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Jury in Trial of West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry To Get Case Today

West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry emerges with his lawyer John Carr from the Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse after a federal jury was selected for his criminal trial on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018 in Charleston, W.Va. (Craig Hudson/The Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)

CHARLESTON — Allen Loughry, the embattled justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, said he remains confident that he did not commit federal crimes.

A jury will get to decide starting today if the evidence backs up Loughry’s confidence. The defense rested its case Tuesday after jurors heard five days of testimony and evidence on the 22-count federal indictment against him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Wright continued Tuesday morning to cross-examine Loughry at the Robert C. Byrd Courthouse in Charleston. The prosecution had rested its case Monday.

Wright asked Loughry how he came to obtain the keys for the court’s two Buicks — a brown Buick Lucerne and a black Buick LaCrosse. Loughry said Arthur Angus, the court’s director of security, gave him the keys after the court fired former Court Administrator Steve Canterbury on Jan. 4, 2017.

“I didn’t take a set of keys, but I did have a set of keys,” Loughry said. “Arthur and I met at the end of that day. We met in Mr. Canterbury’s former office and he handed me the keys.”

Loughry is charged with filing false and fraudulent mileage claims for trips using a court Buick and state fuel card to American University in Washington, D.C., in October 2013, and a legal conference sponsored by the Pound Civil Justice Institute in Baltimore in August 2014.

Loughry is also charged in 15 counts for using the court’s vehicles and fuel cards for personal trips unrelated to court business. Evidence from the trial allegedly shows at least two instances where a state fuel card was used to fill up possibly two different vehicles — one with unleaded gasoline and the other with unleaded-plus.

Wright said the fuel purchases coincide with a trip Loughry made to the Morgantown area in November of 2013.

“It would be coincidental if another card was used at the same time,” Loughry said.

Wright also used the fuel times and cell phone records to indicate that Loughry often used the state vehicles for holidays when no official use could be determined.

“What official business could you be conducting at 8:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day?” Wright asked, referring to one of the vehicle trips Loughry made.

The cell phone and fuel records show multiple trips to Tucker County, where Loughry is from and his parents reside.

John Carr, attorney for Loughry, asked his client about the accuracy of the records from WEX, the vendor for the fuel cards.

“I’ve spent a lot of times looking at those records,” Loughry said. “There are all sorts of inconsistencies. These records are a mess.”

Several of the personal trips Loughry is alleged to have taken using the state car and fuel card were to The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs for book signings. Loughry was the author of “Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Won’t Pay for a Landslide,” published in 2006 by McClain Publishing in Parsons.

Wright asked Loughry about how he was compensated for the book signings. Loughry said The Greenbrier would order books from Kelly, Loughry’s wife, who maintained a sole proprietorship. The Greenbrier would send the profits from the book sales to Kelly, but the money would be deposited by Loughry in a joint Chase checking account. The Greenbrier also sent a 1099 tax form to the Loughry’s, but his 2015 extra-judicial compensation form lists no additional income for Loughry. Wright asked Loughry why he didn’t report the income.

“I did not do so because they were payable to my wife, Kelly Loughry,” he said.

During rebuttal, the prosecution called Canterbury to the stand. He told the jurors that he never told Loughry he could take a desk from the Supreme Court to his home. During testimony Monday, Loughry said Canterbury told him about the court’s home office policy and to take a desk home. Witnesses throughout the trial have said the desk is a historic Cass Gilbert desk. Gilbert, the architect of the state Capitol, purchased those desks for the building.

Loughry is charged with making false statements to investigators regarding whether he had the desk, and wire fraud for allegedly giving his public information officer false information to send to a reporter regarding a court home office policy.

“I never used the term ‘home office,'” Canterbury said. “I told him he could have a computer and a printer…we never discussed a desk.

“Until the end of November 2017, I never knew he had a desk,” Canterbury told jurors. “Cass Gilbert desks are icons.”

Vicky Shafer, a retired assistant for Loughry, returned to the stand Tuesday and told jurors that Loughry’s desk was not a Cass Gilbert desk. Calling the antique desks “old and stinky,” Shafer said she had not heard of those desks called Cass Gilbert desks.

“Until the news reports came out referring to them as Cass Gilbert, I did not believe they were Cass Gilbert desks,” Shafer said.

Court will resume at 10 a.m. today for jurors to hear closing statements and to decide a verdict.

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