CHARLESTON — With the first impeachment trial of a justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals starting Monday, the members of the House of Delegates have questions for the head of the judicial branch’s independent investigation commission.

The West Virginia Senate and Acting Chief Justice Paul Farrell will hear arguments in the impeachment trial of Justice Beth Walker starting at 9 a.m. Monday.

Walker, elected in November 2016, took office in January 2017. She was the third woman elected to the state Supreme Court in its history.

Unlike Chief Justice Margaret Workman — the first woman elected to the high court — and former Justice Robin Davis — the first woman re-elected to the Supreme Court — Walker has openly welcomed her impeachment trial.

“Even though I disagree with some of the decisions of the House of Delegates, I respect their important constitutional role in this process and I take full responsibility for my actions and decisions,” Walker said in a statement after being impeached last month. “I look forward to explaining those actions and decisions before the State Senate.”

The House of Delegates adopted 11 articles of impeachment, though Walker is only named in the final article charging all the elected justices at that time, including Workman, Davis, and Allen Loughry.

According to article 11, the justices “in the absence of any policy to prevent or control expenditure, waste(d) state funds with little or no concern for the costs to be borne by the tax payers for unnecessary and lavish spending.”

The article charges the justices with failing to adopt travel policies before October 2016, failure to report taxable fringe benefits for the justices to the Internal Revenue Service, failing to supervise using of state purchasing cards, lack of home policies for use of state property, lack of vehicle use policies, lack of inventory controls, and for not having purchasing procedures and requiring bids.

Walker, represented by the Hissam, Forman, Donovan, and Ritchie law firm, plans to argue before the Senate that most of the issues raised in article 11 were beyond her control.

When Walker took office, the court changed how it selected chief justices. Traditionally, the court chose a new chief justice every year, rotating the office among the five justices. Starting in 2017, that policy was changed from every year to every four years, and the same justice could be re-elected as chief justice every four years.

The justice who pushed that change through was Allen Loughry, who was removed as chief justice over a year later after reports surfaced of the price of the renovations to his office and his use of court furniture at his personal home.

Walker’s attorneys argue that since she wasn’t chief justice, she was powerless to stop reckless spending at the court. As only one justice, Walker was also overruled by a majority of the other justices. As an example, her attorneys cite the minutes from an administrative conference the justices held Jan. 8, 2018. During that meeting, the court voted 3-1 to oppose a constitutional amendment being drafted by the Legislature to limit the court’s budgetary authority. Walker was the lone vote supporting the amendment.

Walker will also demonstrate to senators that she is working on reforms for the court. In a filing Friday, Walker’s counsel Mike Hissam entered into evidence another set of minutes from June 21 showing efforts by the court to hire a budget analyst and efforts to update travel policies.

One of the issues that might come up is the policy of paid catered lunch on days when the court had hearings or administrative conferences. Previous court policy was building in a 1 ½ hour lunch break on these days. In 2012, a decision was made to end having a lunch period and instead have catered lunches from some of Charleston’s most expensive restaurants for themselves, other judges, administrative and security staff.

According to emails dated Dec. 20, 2017, from Walker, the new jurist told her fellow justices she did not feel comfortable participating in the lunches after a Freedom of Information Act request from WCHS-TV attempted to see the costs of these meals paid for by the court. The emails go on to say that Walker wanted to reimburse the state for one-fifth of the costs of the lunches paid for during her term.

This is one of the issues the state Judicial Investigation Commission looked into earlier this summer. In a move it deemed “unusual,” the JIC sent out a press release July 23 announcing that Walker, Workman, and Davis had been cleared in an investigation of complaints against the justices.

“We are taking the unusual step of making our findings public in these cases because Supreme Court justices are the highest judicial officers in West Virginia,” said Hancock County Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson, chairman of the JIC. “It is important for the public to know that allegations against them have been thoroughly investigated, and they have been cleared of wrongdoing.”

The prosecutors in the impeachment trial — selected members of the House of Delegates led by House Judiciary Chairman John Shott — are not so sure that the JIC “thoroughly investigated” the three justices. Wilson has been subpoenaed to testify in Walker’s impeachment trial regarding those investigations.

The JIC filed a motion Thursday with the Senate Clerk’s office to quash Wilson’s subpoena to testify, arguing that it has supplied all relevant information to impeachment managers and that the JIC’s deliberative process are confidential.

“The testimony of Judge Wilson sought by subpoena is confidential protected information and is therefore not discoverable,” according to the JIC motion.

The House impeachment managers, in their response to the JIC motion to quash, agree with the JIC’s arguments. However, they said they’re not interested in their deliberations. They’re interested in why Wilson issued the original press release back in July.

“We are all the more puzzled by what induced Judge Wilson to violate (the Code of Judicial Conduct),” Shott, R-Mercer, wrote. “the resolution to this mystery is what is sought by the Board of Managers, and that, simply put, requires us to question Judge Wilson about his issuance of this press release.

The July JIC press release said that working lunches are allowed under IRS rules and don’t violate the West Virginia Ethics Act. The JIC cleared Davis of ethical violations for stopping at a political fundraiser in Parkersburg while on court business and for hosting parties at her home for circuit court judges using taxpayer funds. Workman was also cleared of ethical violations for hiring one of her political campaign consultants as a court employee.

The House impeachment managers accuse the JIC of being selective in providing the relevant information requested by the House Judiciary Committee during the investigation into the Supreme Court that led to articles of impeachment.

Wilson is also serving as an acting justice to hear a petition from Workman requiring the Supreme Court to halt the impeachment trials in the Senate. Attorneys for the Senate filed a motion requesting that Wilson disqualify himself from hearing the petition since he is a witness for the impeachment trials.

Other appointed judges hearing the Workman petition include Acting Chief Justice James Matish of Harrison County, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom, McDowell County Circuit Judge Rudolph Murensky and Upshur County Circuit Judge Jacob Reger.

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)