{"id":3253,"date":"2018-02-13T23:33:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T04:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3253"},"modified":"2018-02-14T07:28:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T12:28:55","slug":"documents-contradict-loughry-denials-in-couchgate-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3253","title":{"rendered":"Documents Contradict Loughry Denials in Couchgate Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Documents obtained by WCHS television reporter Kennie Bass<\/a> directly contradict what West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Allen Loughry has publicly said about his knowledge of and involvement in the renovation of his office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In November last year, Bass reported on extensive renovations to the West Virginia Supreme Court, including $363,013.43 to renovate Loughry\u2019s chambers. <\/span><\/p>\n

That included the now infamous $32,000 blue suede couch and\u00a0a $7,500 wooden map of the state of West Virginia cut into Loughry\u2019s office floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Loughry said then and reiterated to Bass this week that he had \u201cno knowledge of the inflated and outrageous expenditures on furniture items such as the couch\u201d and that \u201cany insinuation to the contrary is simply dishonest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Loughry pinned the blame on former Supreme Court administrative director Steve Canterbury. <\/span><\/p>\n

Canterbury said that it was Loughry calling the shots.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Bass obtained emails documenting Loughry\u2019s knowledge of the renovations. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn May 21, 2013 a meeting was scheduled to discuss construction cost estimates for Loughry\u2019s chambers,\u201d Bass reported. \u201cThe document was very detailed, with line items for each aspect of the project.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn May 23, 2013, Loughry was sent shop drawings for his requested custom wood cabinets and wall panels. The construction estimate was $117,634 for the customized cabinets and office woodwork that he asked for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Canterbury told Bass that \u201cLoughry was very specific about what he wanted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTwo weeks later we see drawings and pictures of the now infamous wood medallion of West Virginia,\u201d Bass said. \u201cLoughry told us it was a surprise offering to him from Canterbury.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Canterbury was in charge of these expenditures,\u201d Loughry told Bass last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut Eyewitness news obtained this drawing made by Mr. Loughry himself which outlines the floor plan for his office,\u201d Bass reported. \u00a0\u201cLoughry included detailed notes about what he wanted and where he wanted it. The drawing shows where a hidden television would be placed on the wall and where a hidden refrigerator would stand.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLoughry kept a very close eye on the progress of the floor medallion. On June 29, 2013, Loughry sent an email at 1:05 am which went into great detail about his vision about what the final product should look like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was vitally involved with every single aspect of his office remodeling, including the floor where he drew this up for what he wanted,\u201d Canterbury told Bass. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t have been more involved. He knew what things cost.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Documents obtained by WCHS television reporter Kennie Bass directly contradict what West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Allen Loughry has publicly said about his knowledge of and involvement in the renovation of his office. In November last year, Bass reported … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3256,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3253\/revisions\/3256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}