Retirement board wants pensions of felons terminated

CHARLESTON - The state's Consolidated Public Retirement Board has filed three lawsuits in Kanawha Circuit Court, claiming that three retirees have violated the terms of their pensions by pleading guilty to felons.

One of the defendants is Larry Pauley, who pled guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor. He was charged with soliciting sexually explicit photographs of his middle-school art student and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

Two months ago, the now-18-year-old filed a civil suit against Pauley, who paid approximately $700 for 25 photos, according to the suit.

The Consolidated Public Retirement Board says that he should be "legally ineligible to continue to receive any benefits as a retirant of the Teachers Retirement System" because he acted in a "less than honorable" manner.

The other two suits, filed Nov. 6, are against Jerry Weaver and George Bradshaw III.

Weaver is a former Lincoln County Assessor who pled guilty to conspiracy to buy votes. He was part of a ring of county democrats who bought votes in every election from 1990-2004 in order to keep the party in control of the county.

He had been elected assessor in 1980. On May's Primary Election Day, Judge John Copenhaver sentenced him to one year in prison.

Bradshaw, meanwhile, is a former state trooper who was convicted of mail fraud stemming from an apparent embezzlement scheme. He was accused of altering documents in order to cover up the disappearance of money seized in drug busts.

Bradshaw once commanded the Martinsburg State Police detachment and is awaiting sentencing. His defense team's motion for judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict was denied.

J. Jeaneen Legato is handling the suits for the board. Judges Charles King, Louis Bloom and James Stucky have each been assigned a case.

Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers 06-C-2359-2361