The attorney who won the election last month for circuit judge in Logan County by 59 votes has appointed a former U.S. attorney to serve on the panel that will decide a petition seeking to overturn the election results.
Joshua Butcher, who defeated Logan County Circuit Judge Douglas Witten, appointed Booth Goodwin to serve on a three-judge panel to decide the election contest.
"By choosing Mr. Goodwin, Judge-elect Butcher wanted to send a different message: that these proceedings will not be controlled by politics, but by the will of the voters and the rule of law," said Ryan Donovan, an attorney for Butcher.
Goodwin stepped down as U.S. attorney at the end of 2015 to run for governor in the Democratic primary.
Witten filed the contest, a seldom-used procedure, with the clerk of the House of Delegates last month. The judge argues, among other reasons, that the results should be overturned because voters were wrongly influenced by an attack on a state Senate candidate in the days before the election.
The petition will be ruled on by a panel of three people - one chosen by Witten, one by Butcher and one by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The governor, who is from Logan County, appointed Witten to the bench last year after former circuit judge Roger Perry retired.
Witten has already chosen his member of the panel: John Counts, who served as treasurer of Witten's campaign.
"Mr. Goodwin's experience, reputation for integrity, and commitment to justice in the coalfields is beyond question. Judge Witten's decision to appoint his own campaign treasurer to the special court sends a message that is, frankly, disappointing," Donovan, who is with the firm Bailey & Glasser, said Saturday.
Both Butcher and Donovan have called Witten's filing frivolous. In a formal response to the petition filed last week, attorneys for Butcher write that evidence will prove all of Witten's claims are false.
"Our initial investigation has confirmed that the allegations in the petition are completely unsubstantiated. As soon as the governor appoints the third member of the court will be asking to have the petition dismissed, in the hopes of avoiding further taxpayer expense," Donovan said Sunday.
Richard Ojeda, who was running for the seat held by Sen. Art Kirkendoll, D-Logan, was beaten at a cookout two days before the May 10 election. Ojeda was knocked unconscious and his face was fractured in eight places. He said he believed the attack came because he had spoken out against corruption in Logan County, and he defeated Kirkendoll - who was a county commissioner for 30 years before moving to the Senate.
Information "was deliberately and falsely disseminated and published throughout Logan County for the purpose of influencing the opinion of County voters in a manner contrary to a candidate named Art Kirkendall [sic], a man with whom Judge William Douglas Witten was identified," Witten's petition states.
Last month, Witten demanded a recount. Logan County commissioners conducted it May 27, which still resulted in Butcher taking the election.
Judicial elections in West Virginia are non-partisan for the first time this year, meaning the winner is elected in the primary.
Witten also claims in his petition that 10 more ballots were cast on May 10 at the Bulwark precinct than the number of voters who actually showed up to vote and signed the poll books. He says votes cast at a precinct in Sharples shouldn't be valid since poll workers didn't take an oath before working the election.
Also, at a precinct in Lane, Witten alleges Butcher's wife, Jamie Butcher, stood within the prohibited 300 feet entry to the polling place at Lane and intimidated voters. Jamie Butcher told the Gazette-Mail those allegations aren't true.
Logan County Clerk John Turner has also said Witten's claims are false. He acknowledged some mishaps but said none of them would be enough to overturn the election.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.