The state Judicial Investigation Commission has admonished a Brooke County magistrate who posted bond for her granddaughter.
In addition to posting the bond, Linda J.R. Viderman, who has served as magistrate since 2013, also spoke with the special magistrate who was appointed to her granddaughter's case. That conversation happened without prosecutors present, the public admonishment filed last week states.
"A magistrate is supposed to uphold the law, not violate it," wrote Gail C. Boober, vice chairwoman of the judicial commission. "By posting her granddaughter's bond, [Viderman] clearly disregarded [state law]. The meaning of the law is clear. A magistrate cannot post bond for any other individual, and there is no family exception. This has been the law since 1976."
Viderman couldn't immediately be reached for comment late Monday. Before the commission issued the admonishment, Viderman responded to a complaint over the matter from the state Judicial Disciplinary Counsel, writing that she "was taken aback to realize that it might be construed as a violation for me to post bond for a member of my own household," the filing reads.
The magistrate added that she found the law "excessively vague and ambiguous as far as trying to apply it to the posting of my granddaughter's bond is concerned," according to the admonishment.
But Boober, a magistrate in the Eastern Panhandle, wrote that magistrates in West Virginia are advised in training that neither they nor a magistrate court clerk, deputy clerk or assistant "shall acquire or hold any interest in any matter before the magistrate court" or "act as agent or attorney for any party in any proceedings in any magistrate court in the state."
According to the law, any person in violation of the provisions shall be guilty of official misconduct and guilty of a misdemeanor.
The commission determined that formal discipline wasn't appropriate under the circumstances, but found that the violations of the state Judicial Code of Conduct warranted a public admonishment. Following the receipt of the ethics complaint on Feb. 8, Viderman immediately requested to be removed from her granddaughter's bond and her motion was granted, the filing states.
"Criminal defendants in Magistrate Court are often warned of the old maxim that ignorance of the law is no excuse. [Viderman] is not immune from this tenet," Boober wrote. Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson, who chairs the commission, recused himself from the case. His circuit includes Brooke County.
On June 8, 2015, the admonishment states, Viderman's granddaughter was charged in Brooke County Magistrate Court with misdemeanor battery. She was arraigned the next day and released on a personal recognizance bond, which does not require money or other collateral.
Assistant Hancock County prosecutor Allison Cowden was appointed to serve as special prosecutor in the case, and Harry Radcliffe, a magistrate in Ohio County, was appointed special magistrate.
On Dec. 24, Viderman's granddaughter was charged again with misdemeanor battery. This time, she was charged in Hancock County. The prosecutor filed a motion to revoke bond in the Brooke County case and Radcliffe set a hearing for Jan. 4.
Radcliffe set a $1,000 bond with a term and condition of home confinement. Viderman was at the courthouse and posted bond on behalf of her granddaughter, according to the admonishment.
After posting the bond, Viderman approached Radcliffe and had two conversations outside the courtroom with him concerning home confinement issues, the admonishment states. Boober wrote that Viderman should have left it to her granddaughter's attorney to contact both the special magistrate and prosecutor about the matter. The special prosecutor was not privy to either conversation, according to the filing.
Boober wrote that Viderman placed Radcliffe "in an untenable position by contacting him when she knew she should not have done so. Most grandmothers who are not magistrates would not have been as lucky."
Viderman has 14 days to file an objection to the admonishment. If she does, the judicial commission will file formal charges against her with the clerk of the state Supreme Court.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.