West Virginia

Attorney Gives Up License After Conviction In Law Office Arson Case

An attorney has voluntarily given up her West Virginia license after being convicted of arson concerning a small fire at the law firm at which she then worked. Ashley R. Shreve, 30, was sentenced earlier this year to five years of probation, with conditions, concerning a box of files set…

Sep 14, 2012 5:36 PM CDT

Ex-Worker Blames Marriage Issues for $400K Law Firm Theft, Says She Didn’t Know She’d Taken So Much

A former office manager has pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $400,000 from a West Virginia personal injury law firm, saying that she had no idea she’d taken so much. The law firm Bucci, Bailey & Javins didn’t either until after they terminated Terry Workman after seven years of employment, the…

Aug 28, 2012 8:47 PM CDT

Angry Judge in YouTube Video Calls Unrelated Ethics Case re ‘Overwhelming’ Caseload ‘Infuriating’

A West Virginia family court judge who became widely known after a YouTube video of his angry comments from the bench to a matrimonial party went viral is now reportedly outraged about an unrelated legal ethics case. The expedited state supreme court action, which was made public last week, charges…

Aug 13, 2012 4:37 PM CDT

Restored Factory Sees Shift from Tin Works and Kerosene Lamps to Back-Office Support

More than a hundred years ago, the sprawling building in Wheeling, W.Va.’s once-thriving coal and steel area, housed factory workers making tin products and kerosene lanterns. Now, after a top-to-bottom restoration that pays homage to the building’s industrial past, the building is home to a busy back-office-support operation for San…

Aug 13, 2012 4:16 PM CDT

More Trouble for Angry Judge in YouTube Video; Threatened with Contempt, He Rules In Another Case

A West Virginia judge whose angry comments to a pastor litigating a divorce case gained widespread publicity after a YouTube video of the hearing went viral last month has complied with a state supreme court order to issue a ruling in an unrelated divorce case or be held in contempt.…

Jul 13, 2012 6:00 PM CDT

State Supreme Court Administrator Won’t Pile Another Complaint on Judge in YouTube Video

A pastor who publicized a now-viral video of a West Virginia jurist shouting “shut up” during a family court hearing says he has filed numerous complaints against Putnam Circuit Judge William Watkins. But the administrator of the state’s top court says he himself has no reason to add another complaint…

Jul 3, 2012 5:49 PM CDT

Court Hearing Video of Angry Jurist Shouting ‘Shut Up’ Gains YouTube Traction

Updated: An official recording of a May family court hearing in West Virginia is becoming an unexpected YouTube hit. It quickly topped more than 10,000 views, after a pastor who is a party in the divorce case at issue got hold of it and conveyed it to a wider audience,…

Jul 2, 2012 9:32 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Narrowly Lost AG Race Is Charged in Shooting Case, Cites Castle Doctrine

A West Virginia lawyer who narrowly lost a race to become the state attorney general in 2008 has been charged with malicious wounding and wanton endangerment with a firearm in the Wednesday shooting of a man at the lawyer’s home in Procious. State police say attorney Hiram Lewis, 41, claimed…

Jun 14, 2012 9:40 PM CDT

Ex-Lawyer Faces Felony Charges for Allegedly Failing to Complete Promised Legal Work

A former West Virginia lawyer was arraigned Monday on five felony charges of obtaining money by false pretenses, as well as forgery and uttering of a public record. Kenneth J. Ford, 37, is accused in the Berkeley County Circuit Court case of accepting money from multiple clients to perform legal…

Jun 5, 2012 4:58 PM CDT

Texas Inmate Gets 40 Percent of Vote in W. Va. Presidential Primary

President Obama is so unpopular in West Virginia that a Texas inmate won about 40 percent of the vote in the state’s Democratic primary. Keith Judd paid a $2,500 filing fee and filed a form to get on the state ballot, the Associated Press reports. AP says Judd is in…

May 9, 2012 11:33 AM CDT

Lawyer Scoffs at Portrayal of Kid Whose School Bus Ouster Led to Criminal Charges Against Principal

A lawyer for a West Virginia school principal says the public hasn’t learned the whole story in the prosecution of his client for forcibly ejecting a boy from a school bus. The Point Pleasant intermediate school principal, Cameron Moffett, is facing a civil suit as well as a criminal charge…

Apr 19, 2012 11:50 AM CDT

Lawyer Suspended 3 Years for Overbilling Client by $135K

The West Virginia Supreme Court has suspended for three years an attorney who overbilled a client by $135,878.68 while working for a Huntington law firm. A partner of Baker and Marstellar discovered during a routine audit in 2007 that Richard L. Lancianese, 50, who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C., had billed…

Mar 23, 2012 6:03 PM CDT

Second Massey Manager Is Charged in Fatal Mine Accident; Conspiracy Allegation Is Unusual

A second manager at Massey Energy Co. has been charged in connection with the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners, and there could be more prosecutions ahead. Former mine superintendent Gary May, 43, was charged with conspiracy to impede safety efforts in a single-count information (PDF), an indication that he…

Feb 23, 2012 1:22 PM CST

Owner to Pay Record $209M re W.Va. Mine Explosion That Killed 29

The owner of a West Virginia mine that exploded in 2010, killing 29 men, will pay a record $209 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability concerning the disaster and what officials called a workplace culture that valued productivity over safety and ignored applicable law. The agreed payment by…

Dec 6, 2011 9:45 PM CST

Lawyer Accused of Pointing a Handgun at Rowdy Revelers During Boat Party

A West Virginia lawyer was arraigned on six misdemeanor counts on Wednesday based on allegations he pointed a gun at rowdy party-goers. Michael Shawn Santa Barbara, 52, of Martinsburg is charged with five counts of brandishing a deadly weapon and one count of battery, report the Herald-Mail and the Journal.…

Oct 20, 2011 1:48 PM CDT