Courtroom

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A section of wooden paneling above the entrance to a third-floor courtroom in the Berkeley County Judicial Center fell more than 20 feet to the second floor of the building Thursday afternoon, prompting a safety investigation. No one was injured. Only one person was in the hallway where the paneling landed on the tile floor outside the suite of offices for Berkeley County Circuit Clerk Virginia M. Sine and her staff about 2:30 p.m., officials said. Until other sections of the paneling are inspected, access will be restricted in the hallway, which leads to public bathrooms in the back of the 125,000-square-foot building that opened in December 2006.

marlob@herald-mail.com Liley Lee Gordon on Tuesday was handed a 23-year prison sentence for an October 2004 accident and carjacking in Hagerstown. "This was a series of out-of-control events by an incorrigible person," Washington County Circuit Judge Donald Beachley said as he imposed a 20-year sentence for unarmed carjacking on Gordon, 17, who was charged as an adult. Gordon, whose last known address was 458 Park Place, will have to serve 10 years before he is eligible for parole, Beachley said.

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Emotions ran high again in Jefferson County Magistrate Court during a preliminary hearing Monday for Vernon Henderson Dunlap, who was charged with murder after his girlfriend was found in her apartment last month with her throat cut. Jennifer Leigh Dodson, 20, of 308 New Oak Tree Court, was found dead in her apartment at the Willow Spring Farm apartment complex off Prospect Avenue on...

shappell@herald-mail.com An industrial hygienist and the project manager for renovations at the Washington County Courthouse Annex will meet with employees at the building today about asbestos removal that is to begin there within weeks. The removal will begin a 15-month, $4.2 million renovation project. Gary Pozzouli, project manager for renovations, said Wednesday that asbestos abatement on two floors of the courthouse will begin in mid-September. He said the removal of items such as fireproofing and floor tiles will take up to six weeks each for the basement and first floor of the courthouse.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com The trial of David Eugene Munday, the man charged with shooting a West Virginia State Police trooper a year ago, got off to a slow start Tuesday, with the day spent selecting a jury. A 15-person jury, including three alternates, was seated and sworn at 4:45 p.m. Opening statements are to be heard today and testimony is to begin. Jurors are to be taken to Harper Lane in Hedgesville, W.Va., which was the site of the Oct. 10, 2002, shooting. Trooper R.J. "Bobby" Elswick was shot once above his left ear on that night and continues to recover from the wound.

By RICHARD F. BELISLE Staff Writer CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Franklin County officials are getting ready to make room for a fourth judge for Franklin and Fulton counties. The Franklin County Commissioners will spend more than $200,000 for office, chambers and courtroom space for the new judge, his secretary, law clerk and law library, said John Hart, county administrator. The state will pay the $104,000 annual salary for the new judge. Room could be found in existing courthouse space or elsewhere, Hart said.

By MARLO BARNHART Staff Writer Irvine H. Rutledge was a man of many qualities - a Civil War expert, an accomplished hunter, a great storyteller, occasional hang glider and most of all, a respected jurist. But Rutledge, who died Thursday at the age of 85, will best be remembered by his peers as a gentleman, and he would have liked that. Although he retired from the Washington County Circuit bench in 1978, many current practicing attorneys and judges remember their days standing before him during his 17 years on the bench.

I happened to catch the O.J. Simpson sentencing live on Friday, where the former running back was explaining to the judge that he hadn't realized that bursting into a hotel room, holding people against their will at gunpoint and taking their possessions was against the law. Yeah. It probably wouldn't have occurred to me, either. It's one of those pesky laws, like having to turn on your headlights when the windshield wipers are on. "I didn't know I was doing anything illegal," Simpson told the judge.

A sad, tragic story unwound in a Berkeley County (W.Va.) courtroom earlier this month, a drama which knitted several previously unrelated lives and should have us all thinking about what type of people we're becoming. The facts of the case were these: Robert Lee Sparkman Jr. had been drinking with friends over last year's Thanksgiving weekend. At 1 a.m. Sunday, state trooper Kevin Plumer spotted Sparkman's car driving erratically on a tavern-lined stretch of U.S. 11 in South Berkeley County.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com David H. Savasten, who gave up his civil law practice to be Morgan County's full-time prosecuting attorney last year, died Tuesday at the age of 60. Law colleagues who knew Savasten as a polished, committed, witty attorney were stunned by how quickly an autoimmune disorder took his life. "We'd all heard about it. It's a fairly small community," said John Adams, who used to prosecute cases with Savasten in Morgan County. "But we assumed that given the advanced state of medicine, there'd be a fix in it for him. " "David had never been sick, not even a cold," said his wife, Gloria Jean Ritchey Flowers.