High Court

West Virginia’s high court announced this week that it affirmed the Berkeley County Circuit Court’s rulings in the conviction of a Hedgesville man charged in the brutal 2007 rape and slaying of Tina Marie Starcher. In a per curiam opinion, the state Supreme Court of Appeals rebuffed arguments by Anthony Charles Juntilla’s defense attorney that the presiding circuit judge erred when he failed to grant a judgment of acquittal, allowed the admission of a certain statement by the defendant be admitted into evidence and denied a motion by Juntilla’s attorney to strike a particular juror because of bias.

A well-known former Martinsburg defense attorney who was found guilty of 11 misdemeanor counts of practicing law without a license in May has petitioned the state’s high court to reverse his convictions. Steven M. Askin, 62, was fined $1,100 in July and ordered to pay court costs by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Gina M. Groh. She concluded that Askin’s legal advice, while in violation of the law in her opinion, did not appear to hurt any of the people whom authorities said he helped.

This past December the West Virginia Supreme Court justices issued an order temporarily blocking Howard Strauss' swearing-in as a Berkeley County Commissioner until they could rule on his opponent's claim that Strauss didn't meet constitutional residency requirements. On Tuesday, when they were expected to rule, they postponed it indefinitely instead. This is unacceptable. The court should resolve this matter now. It has now been three months since Strauss, a Republican, beat Democrat Robert Burkhart by 157 votes.

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - The state Supreme Court of Appeals Wednesday heard oral arguments regarding an appeal to a proposal to tear down the former Jefferson County Jail. Clarksburg attorney Tom Michael appeared before the high court in Charleston Wednesday morning to present his case on behalf of Carol Gallant and Jim Whipple, two Jefferson County residents who are fighting a proposal by the Jefferson County Commission to tear down the old jail at the corner of George and Washington streets.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals will hear cases in Jefferson County Circuit Court for the first time in more than 70 years. Until early in this century, state Supreme Court justices traveled a circuit, hearing cases in Charles Town, Wheeling and Charleston, said Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Thompson. This week, the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office received a fax from the state Supreme Court saying that cases will be heard on Oct. 27 in Jefferson County, said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney J. Michael Cassell.

W.Va. high court to hear Feliciano case By BOB PARTLOW / Staff Writer, Martinsburg When Antonio Feliciano wrestled with a would-be armed robber at a 7-Eleven store in Baker Heights, W.Va., on W.Va. 9 last summer, company officials said he violated company police and fired him. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals will now decide whether his claim that he was acting in self-defense can be used as a shield against his firing. Feliciano was an "at-will" employee - meaning the company could fire him for virtually any reason, said his attorney Paul Taylor.

High court prevents prosecutor from appearing before grand jury By BOB PARTLOW / Staff Writer, Martinsburg The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Monday voted 3-2 to prohibit a special prosecutor from appearing before a Berkeley County grand jury today in the case of three sheriff's deputies who a grand jury indicted in the beating of a Hedgesville, W.Va., man. The court agreed with the motion filed by attorney Laura Rose seeking to prohibit Mineral County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn Nelson, acting as a special prosecuting attorney in the case, from seeking advice from a new grand jury on how to proceed.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The West Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to take up several issues in a case involving the state's whitewater rafting industry. The case stems from a September 2004 rafting trip. Five rafts full of Washington, D.C., office workers were taken out on the Shenandoah River, despite dangerous conditions. One rafter was killed and several others say they were injured when all but one of the rafts capsized. The state's high court decided last week to hear arguments in the case before it goes to trial.

They were in this country to learn about antitrust law, but a group of 19 Chinese jurists and their interpreter stopped in the Washington County Courthouse in Hagerstown Tuesday afternoon to watch a criminal proceeding. "Today a prisoner who was previously sentenced is attacking the conviction," Deputy State's Attorney Joseph Michael explained to the group about the post-conviction hearing. The defendant, he told them, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2004 in exchange for an 18-month sentence and an agreement to testify against her mother.

