers, all owned by the state, at his home; lying to the House Finance Committee about taking home the desk and a $32,000 suede leather couch; and for his personal use of state vehicles.
Another impeachment article, dealing with an accusation that Loughry used state money to frame personal items at his office, was withdrawn.
The lawmakers voted to impeach Loughry, Workman and Justice Robin Davis for their roles in allowing senior status judges to be paid higher-than-allowed wages. Lawmakers say the overpayments violated state law and stopped when they were challenged by the IRS.
Davis also was impeached over $500,000 in office renovations.
House spokesman Jared Hunt said a resolution formally sending the approved articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial would be acted on after each individual article was considered.
Minority Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, which approved the articles last week, had tried to speed up the impeachment process in the hopes of beating today's deadline for arranging a special election in November if any justice is removed from office or leaves office. Republican Gov. Jim Justice will be allowed to appoint new justices to replace any who are impeached.
Democrats have accused Republicans of attempting to wrest the court away from voters, who elected the justices in nonpartisan elections.
Del. Barbara Evans Fleischauer, a Democrat, said her party agreed that there was enough to recommend Loughry's impeachment. But she said going after the other justices "was a power grab, was a takeover of the court and using the impeachment process to take over another branch of government."
"We're taking away from the people," she said.
Some legislators said they didn't support impeaching any justice for wasteful spending, only for articles pertaining to lying, cheating or stealing.
But John Shott, a Republican who chaired the House Judiciary Committee hearings where the impeachment articles were drawn up, asked whether there is public confidence in the court. If not, he said, "We need to take action to try to rebuild that trust."
Loughry was indicted in June on 23 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, lying to federal law enforcement, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
One impeachment article accused Loughry of lying to the House Finance Committee in January about his involvement in his office renovations.
Loughry was suspended earlier this year. Justice Menis Ketchum retired and agreed to plead guilty to a federal wire fraud count involving the personal use of state-owned vehicles and fuel cards.
A special election already is set for November to fill the remainder of Ketchum's term.
A Section on 08/14/2018