10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

U.S. Attorney Stuart doesn’t rule out more Supreme Court charges

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry faces a 22-count indictment that comes with a possible sentence of 395 years in prison.

And that might not be the only shoe to drop.

U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart left open the possibility that more charges may come out of the West Virginia Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry

“For the past several weeks, public officials across West Virginia have been quick to condemn Justice Loughry, perhaps with the hope that the crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court could be washed away with the responsibility of only one person, Justice Loughry. That may or may not be the case,” Stuart said.

“Our work continues on many fronts, including additional areas of corruption. I urge public officials and the public to respect this process and allow this process to play out.”

Stuart announced the charges against Loughry during a 25-minute news conference Wednesday.

The charges include fraud, false statement and witness tampering offenses.

The charges stemmed from the accusations that Loughry had renovated his office at great cost, took home state furniture and equipment and used a state vehicle for personal gain — but were compounded by false statements the charges allege he made to federal investigators.

Followup questions by reporters led to a series of “no comment” statements by Stuart. Those were interesting in themselves.

Reporter Annie Moore of WVVA: “Are any other justices being investigated?”

Stuart: “While I’d like to answer that question, I’m going to answer ‘no comment.'”

Reporter Mark Curtis of WOWK: “Is it possible there could be other indictments?”

Stuart: “It’s always possible there could be other indictments or anything at any time. If your question’s in reference to the Supreme Court, no comment.”

The third try at that line of questioning yielded the most elaboration by Stuart.

Reporter Kennie Bass of WCHS: “Are you still looking at the Supreme Court? Does this wrap things up?”

Mike Stuart

Stuart: “I made this clear. The idea that we can indict one justice, albeit on 22 very serious charges, that somehow this sort of takes the fog of corruption off the Supreme Court — I don’t want to go into a great deal of depth here but the pile-on on Justice Loughry over the past few weeks couldn’t have been lost on anybody. I’m sure there were a whole lot of people who would like Justice Loughry to be indicted and go down in a great ball of flames and somehow the rest of the court escapes uncharged. I don’t know if there will be charges in the future, but I can tell you we’re interested in public corruption. My administration here in this office is focused on public corruption from the day I got here. The day I got here, I talked about the importance of making sure a Supreme Court, which sits in judgment of the people, are honest judges. We’ve worked hard on this matter. We’ll continue to work hard, and we’ll let the facts lead us to where the facts lead us.”

Stuart’s opening remarks included thoughts about the Supreme Court’s role as the state’s highest arbiter of the law and citizens’ behavior.

“The West Virginia Supreme Court should be and must be above reproach, even above the slightest appearance of impropriety, after all it’s the highest court in our land and its justices are elected by our people, our neighbors, our families to stand in judgment of us,” he said.

“Our Supreme Court must be a place of hope and not a place of safety for the cancer of corruption.”

Stuart announced in March that he would be establishing a public corruption unit.

The unit is designed to investigate the misuse of public funds, corrupt public officials, campaign and election law violations and suspected criminal activity.

In recent weeks, Gov. Jim Justice’s office has described referring some matters to Stuart’s office, including issues with long-term flood relief and questions about private citizens who were working with the state Department of Commerce on investments from China.

Stuart was asked by MetroNews on Wednesday to comment on those referrals.

“Everyone has the opportunity, who is in a position of power, to say ‘I spoke to the U.S. Attorney. I went to the U.S. Attorney.’ However, I don’t have the privilege of saying ‘That’s not true.’ So, I would tell you as good reporters, do your work. Just because they say it, doesn’t make it true.

“I would say it’s important in every matter that you do your homework, but I can tell you we do our homework.”

Stuart then said, though, that his office is looking at other areas of government besides the judicial system.

“If you’re asking are we only looking at the Supreme Court, the answer would be ‘no,’ but I don’t want to comment with any specificity as to what we’re looking at.”





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