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Do the Right Thing

High time for Loughry to resign

On Monday, Jan. 14, suspended West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry will appear for a disciplinary hearing before the Judicial Hearing Board. Two days later, he will be in federal court in Charleston to be sentenced for his conviction on 11 federal criminal charges.

Loughry ought to do the right thing for his fellow Mountain State residents. He should resign from the high court.

We suspect at least some of those who in 2012 voted to place Loughry on the court did so because they were convinced he was honest. After all, he did write the book, “Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Won’t Pay for a Landslide: The Sordid and Continuing History of Political Corruption in West Virginia.”

It turns out we were wrong. Jurors in his federal trial came to that conclusion after weighing the evidence carefully. So did the state Judicial Investigation Commission, which in June accused him of 32 separate offenses. They were summed up in the commission’s conclusion that Loughry “engaged in a pattern and practice of lying and using his public office for private gain.”

Loughry was among justices impeached last summer by the House of Delegates. He was scheduled to be tried by the state Senate in November.

As you may be aware, a state Supreme Court ruling questioning the propriety of all the impeachment trials put the Loughry one in question.

But the Judicial Hearing Board has lifted a stay it had ordered on his disclipinary hearing. It set the proceeding for Jan. 14, in order to hold it before his criminal sentencing.

Understand that the two events are vastly different. In the federal justice system, Loughry is entitled to request an appeal of his trial earlier this fall. An appellate court could, for one reason or another, overturn his conviction.

But the Judicial Hearing Board is different. It is not determining whether he was guilty of crimes. Instead, the board will look into whether Loughry failed to comply with the Judicial Code of Conduct. Failing to do so is grounds for removal.

And clearly, Loughry did not comply.

He should save the board the time it will take to determine he should be removed. Loughry seems determined to write a new chapter in his book on public corruption. It is time for him to put a period at the end of it.

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