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania on Wednesday reversed a lower court judge's order and reinstated the prison sentence of a Shippensburg, Pa., area man whom a jury found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. In June 2011, Franklin County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas Judge Richard Walsh ordered a new trial for Chad Kirby and vacated his sentence. Now, the higher court has reversed Walsh's granting of a new trial and reinstated Kirby's sentence of six to 12 years in prison. Kirby had claimed ineffective trial counsel after the October 2010 verdict.

A Berkeley County judge has been assigned to hear a state Supreme Court case involving a pilot public campaign-funding program that he said in December he would comply with when he was mulling a possible 2012 election bid for the high court. Twenty-third Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes, along with fellow state trial judges James P. Mazzone (1st Circuit) and J. Lewis Marks Jr. (15th Circuit), were assigned to the public campaign-funding case involving Republican state Supreme Court candidate Allen H. Loughry II last week, according to court documents.

While Berkeley Springs (W.Va.) High School seniors Tamar Sparks and Kayla Munday thought the defense attorney “stood up to the court really well,” his client “should have stayed in jail.” Sparks and Munday were among about 450 Eastern Panhandle high school students in the audience Tuesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court as the five justices of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals heard arguments from both sides in four actual criminal...

Washington County Circuit Court Judge Donald E. Beachley is among nine judges who have been nominated to fill on open seat on Maryland's second highest court. Beachley, 54, was among 20 people who applied to the Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission to fill a vacancy on the 13-judge Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis. The commission held interviews with the applicants this week. Beachley was not in town Thursday and could not be reached for comment, his secretary said.

A 23rd Judicial Circuit judge has scheduled nighttime court sessions in Berkeley County next month because he said his growing, deadline-driven docket of child abuse and neglect cases, combined with an upcoming jury trial, leave him little choice. Judge John C. Yoder notified the administrator of the state Supreme Court of Appeals and Berkeley County Council Attorney Norwood Bentley III of his intentions, but said last week the scheduled night hearings still could be postponed if the high court doesn't agree to pay for a court reporter.

They were in this country to learn about antitrust law, but a group of 19 Chinese jurists and their interpreter stopped in the Washington County Courthouse in Hagerstown Tuesday afternoon to watch a criminal proceeding. "Today a prisoner who was previously sentenced is attacking the conviction," Deputy State's Attorney Joseph Michael explained to the group about the post-conviction hearing. The defendant, he told them, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2004 in exchange for an 18-month sentence and an agreement to testify against her mother.

West Virginia’s high court announced this week that it affirmed the Berkeley County Circuit Court’s rulings in the conviction of a Hedgesville man charged in the brutal 2007 rape and slaying of Tina Marie Starcher. In a per curiam opinion, the state Supreme Court of Appeals rebuffed arguments by Anthony Charles Juntilla’s defense attorney that the presiding circuit judge erred when he failed to grant a judgment of acquittal, allowed the admission of a certain statement by the defendant be admitted into evidence and denied a motion by Juntilla’s attorney to strike a particular juror because of bias.

A well-known former Martinsburg defense attorney who was found guilty of 11 misdemeanor counts of practicing law without a license in May has petitioned the state’s high court to reverse his convictions. Steven M. Askin, 62, was fined $1,100 in July and ordered to pay court costs by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Gina M. Groh. She concluded that Askin’s legal advice, while in violation of the law in her opinion, did not appear to hurt any of the people whom authorities said he helped.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- At a 5-0 vote on Thursday, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals refused to hear War Memorial Hospital's petition for rehearing their case and the decision stands, court spokeswoman April Harless said Thursday. Attorneys for Morgan County and War Memorial Hospital were not satisfied with the state high court's 5-0 decision last June that granted 15 hospital employees the right to receive the hospital's terminated pension plan funds. A Petition for Rehearing was filed in July.

Donald B. Ayer is not your ordinary lawyer. He has argued many times before the Supreme Court and has served as a president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. This intimate association with the history and workings of our nation's highest court provides Ayer with some interesting insights. Of importance are some clues as to how court justices make their determinations. People want to know if these judges can (as some claim) be objective in making legal judgments. Is it believable that a judge can dispassionately and mechanically lay down a law alongside a clause in the Constitution and declare harmony or incompatibility?