Huntington Mayor Steve Williams Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Supreme Court Will Weigh Cabell County, Huntington Opioid Lawsuit

This year every county in West Virginia, except Cabell County, is set to begin receiving opioid settlement funds, totalling over 400 million dollars from a nearly statewide lawsuit that was won in 2022.

Cabell County, and its largest city, Huntington, decided to bring their own joint lawsuit. They lost that suit in 2022, despite suing with the same claim that was used in successful state and nationwide lawsuits that the pharmaceutical companies had created a “public nuisance.”

This year every county in West Virginia, except Cabell County, is set to begin receiving opioid settlement funds, totaling over 400 million dollars from a nearly statewide lawsuit that was won in 2022.

The judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge David Faber, had a narrower interpretation over what constitutes a public nuisance than other judges on previous cases. The city and county appealed the decision.

Now the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering the case, has asked the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to answer a critical question: “Under West Virginia’s common law, can conditions caused by the distribution of a controlled substance constitute a public nuisance and, if so, what are the elements of a public nuisance claim?”

If the Supreme Court determines that those conditions do constitute a public nuisance claim then the case can proceed. Otherwise, the case against the pharmaceutical companies is dead.

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said the nearly 100 million pills that were distributed to his city of less than 45,000 residents led to thousands of overdose deaths — and he hopes the courts see it that way as well.

“We remain hopeful that the court will find that under West Virginia law,” Williams said. “The City of Huntington and Cabell County had the right to file its claim that distributors of opioids can be held accountable for flooding the market with opioids and the resulting devastation of the opioid epidemic.”

Huntington was one of the hardest hit communities by the opioid epidemic. According to city officials, 1 in 10 residents is currently, or has been addicted to opioids. Williams said he is happy that the effort is still alive, so that the community can continue to heal.

“The reason that we need a settlement is to be able to rebuild and build back our community,” Williams said. “In a way that we can create a level of resilience to be able to overcome the curse that was placed on our community as a result of the greed of those companies.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to the three pharmaceutical companies in the lawsuit, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health, but did not hear back in time for broadcast.

Anti-Hate Forum Slated For Tuesday In Huntington

Hate crimes remain a problem in our communities, but a forum in Huntington next week will help attendees understand how to identify it.

The United Against Hate (UAH) Community Outreach Program is a nationwide initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat unlawful acts of hate. The initiative aims to improve hate crime reporting by teaching community members how to identify, report and help prevent hate crimes, and by building trust between law enforcement and communities.

UAH shares resources to combat hate and encourages discussion between representatives from law enforcement, community organizations and members of the public. The program emphasizes that while some hate-fueled incidents — standing alone — may not be a crime, people should still report those incidents to local law enforcement and the FBI.

U.S. Attorney Will Thompson and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams along with other community leaders are hosting the event.

“This forum is an excellent opportunity to hear from the community, raise awareness and further education about hate crimes and bias incidents,” Thompson said.

“Huntington is a welcoming community that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion, but there are still individuals who want to tear down the progress we have made,” Williams said. “That’s why I am eager to partner with the U.S. Attorney Will Thompson and engage our community on this important topic.”

The forum will include presentations about United Against Hate and federal and West Virginia hate crime laws as well as a panel session featuring community leaders.

The panel is scheduled to include:

Charles Meyers: past president, Cabell-Huntington NAACP
Hoyt Glazer, J.D.: president, Temple B’nai Sholom
Sue Barazi: vice president, Islamic Association of West Virginia
Ally Layman: president, Huntington Pride
Angela Adams: president and CEO, Mountain State Centers for Independent Living

The event will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 19 at the Marshall Health Network Arena Convention Center. It is free and open to the public. RSVP is not required.

Huntington Mayor Reacts To Opioid Verdict

A federal judge ruled in favor of three drug distributors that were accused of fueling the opioid epidemic in Huntington and Cabell County. Local leaders are considering their next step.

Judge David Faber ruled that opioid distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson did not create a public nuisance by distributing 81 million pills over the span of eight years in Huntington and Cabell County.

“The distribution of medicine to support the legitimate medical needs of patients as determined by doctors exercising their medical judgment in good faith cannot be deemed an unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public,” Faber wrote.

The judge stated that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the wave of addictive painkillers were because of unreasonable conduct, and that the defendants were acting in a legitimate response to keep up with the demand set by doctor prescriptions.

“I don’t know what more that we needed to prove,” Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said. “It was a collaborative effort of the manufacturers, the distributors, and the pharmaceutical companies.“

Huntington and Cabell County asked for more than $2.5 billion in order to fund opioid response programs as part of a 15-year abatement plan.

According to Williams, the defendants denied responsibility to assist in the community’s recovery.

“One thing that frankly aggravated me in the trial is when the defendants were indicating that the City of Huntington should be paying for all these recovery programs,” he said.

Williams indicated that the plaintiffs plan on meeting with legal counsel to discuss their next steps.

Gov. Jim Justice And Huntington Mayor Discuss Steps For Flood Prevention

Gov. Jim Justice joins Huntington Mayor Steve Williams at Four-Pole Creek to discuss flooding.

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams met alongside Four-Pole Creek Monday morning to discuss flood prevention and response.

Justice said that once the damage is assessed, the State needs to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lessen pressure from flood bottlenecks. “Get these people qualified for FEMA,” he said. “If that’s possible.”

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams Outlining The Four-Pole Creek Watershed

Justice and Williams both emphasized that flooding needs to be addressed on the local, county, and state level due to the wide geographical reach of the problem and the high cost of engineering solutions.

“All of us, the mayor, the governor, the house, the Senate, try to do anything and everything we can with dollars that we have available to try to help these folks,” Justice said.

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington First Responders

The Four-Pole Creek watershed covers the majority of Huntington and its surrounding areas. A series of county waterways converge into Four-Pole Creek, and bottlenecks starting at the Enslow community, often the site of the city’s worst flooding.

Concrete changes the shape of a watershed, reducing absorption and increasing runoff. Justice and Williams noted that infrastructure must be built in a way that promotes development and prevents overflows.

“We want development all over the state of West Virginia,” Williams said. “In order for us to have the development that we know that we want, that we deserve, we also have to make sure that we have the capacity in place to be able to prepare.”

Justice encouraged West Virginia citizens affected by the flood to document the damage and contact the West Virginia Emergency Management Division at emd.wv.gov.

W.Va.’s Opioid Epidemic Draws Federal Funds

Additional federal dollars are coming to West Virginia to help combat the state’s opioid epidemic. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement was used to mark national Overdose Awareness Day.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will award $53 million to 44 states, four tribes, and the District of Columbia. The money will help ensure health care professionals have the right tools and training to avoid over-prescribing opioids and to educate their patients about the risks. It will also expand access to naloxone for first responders, a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose, and the funds will also support treatment facilities.

On the call, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said, just last week 26 people overdosed in his city within a 24 hour period. Two of those 26 died, and Williams says access to care is a major problem.

“In West Virginia alone, we only have 28 detox beds in the entire state of West Virginia,” Williams said, “Eight detox beds just in my home county, in Cabell County, West Virginia. That one evening, when we had 26 overdoses, we didn’t have enough beds available in the entire state if every person had come and said, I want help.”

Williams and officials with HSS are hopeful Congress will sign-off on President Obama’s proposal to allocate an additional $1.1 billion toward combatting the nation’s drug epidemic.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.