West Virginia judge accused of waving pistol at defense lawyers and mocking security team for having smaller guns

[1srelluc]

A West Virginia judge has been accused of waving a handgun at defense lawyers, ridiculing their security team for having smaller guns than him, during a heated exchange in March over a case on fossil fuel royalties.

In a sworn affidavit submitted to the Judicial Investigation Commission of West Virginia and obtained by NBC News, attorney Lauren Varnado said Circuit Court Judge David Hummel Jr. had initially ridiculed her legal team for trying to bring a security detail into Wetzel County Courthouse in New Martinsville on March 12.

Varnado was representing EQT Production Company and Equitable Resources, now the EQT Corporation, against a lawsuit from landowners suing over royalty payments for fossil fuel extraction on their property, the affidavit said. She said her team had hired the security officers after being threatened in a restaurant in New Martinsville.

The security officers were blocked from entering the courtroom on March 12, but Hummel allegedly mocked Varnado’s team for hiring them in the first place.

"Aren’t me and my guns and security enough?” Hummel was alleged to have asked as he took out a Colt handgun and waved it in Varnado’s team’s direction. “My guns are bigger than your security’s guns!” he allegedly said.
“I could not believe it was happening,” Varnado told NBC News in a phone interview on Friday.

"As a trial lawyer, the courtroom, during a trial, it is my office. It is my workplace," she said. "When you experience violence in your workplace, it's a special kind of trauma."
Varnado said Hummel put the gun down, but appeared to deliberately rotate the gun until its barrel was pointing directly at her.
"I was like, 'This is psychotic,'" she said over the phone.

Varnado said she believed Hummel was upset with her team after they asked that he be disqualified from the case based on alleged undisclosed conflicts in a request that was denied.

West Virginia judge accused of waving pistol at defense lawyers and mocking security team for having smaller guns

Yeah, if true maybe he's a dumb-ass but I'd still buy him a beer.

#Appalachistaniandon’tjudgeme

 

[johngaltshrugged]

And the female attorney equates waving a gun to violence.

Is there a special potion that makes attorneys go brain dead because that is an insult to those that have suffered from actual workplace violence.

 

[1srelluc]

And the female attorney equates waving a gun to violence.

Is there a special potion that makes attorneys go brain dead because that is an insult to those that have suffered from actual workplace violence.

He should be GTG as long as he got the pronouns right.

 

[BackAgain]

And the female attorney equates waving a gun to violence.

Is there a special potion that makes attorneys go brain dead because that is an insult to those that have suffered from actual workplace violence.

“Waving a gun”

That phrase is Usually meant to claim that someone is threatening to use the gun.

Clearly, he wasn’t.

 

[SavannahMann]

And the female attorney equates waving a gun to violence.

Is there a special potion that makes attorneys go brain dead because that is an insult to those that have suffered from actual workplace violence.

If I point a gun at you, is it a crime?

 

[Jarlaxle]

Judge should be disbarred and probably locked up.

 

[odanny]

He probably drives a Hummer and has a small dick.

 

[BackAgain]

Nothing will happen to the judge. Nothing should happen to the judge.

 

[Dekster]

Nothing will happen to the judge. Nothing should happen to the judge.

I think they elect judges in WV so probably right.

 

[BackAgain]

I think they elect judges in WV so probably right.

If he had pointed that gun at a litigant or lawyer, his critics might have a point. But when he displayed it to essentially say, “your guards don’t even have real guns like this one,” he wasn’t making even a veiled threat. He was just mocking lawyers who seemed unaware that courts already have armed security.

 

[SavannahMann]

If he had pointed that gun at a litigant or lawyer, his critics might have a point. But when he displayed it to essentially say, “your guards don’t even have real guns like this one,” he wasn’t making even a veiled threat. He was just mocking lawyers who seemed unaware that courts already have armed security.

So we are going to change the standards and normal definitions of laws to protect a Judge? Excellent.

Bank Robbery is a good example. If the Robber walks in and hands the clerk a note. Give me all the money in the drawer. He displays no weapons, and his hand is in his pocket. The clerk is by law the victim of an armed robbery. Since it would be reasonable to believe that the robber is armed, even if you never see the gun. The threat is there, for the average person.

That has always been the standard. Would it be reasonable to believe. A reasonable person.

Now each state has laws that prevent careless or reckless behavior with a gun. These are generally called Brandishing laws. In West Virginia Brandishing is a Misdemeanor.

West Virginia Code Article 1-7

ARTICLE 7. THE PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO UNITE ACT.

www.wvlegislature.gov

Now, I have no clue what the various case laws have determined each of those terms means, but I think it is safe to assume that the laws prohibit waving a gun about in public.

 

[BackAgain]

So we are going to change the standards and normal definitions of laws to protect a Judge? Excellent.

I don’t think so. What “change” do you imagine applies?

You point to a brandishing law which does not appear to encompass a mere display which seems to be all that happened in the case we’ve been discussing. So, if you have a point, you’ve failed to make it.

….

West Virginia Code Article 1-7

ARTICLE 7. THE PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO UNITE ACT.

www.wvlegislature.gov

Now, I have no clue what the various case laws have determined each of those terms means, but I think it is safe to assume that the laws prohibit waving a gun about in public.

I don’t assume that your assumption makes any sense at least as far as the facts were described.