6:00: Morning News

Star witness for Justice Beth Walker’s impeachment trial will likely be Beth Walker

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The first in a series of impeachment trials for West Virginia Supreme Court justices might be fairly brief, in part because the lawyers for Justice Beth Walker are expressing such confidence in what she has to say.

“We hope it’s going to be quick and efficient,” Mike Hissam, one of the lawyers for Walker, said on MetroNews’ “Talkline.” “We think this trial could maybe even get done Monday. We think at the most it should take two or three days.”

“There’s only 14 witnesses total on the House list and on our list there’s just one, Beth Walker.”

The impeachment trial for Walker is set to begin at 9 a.m. Monday in the state Senate chamber, with senators serving as the Court of Impeachment and Judge Paul Farrell presiding.

All in all, it’s a huge week for West Virginia’s Supreme Court controversy.

At 11 a.m. Monday, former Congressman Evan Jenkins is to be sworn in to the seat formerly held by Justice Robin Davis, who angrily announced her retirement after the House voted on impeachment.

And on Tuesday, the trial of suspended Justice Allen Loughry begins in federal court, where he faces 25 charges.

Meanwhile, justices Davis and Workman have filed lawsuits over the impeachment process, which could result in some swift decisions in court. Workman filed a petition with the Supreme Court to halt impeachment, and Davis filed a federal lawsuit.

Walker, who has been on the Supreme Court since 2017, was named in only one of the 11 impeachment articles passed by the House of Delegates. That’s the fewest of any of the justices.

That article accuses all four remaining justices of failing to establish policies about remodeling state offices, travel budgets, computers for home use and framing of personal items.

Essentially, the article claims the justices failed to hold each other accountable. All of the remaining justices were named in that article.

“Beth Walker is eager to embrace this process in the Senate. We’re eager and ready and willing to do that. We’ve been willing to do it as early as we could,” Hissam said.

“The reason we’re ready to do it is Beth is eager to appear in the Senate to testify and explain her conduct and admit where she might have made mistakes. She is not perfect. She is human. She has made mistakes, and she’ll be the first to admit that.”

Walker’s lawyers did file a motion early last month to dismiss the article against her. The reasons stated to seek dismissal are many of the same ones Walker’s lawyers cite as reasons for optimism as she faces trial.

“Beth Walker was on the court for a very brief time and was never the chief justice,” Hissam said. “When it came to the critical issues of improving the court’s policies, procedures and oversight, she often stood alone and against her colleagues. We’re going to walk through a timeline.”

The other side of Walker’s case will be put on by managers from the House of Delegates.

“It won’t be a neutral stance, but it’s not a lynch mob mentality either,” said House Judiciary Chairman John Shott, R-Mercer.

“Our job was not to remove all five justices when we started out. It was basically to gather the evidence, see where the evidence led and present it at the appropriate time to the House to determine whether they think it was sufficient to go forward with impeachment proceedings.”

Shott said a major task of the managers will be to discuss the context of why the articles matter.

“We’ll probably try to give some context to the evidence,” he said. “These things don’t happen in a vacuum. The state has had severe financial distress over the years; I think that’s what makes some of the spending issues more compelling.”

Shott, like others, will be interested to hear what Walker has to say.

“We don’t know what she’s going to say, but I’m sure she’s going to attempt to put the best face on the facts that she can and say she was not there very long and inherited a situation that was undesirable and perhaps she took some action – which we haven’t seen any evidence of, but perhaps she took some action to change things.”

All of this might take longer than a day but possibly not all week, Shott suggested.

“I don’t think it’s going to be extremely long. Certainly we should finish within the week, hopefully closer to three to five days,” he said.

“Hopefully the public will see this as a first step to try to rebuild the confidence that the designers of our constitution placed in our judiciary, specifically the Supreme Court.”





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