PAUL MARTENEY

The assistant prosecuting attorney in Pleasants County’s ability to practice law was suspended for 90 days unrelated to an ongoing federal and state probe of the prosecuting attorney’s office’s involvement in a scheme to dismiss certain charges for donations to a Christmas gift program.

According to a Sept. 12 order from the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the law license of Paul Marteney was suspended for 90 days starting at the date of the order. Marteney also was ordered to refund a $200 filing fee to Jinjer Nutter and pay the costs associated with the disciplinary proceedings.

When the 90-day period concludes on Dec. 11, Marteney’s law license will be automatically reinstated. Pleasants County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Carr said in a statement Sunday night that as a result of the law license suspension, Marteney is not serving as assistant prosecuting attorney.

The order resulted from a Nov. 1, 2022, statement of charges filed against Marteney by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, a state agency that investigates alleged wrongdoing of licensed attorneys in West Virginia.

According to the statement of charges, Nutter filed an ethics complaint Dec. 15, 2021, against Marteney, alleging that Marteney refused to refund a $200 filing fee after Marteney dropped the ball on a civil lawsuit Nutter had contracted with Marteney to represent her on. In 2016, Nutter, then a minor, was involved in a traffic accident. In 2019, Nutter wished to file a civil lawsuit to recoup medical costs and other damages due to the accident.

Carr, who was Nutter’s college professor, recommended Marteney to represent Nutter. After meeting with Marteney at the Pleasants County Courthouse, Nutter and her mother agreed to pay Marteney the $200 filing fee and pay Marteney 25% of any settlement proceeds, though no written agreement was provided.

After the civil suit was filed in February 2019 in Pleasants County Circuit Court, Nutter and her mother were unable to make contact with Marteney. In August 2020, the court issued a notice of intent to dismiss the lawsuit due to inactivity, with no motions filed by Marteney in response to the notice. Nutter didn’t find out until the end of September 2021 that her case had been dismissed.

Marteney did not respond to an October 2021 letter from Nutter seeking an explanation and requesting the case be refiled. Nutter filed her ethics complaint against Marteney the next year.

When the Office of Disciplinary Counsel sought an explanation from Marteney about the allegations in December 2021 and gave Marteney 20 days to respond, he did not provide an explanation. Marteney also failed to respond to other requests from the ODC.

Marteney, along with Carr, remains under state and federal investigation for their role in the “Slow Down for the Holidays” program that began in 2008 when Carr was a municipal judge for the City of St. Marys. The Slow Down program would dismiss minor traffic infractions in the months prior to Christmas each year in exchange for donations of $50 gift cards or the equivalent of $50 in toys.

The Pleasants County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and the Pleasants County Sheriff’s Department became involved in the program in 2018 after Carr took office, when the two began to dismiss certain misdemeanor charges, such as driving under the influence, in exchange for the donation of gift cards and sometimes cash to the Slow Down program.

State investigators said Carr and Marteney’s selection of only a few misdemeanor cases in exchange for monetary donations constituted a “bribe.” Both were charged in 2021 by the Investigative Panel of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board with multiple violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The cases remain paused due to a federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the North District of West Virginia.

An investigation in 2021 by the Judicial Investigation Commission resulted in the resignations of the county’s two magistrates for their role in the Slow Down program. The Investigative Panel of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board also found that the City of St. Marys did not keep track of funds to the Slow Down program, nor did it track how donations to the program were spent.

The federal investigation into the Slow Down program has resulted in one guilty plea. Carolyn Taylor, a former St. Marys Police Department clerk, pleaded guilty to perjury last year for lying to federal investigators about taking gift cards from the Slow Down program for personal use.

Several defense attorneys are facing lawyer disciplinary charges for accepting plea deals in exchange for donation to Slow Down, including attorney Justin Raber, Jay Gerber Jr., Harley Wagner, Ira Richardson and Jordan West. In August, Parkersburg attorney Wells Dillon was admonished by the Hearing Panel Subcommittee of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board and ordered him to undergo six additional hours of continuing legal education in the area of ethics and to pay the costs of the disciplinary proceeding.