Dave Mistich, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Grand Jury Tacks On Felony Obstruction Charge For Former W.Va. Lawmaker Involved in Jan. 6 Riots

Federal prosecutors have tacked on a felony charge for former West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans for his involvement in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

In a Thursday court filing, a federal grand jury added one count of obstructing an official proceeding. If convicted, Evans would face prison time.

He had already been charged with four misdemeanors, including entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct, violent entry and demonstrating in a Capitol building.

In May, Evans pleaded not guilty to the original charges.

According to the original indictment, prosecutors identified Evans through social media posts in which he livestreamed himself entering the Capitol building alongside hundreds of other pro-Trump extremists.

Following his arrest just days after the riot, Evans resigned from the West Virginia House of Delegates before ever serving.

West Virginia’s Three U.S. House Reps Vote Against Removing Confederate Statues From Capitol

All three Republican members of West Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday against a measure that would remove confederate statues from the building where they work.

The effort comes as statues, memorials and other displays honoring the Confederacy have come down across the United States as a result of wide protest over the past year against racial injustice and a reckoning with the history of American slavery.

The House passed H.R. 3005 Tuesday evening on a 285-120 vote, with all no votes coming from Republicans. Democrats unanimously supported the bill and were joined by 67 Republicans.

The bill calls on the Joint Committee on the Library and the Capitol Architect to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the U.S. Capitol with a bust of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to serve on the bench of the nation’s high court.

Taney was the author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared that people of African descent were not citizens of the United States.

H.R. 3005 would also remove certain statues from areas that are publicly accessible and would remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America.

Current federal law calls for each state’s legislature to select two statues to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Under H.R. 3005, any statues removed as part of the legislation would be returned to their home states.

West Virginia’s two statues include John E. Kenna, a Kanawha County native who joined the Confederate Army before later serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Francis Harrison Pierpont, a supporter of President Abraham Lincoln who became the provisional governor of West Virginia upon statehood.

Given the intent and focus of H.R. 3005, Kenna’s statue would be removed from the U.S. Capitol and returned to West Virginia.

Rep. David McKinley, who serves in West Virginia’s 1st District, said the issue is one that rests with individual states, which is why he decided to vote against H.R. 3005.

“Each state was allowed to place two statues in Statuary Hall. Congress should not usurp the authority of states. If the West Virginia legislature chooses to replace John E. Kenna with another statue, that is within their authority,” McKinley said. “Several other states are already considering replacing theirs.”

“If Congress opts to replace Chief Justice Roger B. Taney with Thurgood Marshall that’s within their jurisdiction,” McKinley added.

Rep. Alex Mooney also said the decision on what statues are displayed in the U.S. Capitol is one that should lie with individual states. But Mooney, who serves in West Virginia’s 2nd District, also accused Democrats of politicizing the effort.

“I voted against Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats’ effort to remove statues individual states sent to be honored in the Capitol,” Mooney said. “It is up to individual states to decide which statutes they want to be presented in the Capitol, not Nancy Pelosi and the ever-changing standards of political correctness from the Left.”

Rep. Carol Miller, from the state’s 3rd District, echoed the statements from her West Virginia congressional colleagues.

“Rep. Miller voted against the bill because this is a process between states, the Architect of the Capitol, and the Joint Committee on the Library,” Miller’s office said in a news release. “This was yet another messaging bill that House Democrats pushed to try to gain political points on an issue that Rep. Miller, and her Republican and Democrat colleagues alike, already agree on – There is no place for racism in America.”

Spokespersons for the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates both said there are no current plans to remove or replace either of West Virginia’s two statues on display in the U.S. Capitol.

While statues and other markers honoring members of the confederacy — namely Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson — have been widely debated in West Virginia over the past year, few removals or alterations have taken place.

Statues of Jackson are prominently displayed on the grounds of the state capital in Charleston as well as outside the Harrison County Courthouse in Clarksburg. However, the Kanawha County Board of Education voted last fall to rename a middle school that was originally dedicated in Jackson’s honor.

