The state Supreme Court has started an official inquiry into the court docket controversy involving Kanawha County Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.
Chief Justice Brent Benjamin signed an order Tuesday afternoon calling on Supreme Court Administrator Steve Canterbury to conduct the investigation.
Webster signed nearly two dozen dismissal orders last month to clear her docket. The action started a process that led to the release of Jeremy Carter, a Tennessee man being held in the South Central Regional Jail on an attempted kidnapping charge.
(Read Supreme Court order here.)
The order says Canterbury’s investigation is to include but not limited to “the procedures of Judge Webster’s office and the office of the Circuit Clerk of Kanawha County, to ensure that fair and appropriate standards of procedure are being maintained, and to report the same to the Supreme Court of Appeals.”
Judge Webster originally took the blame for the Carter’s surprise release.
“I’m very upset,” said Webster to the Charleston Gazette Friday night. “I own that, is what I mean. It is extraordinarily regretful that it happened, and it shouldn’t have happened.”
But Webster had backtracked by Sunday night when she put out a three-page statement explaining what had happened.
“I inadvertently took responsibility for the mistaken release of Jeremy Carter,” Webster said.
She now says it was the Kanawha County Circuit Clerk’s Office that misinterpreted what she did. Circuit Clerk Cathy Gatson told MetroNews her office was following procedure.
“She was attempting to clear cases from her docket and prepared the dismissal orders exclusive of the prosecutor’s office, that’s my understanding,” Gatson said.
Carter got out of jail Thursday. Police found him Monday night in South Charleston. He’s now back in jail and Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants said Tuesday he plans to indict him soon.