CHARLESTON – A Mercer County magistrate who resigned last month left the bench under the same cloud of scandal that forced his predecessor off the bench.
Charles Poe resigned March 12 in a letter to Mercer Circuit Court Judge William Sadler. His resignation came in the wake of a probe by the state Judicial Investigation Commission concerning alleged “inappropriate sexual, homophobic and racists comments” to a frequent visitor to the courthouse.
The person who filed the ethics complaint against Poe said the former magistrate made the statements in person and by test message. The person also said Poe sent indecent photos, cartoons and at least one video via text message.
When the complainant didn’t reply to Poe’s text messages, he would remind the person he was a magistrate.
“Hello I’m talking to you. This is your honor speaking,” Poe would write.
The JIC investigation revealed at least one former judicial employee was subjected to the same conduct by Poe.
After the investigation, the state Judiciary Disciplinary Counsel signed an agreement with Poe and his attorney in which he agreed to resign and to never seek judicial office in West Virginia again. It also included an admonishment from the JIC for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct.
“Discrimination and harassment should be things of the past,” the JIC’s public admonishment of Poe states. “They have no place in today’s society. They do not belong in the courtroom, the boardroom, the classroom, the workplace or anywhere.
“Judges must lead by example. Justice is supposed to be blind. Therefore, it is provident for judges to treat all litigants in a courtroom or all persons in the courtyard equally. To do otherwise casts doubt on the judiciary as a whole. … Because of his actions, respondent (Poe) no longer deserves the mantle of judge.”
Poe is a retired police officer. He served as a magistrate from 2008 to 2012, when he lost his re-election bid. But, he was appointed to the bench against in 2014 when Rick Fowler resigned following an investigation triggered by a sexually explicit Facebook message thread with a woman who had appeared before him in court.
Fowler was admonished by the JIC, which called his behavior “an embarrassment to the robe.”
He previously was admonished in 2012 for an inappropriate relationship with the wife of a man who had appeared in his courtroom, for taking a second job without approval of the state Supreme Court and for lying to a JIC investigator.
Judicial Investigation Commission complaint number 17-2021