CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Legislature began exploring impeachment Tuesday June 26 in the wake of state Supreme Court justice Allen Loughry facing 22 federal counts.
The House of Delegates voted, 89-0 with 11 absences, to empower its Judiciary Committee to remain in special session and investigate. That committee will spend at least the next week gathering documentation and preparing witness lists as state lawmakers mull impeachment proceedings for the first time since 1989.
Judiciary Chairman John Shott said the committee must work toward having a high standard of evidence.
“There’s some sense that since we’ve got all these investigations, all we’ve got to do is put the documents on the Senate’s table and hope that they’ll accept that,” said Shott, R-Mercer.
“I don’t know of any lawyer that I would hire who would go to court with the least they think is necessary to win the case. Nor do I know of any lawyer that I would hire that would assume the lowest standard of evidence might be applied.”
Loughry was indicted last week on a string of federal charges, including fraud, false statement and witness tampering offenses. But he’s not necessarily the only focus of the special session.
Justice Menis Ketchum also has been in hot water over his use of state vehicles for personal travel.
Gov. Jim Justice called the special session Monday, after months of controversy about the court’s finances.
The Legislature has been divided over whether to impose a deadline on the impeachment procedures.
Aug. 14 is a key date for whether an open Supreme Court seat would be voted upon during this fall’s general election or whether the governor would appoint a replacement.
Democrats proposed setting a July 23 deadline for the House to do its part of impeachment, but the amendment was voted down.
“Should the voters of the state of West Virginia have a right to vote on who their justices will be, or should the governor have that right?” asked Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton.
Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison, said West Virginia could begin healing from its political controversies if the Legislature concludes impeachment in a timely manner.
“As long as this is hanging over all of our heads, it hurts us all and hurts the public confidence that we want our citizens to have,” he said.
The last time West Virginia conducted impeachment hearings of any kind was for the case of state Treasurer A. James Manchin in 1989. Accused of financial mismanagement, Manchin resigned before his trial in the Senate.
The Judiciary Committee received a history lesson — plus some advice — from Marc Harman, a former delegate and one of five legislative managers during the 1989 impeachment.
“You’re getting ready to investigate and potentially offer articles of impeachment,” he said. “You need to backfill every piece of information that’s out there. You have to find out what’s behind it, what supports it. You have to document it.”
He said the Supreme Court case might be more difficult than what his colleagues dealt with 38 years ago.
“I consider your case to be much more daunting than mine, to be quite honest,” Harman said.
“You can’t look at each justice in a vacuum. You’ve got to look at the court plus each individual justice. You’ve got a variety of levels of potential problems you’re going to get into. I consider what you folks are about to get into a whole lot worse than what we went through.”
