{"id":3386,"date":"2018-04-25T22:49:17","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T02:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3386"},"modified":"2018-04-25T23:00:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T03:00:23","slug":"supreme-court-directs-case-against-tally-reed-to-lower-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3386","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Directs Case Against Tally Reed to Lower Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The West Virginia Supreme Court today directed the lawsuit challenging Tally Reed\u2019s residency to a lower court to establish more of a record.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon consideration, the Court is of the opinion that a rule should not be awarded, and the writ prayed for by the petitioner is hereby refused with leave to file in the circuit court to establish a proper record,\u201d the Court ruled in a one page order.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Residents of the 59th House of Delegates district yesterday filed the lawsuit<\/a> asking the court to disqualify Reed from the May 8th Republican primary. <\/span><\/p>\n

The residents intend to file in Kanawha Circuit Court as early as today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an unfortunate, desperate effort by a few individuals to undermine the widespread support our campaign has gained throughout District 59,\u201d Reed wrote on her Facebook page today.<\/a> \u201cWith the primary election less than two weeks away, this is a thinly-veiled attempt to distract voters, and we will respond to these baseless accusations accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reed\u2019s campaign announced earlier this month<\/a> that they would no longer be granting interviews with reporters or making public appearances until after the May 8 primary.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reed case is having political ramifications throughout the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan County resident Robert Campbell filed one of many complaints with the Secretary of State\u2019s office, asking that they investigate Reed\u2019s residency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell received a letter from the Secretary of State\u2019s office dated April 18, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

The letter was signed by Donald Kersey, the Elections Director and Deputy Legal Counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kersey wrote that the Secretary of State\u2019s office has \u201clegal jurisdiction over the matter,\u201d but that \u201cthe administrative complaint procedures do not apply because the allegations may warrant a criminal investigation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tally Reed was the original treasurer of the Friends of Debra McLaughlin campaign committee. And in one of the first fundraising letters to lawyers throughout the Eastern Panhandle, Reed listed the home address where she lives in the 58th district<\/a> \u2013 not the address she is running from in the 59th.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Hammer is running against McLaughlin in that judicial race and he weighed in today on the Reed matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJudge McLaughlin is surely friendly with Ms. Reed and presumably knows where Ms. Reed and her husband \u2013 who himself is a major campaign contributor to the McLaughlin campaign \u2013 actually reside,\u201d Hammer wrote on his Facebook page. \u201cIndeed, in January when Ms. McLaughlin\u2019s campaign solicited money from lawyers who appear in her courtroom, the solicitation letter correctly identified Ms. Reed\u2019s true residential address. Yet in Ms. Reed\u2019s sworn statement filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State, she identified a different address as her residence. This is troubling but only Ms. McLaughlin can answer when she first learned of this issue and what she did, if anything, to correct the problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this highlights the fundamental problem with judicial campaigns soliciting money \u2013 \u00a0it creates, at a minimum, the appearance of impropriety because people are already questioning whether Ms. Reed may receive special treatment due to her and her husband\u2019s close relationship with Judge McLaughlin. That is why my campaign has refused all campaign contributions \u2013 judicial campaigns and money are simply a bad mix.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge McLaughlin responded on Hammer\u2019s Facebook page.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am in the process of filing an ethics complaint for any misleading information Mr. Hammer chooses to post,\u201d Judge McLaughlin wrote. \u201cWe will let the Ethics Commission determine who is unethical in this matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The West Virginia Supreme Court today directed the lawsuit challenging Tally Reed\u2019s residency to a lower court to establish more of a record. \u201cUpon consideration, the Court is of the opinion that a rule should not be awarded, and the … 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-3386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386","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=3386"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3393,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386\/revisions\/3393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}