CHARLESTON — How deep will the jury pool need to be to find enough to fairly consider the controversial case of suspended Justice Allen Loughry?
Pretty deep, all sides agree.
How many potential jurors are necessary was the biggest topic of a pretrial hearing Monday afternoon before federal Judge John Copenhaver.
“I wonder if you all have given thought to how many jurors would be needed,” Copenhaver asked during the hearing, which lasted about half an hour.
Loughry faces two dozen federal charges related to his use of public office for private gain. The controversy began with WCHS-TV reports this time last year and then snowballed into West Virginia’s biggest political controversy in decades.
While a potential jury pool might need to number about 30, the judge, the defense and the prosecution all agreed that a year of scandal in West Virginia might require about twice that.
“I do think there would need to be significantly more than usual,” said John Carr, an attorney for Loughry.
U.S. Attorney Philip Wright did a quick calculation: a jury of 12, a couple of alternates, 10 challenged jurors for the defense team, six challenged jurors for the prosecution.
That puts the pool at 30 possible jurors at a minimum.
“I would say at least twice that amount,” Wright said.
Copenhaver proposed starting with a jury pool of 65 to 70. “We may put up another group on a contingency basis,” the judge said.
The judge and the lawyers also talked about the depth of the questions needed to sort out the pool and establish the jury.
“In a case such as this, with the publicity that has taken place, could it be or has it ever been the court’s practice to have more extensive voir dire?” Carr asked.
Copenhaver agreed, “A considerable number of these jurors have not only heard about the matter, but they’ve followed it.”
West Virginia has reached this point after months of controversy involving the Supreme Court.
Scandals came to a head this summer when Loughry was first charged by the state Judicial Investigations Commission and then by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In each case, Loughry was accused not only of misusing state resources but, worse, lying about the acts to investigators.
He has been suspended from the Supreme Court and faces two dozen federal charges. Loughry’s federal trial is set for Oct. 2.
The spark was lit last September with news reports about lavish renovations of justices’ chambers: the $32,000 couch and $7,500 wooden inlaid floor in Loughry’s office, a $500,000 office renovation and $28,000 rug in Davis’s office, and a $130,000 upgrade of Walker’s chambers.
Loughry denied guiding his own renovations and matters got worse.
Controversy then erupted over Loughry’s possession at his home of an antique desk associated with famed architect Cass Gilbert from when the state Capitol was first built. He took it home in 2012 while he was still a law clerk.
Then another couch added fuel to the fire. Loughry was accused of taking home a leather couch that had belonged to Justice Joseph Albright.
Loughry’s federal trial date remains Oct. 2.
That’s about the same time impeachment trials kick off in the state Senate.
The impeachment trial date for Loughry was moved by one day in a set of orders filed today by presiding Judge Paul Farrell.
Loughry’s trial date in the Senate has been changed to Nov. 13 to avoid holding court on Monday, Nov. 12. The state observes the Nov. 11 Veterans Day holiday that Monday.
