West Virginia Impeaches All Four State Supreme Court Judges For Misuse of Funds

Brittany M. Hughes | August 14, 2018
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While the federal swamp may be ever stagnating on, at least the Mountain State is trying to get their local cesspool under control.

The West Virginia House of Delegates voted 64 to 33 to impeach all four of their remaining state Supreme Court justices Tuesday, citing a gross misuse of state funds.

According to NPR, Chief Justice Margaret Workman and Justices Allen Loughry, Robin Davis, and Elizabeth Walkerwill now face an impeachment trial in the state Senate over allegations that they used a collective more than $3 million in state funding to renovate their offices. Each justice now faces removal from office.

One judge, Justice Allen Loughry, is also facing a federal court case on allegations of fraud, misuse of a state vehicle and reports that he’d moved an expensive desk from his Capitol office to his personal home. The House of Delegates allege he spent about $363,000 on his office renovations, including $32,000 on an expensive couch and another $34,000 on expensive floor inlay.

The four justices have also been called out for spending too much taxpayer cash on home computers and eating out for lunch, along with paying senior-level retired justice more than the legal limit.

“Loughry, Workman and Davis also were impeached for paying retired senior status judges more than the law allowed,” NPR adds.

What’s more, it looks like the corruption problem within the West Virginia Supreme Court extends to both major political parties. Loughry ran for his seat as a Republican, while Walker, Workman and Davis all ran as Democrats. The state’s Supreme Court elections were made non-partisan in 2015, according to NPR.

While the West Virginia Supreme Court houses a total of five seats, one judge, Justice Menis Ketchum, retired in July.

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