How to Git Rid of a Public Official. Part I of a Series

Getting rid of an elected public official is sometimes a necessary thing.  There are different ways to do this:  First of all you can get rid of them through the electoral process.  This is how we got rid of Kathy Beverage.  She had been in office too long and simply gone to seed.  Getting rid of David Fleming was relatively easy because he proposed to give away public property in Greenbank for a sewage pit farm.  We obtained almost 300 signatures to stop that.  That ended his political career.    The public voted them out!

Secondly,  you can sign a petition and get a three judge panel to come to the county and hold a trial of a public official.  We did this with Kermit Friel and Kenneth Vance.  In their case, we showed that they were holding conflicting public offices that were inherently contradictory.  The court agreed.

Thirdly, you can report the public official to the state tax department if they are breaking state laws in the proper use of public funds.  The state can order an audit of public funds as they did in the case of Pocahontas County several years ago.  The county is audited on a regular basis so sometimes you have to pass a long your information to the state officials so that they can do their job.  If enough people complain, then the state tax department has to step in.  They have done this in the past and prison has been the result.

West Virginia has an ethics investigator whose job it is to look into conflicts of interest, theft of public funds, improper hiring.  This department has been fairly weak in the past but seems to be finally growing a set of balls.  I prefer to use this department when possible but one shouldn't expect a lot of help there.  For example, when David Jonese hired his wife at $35 an hour and his daughter to transport prisoners, they didn't consider that to the a "material" problem.  Likewise,  the ethics department cleared Jonese of using the courthouse cameras in his election campaign.

When you have a corrupt magistrate of a judge you have some routes to take there too.  First of all if a magistrate is acting as an agent of the sheriff you simply file a complaint with the Judiciary Committee. It is the same for a judge.  I have had to file papers against both magistrates and judges.  Just keep in mind that the entire judicial system will work to coverup any misdoing by judges and magistrates.

If a sheriff's deputy is making a donkey of himself, you can file a complaint with the Civil Service Board.   It is a relatively simply and straight forward process.  Sometimes, as in the case of Totten I had to go to David Jonese and report the situation to him.  I am pretty sure that Jonese tape recorded  me so I hope that eventually that will come out in the upcoming trials.  I am willing and eager to testify against Jonese in this matter since he seems to be desirous of claiming ignorance.   I assure you that he wasn't.

In the Totten case, the reports soon became a snowball and got bigger and bigger until Donna got involved.  She was instrumental in bringing the matter to state police investigators.  They in turn obtained the help of the FBI.  I was privileged and honored to be included in their inquiry.  That is one of the reasons I put so much stuff on the Commentator and Facebook.  I am sure that they are reading what is written.  I trust them to use the information and act upon it.  The Commentator has become a way of reaching out and uniting the people of this county with those who investigate crime in this county.


I am going to posting additional information in separate packets as time permits.

The Petition Process

§6-6-7. Procedure for removal of county, school district and municipal officers having fixed terms; appeal; grounds.
(a) Any person holding any county, school district or municipal office, including the office of a member of a board of education and the office of magistrate, the term or tenure of which office is fixed by law, whether the office be elective or appointive, except judges of the circuit courts, may be removed from such office in the manner provided in this section for official misconduct, malfeasance in office, incompetence, neglect of duty or gross immorality or for any of the causes or on any of the grounds provided by any other statute.

(b) Charges may be preferred:

(1) In the case of any county officer, member of a district board of education or magistrate, by the county commission, or other tribunal in lieu thereof, any other officer of the county, or by any number of persons other than such county officers, which number shall be the lesser of fifty or one percent of the total number of voters of the county participating in the general election next preceding the filing of such charges.

(2) In the case of any municipal officer, by the prosecuting attorney of the county wherein such municipality, or the greater portion thereof, is located, any other elected officer of the municipality, or by any number of persons other than the prosecuting attorney or other municipal elective officer of the municipality who are residents of the municipality, which number shall be the lesser of twenty-five or one percent of the total number of voters of the municipality participating in the election at which the governing body was chosen which election next preceded the filing of the petition.

