Trending
CHARLESTON -- West Virginia politics in 2023 saw several scandals involving executive branch agencies.
Gov. Jim Justice has had to fend off questions during his final seven years in office regarding the many lawsuits brought against his family businesses.
But his administration departments and agencies have not been without their troubles.
Toward the end of the legislative session in March, news began to trickle out about issues within the West Virginia State Police.
An initial investigation ordered by Justice into alleged wrongdoing in the agency resulted in the resignation of Superintendent Col. Jan Cahill and the appointment of Jack Chambers - a deputy director with the West Virginia Capitol Police with 26 years of experience in law enforcement with both the Capitol Police and the State Police - as interim superintendent.
The Department of Homeland Security began an internal investigation of top leadership of the State Police after the governor's office received an anonymous letter from a whistleblower. Allegations included the use of ghost accounts to get around state purchasing rules, misuse of state purchasing cards for personal purchases, extramarital affairs between officers and fights, misuse of federal grants, overtime abuse and more. The story was first broken by WCHS-TV in Charleston.
One allegation was that a now-deceased State Police employee placed cameras in the women's locker room at the State Police Academy in Institute. When three troopers discovered a thumb drive containing the videos from the locker room, one of the troopers attempted to destroy it by smashing it with their boot. A civil class action lawsuit is pending regarding those allegations.
"The very biggest allegation that is to not be tolerated in any way is that we have violated - at our State Police-level - women's rights," Justice said during an administration briefing in March. "I don't know how many things can be much, much worse than that. Wouldn't you absolutely think that a women's locker room ought to be a safe place?"
In recent months, two federal class action lawsuits have unveiled the deletion of emails from former administration officials despite litigation holds requiring those emails to be preserved.
The state recently agreed to a proposed $4 million settlement regarding conditions at the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley after U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn's 39-page order finding in favor of a motion from inmates seeking default judgment against the state. Aboulhosn accused DCR officials of intentionally destroying evidence, including emails and electronically stored documents.
"...The failure to preserve the evidence that was destroyed in this case was intentionally done and not simply an oversight by the witnesses," he said. "The court does not make that statement flippantly but after much thought and reflection of the disturbing testimony that took place that day."
Justice and Department of Homeland Security Cabinet Secretary Mark Sorsaia have denied the intentional destruction of electronic records. Brad Douglas, the former interim commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Phil Sword, chief counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, were terminated last month. Another class action lawsuit regarding conditions in the entire correctional system is pending.
A hearing in a separate federal class action suit over conditions of the state's foster care system is scheduled for January regarding a motion for sanctions against the Department of Health and Human Resources, which is set to split into three new departments at the end of this year.
A Better Childhood, Disability Rights West Virginia and attorneys with the Shaffer and Shaffer law firm are seeking sanctions after attorneys for DHHR admitted in an Oct. 6 letter that emails for seven former officials had been deleted by the Office of Technology -- the state's internet service provider -- even after deposition holds were requested by DHHR. Attorneys for DHHR have apologized for the error.
Over in the Department of Transportation, Secretary Jimmy Wriston said in an October legislative interim meeting that he followed all the appropriate rules in awarding multimillion-dollar contracts to a firm that employed his son for years.
As first reported by WSAZ-TV, Wriston was personally involved with the awarding of bridge contracts to Michael Baker International, an engineering firm with offices in West Virginia. Michael Baker has employed Wriston's son, Adam, for more than 15 years.
Wriston told lawmakers he sought advice from the Federal Highway Administration and the West Virginia Ethics Commission regarding the potential conflict. During his time on the selection committee before becoming cabinet secretary, he sat on one short list selection process, for the Glenville Truss Bridge, where Michael Baker made the short list of three companies.
State Democratic Party officials, including Chairman Mike Pushkin - a member of the House of Delegates from Kanawha County - have called for a federal investigation into Wriston's involvement in contracts benefiting family members.
"The Department of Transportation can't have it both ways. Either Secretary Wriston participated in the selection of his son's company or he didn't," Pushkin said in an October statement. "There's an old saying that says 'it's not the crime, it's the cover-up.' Since the Governor's office and the Department of Transportation aren't being forthcoming with an explanation, the U.S. Attorney's Office should investigate this matter."