Gov. Justice, Health Officials Continue To Warn Residents About Coronavirus Delta Variant

While new cases of the coronavirus continue to decline in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice and other health officials expressed concerns over a more contagious variant of the virus.

As of Tuesday, health officials have identified 12 cases of the Delta variant in West Virginia. Five of those cases are in Monongalia County, four are in Berkeley County. Hampshire, Marion and McDowell counties each have one case of the variant.

The number of cases of the Delta variant, which originated in India, have tripled in the state since Monday.

“The infectiousness of that variant is much faster than COVID — and it moves and everything,” Justice said during a Tuesday briefing on the state’s response to the pandemic.

He added that the Delta variant is “one that is scaring us to death.”

Justice said he and his advisors are closely watching the more contagious strand, but also noted that vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna remain highly effective against it. State Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad said vaccines are the best defense.

“Right now our priority is to make sure people get vaccinated fully,” Amjad said Tuesday. “We need to remind everyone to get fully vaccinated in West Virginia.”

State officials report that more than 834,000 West Virginians have received at least one dose of a vaccine. More than 743,000 residents are considered fully vaccinated.

In a split with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization is urging everyone — including those who are vaccinated — to continue wearing masks to protect themselves from the Delta variant. Justice lifted the state’s indoor mask mandate on June 20.

To date, West Virginia has recorded nearly 164,000 cases of the coronavirus, with almost 1,400 considered active. The virus has claimed the lives of 2,879 people in the state.

According to data from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the state recorded 25 new cases of the virus and one new death in the last 24-hour reporting period.

U.S. District Court Judge Temporarily Blocks West Virginia Needle Exchange Restrictions

A federal judge in West Virginia has issued a temporary restraining order to stop a new state law that would put strict restrictions on needle exchange programs

Updated Monday, June 28, 2021 at 9:15 p.m.

A federal judge in West Virginia has issued a temporary restraining order to stop a new state law that would put strict restrictions on needle exchange programs.

In a court filing issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers issued a temporary restraining order to block the implementation of Senate Bill 334. Gov. Jim Justice signed the measure into law in April, with an effective date set for July 9.

The pending law doesn’t explicitly wipe out harm reduction programs, but would set standards that operators say could bar access to care.

Senate Bill 334 would require programs to apply and become licensed and would also limit the number of needles it hands out by requiring participants to return their used needles to get a clean one in exchange. It also would require participants to show state-issued identification.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia brought suit last week on behalf of three clients, including Milan Puskar Health Right in Morgantown. In the complaint, plaintiffs argue that the law would be in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without due process.

Plaintiffs also argue that the bill creates a conflict in state code. House Bill 2500 — also passed by the West Virginia Legislature on the final night of the 2021 regular session — establishes the same new article (Chapter 16, Article 63) as was created in Senate Bill 335.

The ACLU-WV says the law would become one of the “most restrictive” measures governing syringe exchange services in the nation — and that it would likely lead to more HIV cases and the spread of other blood-borne illnesses.

ACLU-WV Legal Director Loree Stark applauded the court’s decision to temporarily block Senate Bill 334 from going into effect.

“We’re encouraged by this decision from the court. This harmful, constitutionally flawed bill should never be allowed to take effect. Harm reduction saves lives,” Stark said in a news release Monday following Chambers’ order.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting has reached out to the bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, for comment. During the legislative session, Tarr said there is a need for more oversight of harm reduction programs including needed exchanges.

Public health experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agree that these harm reduction programs are one of the most effective ways to prevent the rapid transmission of disease among people who use intravenous drugs.

In recent months, the CDC called an HIV outbreak in Kanawha County one of the “most concerning” in the nation. A majority of new HIV cases in the county are among those who use IV drugs, according to West Virginia’s Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services.

An injunction hearing in the case has been set for Thursday, July 8.

West Virginia Legislature Appropriates $250 Million In Budget Surpluses

The West Virginia Legislature cleared a string of one-time funding bills for various state agencies and tackled other measures in a Thursday special session.

In total, lawmakers cleared $250-plus million in state budget surpluses to various state agencies and programs. Included was $30 million for the state Department of Commerce’s Development Office to create a “closing fund” — aiming to attract more businesses to move into the state.

