Indictment of state high court justice smears cake all over the face of the public’s trust

So much for Happy Birthday, West Virginia.
No, our state’s never had the monopoly on political corruption, but sometimes you cannot help but think we wrote the book on it.
Matter of fact, Justice Allen Loughry did write the book on it, before he was charged on West Virgina Day in a 22-count federal indictment.
We’re not going to argue that our state could have avoided the impact of this indictment if the Legislature had acted sooner. Ten days ago, we opined that if Loughry did not resign immediately, a special session of the Legislature should be convened to impeach him.
That came on the heels of a 32-count judicial complaint against Loughry by the state’s Judicial Investigation Commission and his suspension without pay from the bench.
Some will say why waste the $35,000 a day for a special session to impeach one of the state’s top jurists when the FBI was investigating him?
After all, two federal subpoenas were already on Loughry’s desk and the state Supreme Court’s bench.
However, at that time we did not know these indictments were forthcoming so soon.
Or that attempting to restore the high court’s credibility sooner would be worth the money for a special session.
This week, we continue to urge the Legislature in its interim session, from Sunday through June 26, to take up Loughry’s impeachment, if he refuses to resign.
However, something the U.S. attorney for the state’s southern district said Wednesday makes us wonder where this investigation is going. He said many public officials were so quick to condemn Loughry, “perhaps with the hope that the crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court could be expediently resolved by lodging all culpability on just one person — Justice Loughry.”
But, “That may or may not, however, be the case. Our work continues on many fronts, including additional areas of corruption.”
That would indicate not only other members of the state’s high court might need a lawyer, but that other public officials might be in the FBI’s cross-hairs, as well.
Though our state has a long history of political corruption, to say Loughry’s indictment comes as no surprise would be tantamount to expecting and accepting it.
We do neither. True, our newspaper is at constant loggerheads with public officials and their policies and agendas. However, that does not ever equate to suspecting them of plotting to undermine the rule of law or betray the public’s trust.
To think that we might as well surrender our faith in our form of representative government altogether.
But any official or candidate who would betray that trust should be held accountable.
And have the book thrown at them.