CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The latest criminal charge against suspended West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry may not be the last, according to the U.S. attorney for the Mountain State’s Southern District.
“The grand jury is always looking into things and this office is always investigating things,” said U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
At this point, he can only reply with “no comment” went asked about specifics of such investigations.
On Tuesday, Stuart announced a federal grand jury had returned a superseding indictment adding an additional obstruction of justice charge against Loughry.
“Obstruction is a very, very serious offense,” Stuart said.
.@USAttyStuart joins @HoppyKercheval to discuss the superseding indictment against suspended State Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/AEsnsvkASf
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) July 18, 2018
The new count charges that between Dec. 4, 2017, and May 24, 2018, Loughry “knowingly and corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct, and impede the due administration of justice — a pending federal grand jury investigation the existence of which Loughry was well aware.”
The superseding indictment, with the additional obstruction of justice charge, brings to 23 the total number of criminal counts against Loughry, 47.
He previously entered not guilty pleas to 22 charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, witness tampering and lying to federal investigators contained in the original indictment after being arrested on West Virginia Day.
Arraignment on the latest charge against Loughry was scheduled for next week which could delay his planned August trial.
The question of potential impeachment is separate from the criminal charges.
On Thursday at 9 a.m., members of the state House Judiciary Committee resume investigative hearings at the State Capitol that may lead to possible impeachment proceedings for Loughry or another member of members of the state Supreme Court.
The resignation of Justice Menis Ketchum, submitted earlier this month, takes effect next week.
“It is the position of the Democrats that we should be focusing on Justice Loughry and most of the time we have been doing that,” said Delegate Barbara Evans Fleishauer (D-Monongalia, 51), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
WV Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer (D-Monongalia) joins @HoppyKercheval in studio to share her thoughts on the State Supreme Court impeachment proceedings so far. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/cO0ekBFQww
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) July 18, 2018
Additional witnesses were being scheduled to testify on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week and, Fleischauer said, her hope was that delegates would have the opportunity to tour the state Supreme Court offices.
“We might want to see what one of these desks look like, a Cass Gilbert desk. To me, that’s one of the really disturbing things, that somebody would take an historical piece of furniture home, that they would think that the laws don’t apply to them,” she said.
“So we want to see what one of those looks like. We want to see this big couch. We want to see this medallion on the floor and so on.”
Controversy began last year after reports about pricey renovations at the state Supreme Court, including the $363,000 design and renovation of Loughry’s office with a $7,500 custom-made wooden medallion of the State of West Virginia built into the floor with his home county of Tucker in blue granite.
More 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.
A legislative audit released in April concluded that Loughry Ketchum drove state vehicles for personal use without properly claiming the perk as a taxable fringe benefit.
“We are there. It’s a very serious issue and we are conducting ourselves as seriously as we can,” Fleischauer said.
Before his election to the Supreme Court in 2012, Loughry was perhaps best known for his political ethics book “Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Won’t Pay for a Landslide: The Sordid and Continuing History of Political Corruption in West Virginia.”