(3) By the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices of the state where the person sought to be removed is entrusted by law with the collection, custody and expenditure of public moneys because of any misapplication, misappropriation or embezzlement of such moneys.

(c) The charges shall be reduced to writing in the form of a petition duly verified by at least one of the persons bringing the same, and shall be entered of record by the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, and a summons shall thereupon be issued by the clerk of such court, together with a copy of the petition, requiring the officer or person named therein to appear before the court, at the courthouse of the county where such officer resides, and answer the charges on a day to be named therein, which summons shall be served at least twenty days before the return day thereof in the manner by which a summons commencing a civil suit may be served.

The court, or judge thereof in vacation, or in the case of any multi-judge circuit, the chief judge thereof, shall, without delay forward a copy of the petition to thesupreme court of appeals and shall ask for the impaneling or convening of a three-judge court consisting of three circuit judges of the state. The chief justice of the supreme court of appeals shall without delay designate and appoint three circuit judges within the state, not more than one of whom shall be from the same circuit in which the petition is filed and, in the order of such appointment, shall designate the date, time and place for the convening of such three-judge court, which date and time shall not be less than twenty days from the date of the filing of the petition.

(3) By the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices of the state where the person sought to be removed is entrusted by law with the collection, custody and expenditure of public moneys because of any misapplication, misappropriation or embezzlement of such moneys.

(c) The charges shall be reduced to writing in the form of a petition duly verified by at least one of the persons bringing the same, and shall be entered of record by the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, and a summons shall thereupon be issued by the clerk of such court, together with a copy of the petition, requiring the officer or person named therein to appear before the court, at the courthouse of the county where such officer resides, and answer the charges on a day to be named therein, which summons shall be served at least twenty days before the return day thereof in the manner by which a summons commencing a civil suit may be served.

The court, or judge thereof in vacation, or in the case of any multi-judge circuit, the chief judge thereof, shall, without delay forward a copy of the petition to thesupreme court of appeals and shall ask for the impaneling or convening of a three-judge court consisting of three circuit judges of the state. The chief justice of the supreme court of appeals shall without delay designate and appoint three circuit judges within the state, not more than one of whom shall be from the same circuit in which the petition is filed and, in the order of such appointment, shall designate the date, time and place for the convening of such three-judge court, which date and time shall not be less than twenty days from the date of the filing of the petition.

Such three-judge court shall, without a jury, hear the charges and all evidence offered in support thereof or in opposition thereto and upon satisfactory proof of the charges shall remove any such officer or person from office and place the records, papers and property of his office in the possession of some other officer or person for safekeeping or in the possession of the person appointed as hereinafter provided to fill the office temporarily. Any final order either removing or refusing to remove any such person from office shall contain such findings of fact and conclusions of law as the three-judge court shall deem sufficient to support its decision of all issues presented to it in the matter.

(d) An appeal from an order of such three-judge court removing or refusing to remove any person from office pursuant to this section may be taken to the supreme court of appeals within thirty days from the date of entry of the order from which the appeal is taken. The supreme court of appeals shall consider and decide the appeal upon the original papers and documents, without requiring the same to be printed and shall enforce its findings by proper writ. From the date of any order of the three-judge court removing an officer under this section until the expiration of thirty days thereafter, and, if an appeal be taken, until the date of suspension of such order, if suspended by the three-judge court and if not suspended, until the final adjudication of the matter by the supreme court of appeals, the officer, commission or body having power to fill a vacancy in such office may fill the same by a temporary appointment until a final decision of the matter, and when a final decision is made by the supreme court of appeals shall fill the vacancy in the manner provided by law for such office.

(e) In any case wherein the charges are preferred by the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices against the county commission or any member thereof or any county district or municipal officer, the proceedings under this section shall be conducted and prosecuted by the prosecuting attorney of the county in which the officer proceeded against resides, and on any appeal from the order of the three-judge court in any such case, the attorney general of the state shall represent the people. When any municipal officer is proceeded against the solicitor or municipal attorney for such municipality may assist in the prosecution of the charges.

Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2013 1st Special Session
The WV Code Online is an unofficial copy of the annotated WV Code, provided as a convenience. It has NOT been edited for publication, and is not in any way official or authoritative.