“Some of our surrounding states (have) in excess of several hundred million dollar funds. This at least gets us in the game,” said Del. Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson.

Other appropriations included $42 million for state parks and $5 million for tourism. Lawmakers also stashed away $50 million in the state’s rainy day fund, which stood at $938 million as of the end of May.

Despite passage in the Senate, the House of Delegates did not put three proposals to a vote. Those proposals would have added funding to the Office of Technology, the Division of Personnel and the Water Development Authority.

Another measure to extend a freeze on the daily rate county commissions pay to incarcerate people in West Virginia’s 10 regional jails also cleared the House and Senate.

Lawmakers are expected to return to Charleston in late summer or early fall to tackle the redistricting of statehouse and congressional seats. They could also return sooner to appropriate funding from the latest coronavirus stimulus package, known as the American Rescue Plan.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

DNC Credentials Committee Dismisses Challenge To Local Officials

West Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore and three other prominent state party officials will hold onto their posts, even as pressure mounts on Biafore to resign from her position leading the state party.

While Tuesday’s meeting of the DNC credentials committee dealt with a longstanding issue — focused on the election of Biafore, the state party chair and others to the DNC last summer — the calls for Biafore to resign have mounted since a June 3 meeting of the West Virginia Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee.

During that meeting, Biafore and other members of the party adopted an Affirmative Action Plan — just ahead of a deadline imposed by the DNC. Some members of the state executive committee allege the plan was approved with no input from a committee tasked with overseeing that plan.

On Tuesday, Selina Vickers — a member of the Democratic Party from Fayetteville who made a failed bid for the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2020 — had challenged the legitimacy of four party officials. That included Biafore’s election as state party chair, Rod Snyder as vice-chair, and Elaine Harris and Pat Maroney as DNC national committee members.

“Regardless of what happens here today, we have already won,” Vickers told the DNC’s credentials committee Tuesday. “Three counties have called for the resignation of chair Biafore just in the last week.”

Since the weekend, executive committees from Wood, Greenbrier and Monongalia counties had handed Biafore a vote of no confidence. They have called for her resignation over the June 3 meeting and the dust-up over the adoption of the state’s Affirmative Action Plan.

Vickers, in her challenge, had alleged that the public notice for the elections for those positions was not done so in a prominent and effective manner. She pointed toward one newspaper and a string of emails as evidence to support her argument.

“Hardly less information could have been provided,” Vickers said, “It doesn’t even provide where to attend. This notice cannot be called an adequate and effective notice.”

Biafore contended Tuesday that she and the other three state leaders ran unopposed in the June 2020 elections for state party leadership.

“This is a challenge to the unanimous elections of four DNC members,” Biafore said. “No one ran against us.”

But Vickers argued that the minimal notice of the elections discouraged a challenge to Biafore as state party chair, a position she has held since 2016.

“If no one knows about those meetings and you only find out about it with five days’ notice, would any of you run for chair of the party?” Vickers asked.

The DNC credentials committee ultimately adopted a motion to dismiss Vickers’ challenge against Biafore, Snyder, Harris and Maroney.

In a statement following the meeting, a group of other West Virginia Democrats — including West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women Vice President Barb Scott; former legislator, mayor, and longtime Democrat activist Charlene Marshall; and Labor Council President and Rivesville City Councilman Mark Dorsey — issued a statement that backed Biafore and the others who Vickers had challenged.

“We’d like to thank the DNC credentials committee for the fair and transparent way in which they’ve heard this challenge, and for making the right call in confirming that Chair Biafore and the three other officers should maintain their credentials with the DNC,” the group said. “We’ve seen firsthand her leadership of this party, and we know the vast majority of West Virginia Democrats are behind her in her effort to make this party stronger, more inclusive, and truly representative of all West Virginians.”

Amid other swirling controversies — including the adoption of the Affirmative Action Plan and other efforts for diversity — Biafore has said she hopes to build on that into the future. She maintains it will include the newly seated committee tasked with overseeing its implementation.

“I won’t deny that our party is less diverse than what we would like,” Biafore said Tuesday. “Our party has engaged in numerous outreach programs.”