CHARLESTON – A state Supreme Court candidate’s television ad critical of courtroom experience of three of the five current justices has drawn the ire of at least one of the justices.
Kanawha Family Court Judge Jim Douglas’ ad began running last week on WSAZ-TV in the Huntington-Charleston market. The 60-second ad begins touting Douglas’ 44 years of experience as a family attorney and a family court judge and why he believes having that experience is important to have represented on the state Supreme Court.
“Do you know that there are three justices sitting on the Supreme Court who have never cross-examined a witness?” the ad continues. “Never picked a jury? Never argued a case to the Supreme Court they now sit on?
Jenkins
“Moreover, there are four justices and most candidates for the Supreme Court who have never tried a grandparents’ rights case.”
Two days after the ad first aired May 12, Douglas said he was contacted state Judicial Investigation Commission Teresa Tarr following an informal anonymous complaint.
“She said I had made a false statement in the ad,” Douglas recalled of his talk with Tarr. “I told her to tell me which one was false so I could apologize for it.”
Douglas said Tarr told him to pull the ad and to run a retraction in the same time periods the ads had appeared.
“My response was, and still is, to ask what was wrong with the ad, and I’ll fix it,” Douglas told The West Virginia Record. “She wanted to approve my apology before I sent it down to WSAZ. That was part of her deal with me. I refused. I didn’t say anything about their credentials. I believe two or three don’t have the practical experience to sit on the state Supreme Court.”
Douglas did say he ran a retraction.
“If 95 percent of my ad is true, why do I have to apologize for telling the truth?” Douglas said.
Tarr said she couldn’t respond to questions and the FOIA request. None of the state Supreme Court justice also responded to requests for comment.
Douglas said Supreme Court Justice Evan Jenkins emailed him at 10:41 p.m. May 14 from his official court email account. The Record filed a Freedom of Information Act request to examine the exchange.
“Jim … I saw your ad this evening on WSAZ where you make factual claims about the Justices’ experience,” Jenkins’ email to Douglas begins. “Please let me know who the three Justices are you reference. If you are including me, your claims are not true and I take great offense at your efforts to disparage the reputation of the Court. And if I am not included in the three you reference and you cannot prove three other Justices do not have the experience you claim, I insist the ad be taken down immediately and that you issue a public apology for your false, deceptive and misleading ad.”
Douglas responded three hours later.
“Evan: For my edification, did you ever cross examine a principal witness in a trial, did you ever pick a jury as lead counsel in a trial, did you ever argue a case to the WV SCT as first chair, did you ever present an indictment to a state grand jury? If you have done so, please advise. Incidentally, I have done all of the foregoing.”
Jenkins replied at 7:17 a.m. the next morning.
“Jim: since you are now questioning me about my experience I can only assume you’ve included me as one of the three,” the justice wrote. “As I said before, if you are, the ad is false. How can I be more clear. In fact, my legal experience including the civil and criminal cases I’ve personally handled is a matter of public record in my application to the (Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission). You have a responsibility to make sure your statements are accurate and truthful. Again, please identify by name the three justices you are referring to in your ad?”
Douglas again responded a short time later, saying the ad in question was scheduled to run only four more times and asked Jenkins if he wanted to generate controversy before providing a list.
That list noted that Jenkins is a public figure, is not mentioned by name in any ad and isn’t a candidate in the same division as Douglas.
Douglas also asked Jenkins if can show liability and injury based on the ad, also saying Jenkins could demonstrate “no intent or maliciousness on my part to harm you personally.”
“Your unusual attempts as a sitting justice to privately lecture me on obligations, to make demands of me, or otherwise to intimidate me through unofficial channels could be construed as an attempt to advance the political fortunes of another candidate in the race,” Douglas wrote. “Any public dispute about this race would not center on me, but the focus would ultimately be upon your alleged experience or inexperience (to which you seem strangely sensitive) versus my First Amendment rights.
“There would be some inevitable negative publicity about a justice trying to ‘bully’ a lowly family court judge.”
Twenty minutes later, Jenkins responded again.
“Jim: who are the three?”
Six minutes later, Douglas replied.
“Evan: Did you ever argue a case as first chair to the very Supreme Court on which you now sit?” he asked Jenkins. “If not, what is your complaint? If so, then what is your complaint?”
Jenkins replied to that email 17 minutes later.
“Jim: I can see you are unwilling to tell me who you are referring to in the ad,” Jenkins wrote. “I have said now repeatedly that if you are including me, the ad is false. I will not engage in a back and forth.”
The email exchange apparently ends there.
No other emails regarding Douglas’ ad were part of response to The Record’s FOIA request.
“I make mistakes, but I don’t bully,” Douglas said. “And no one is going to bully me. And that’s what I perceived it (the emails) to be.”
Douglas told The Record he researched for any cases either Jenkins or Chief Justice Tim Armstead had argued in front of the state Supreme Court. He said he found nothing. That issue was brought up in 2018 when Gov. Jim Justice appointed the two and later ran to fill those terms.
When Jenkins was appointed, Charleston attorney Bill Schwartz challenged it and claimed Jenkins was ineligible because his law license was inactive from 2014 to 2018 when he served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Douglas said he sums it all up with a quote by historian Alexander Rose.
“One cannot speak truth to power if power has no use for truth.”