Former Circuit Judge Hummel Admonished by Judicial Investigation Commission
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Former Second Judicial Circuit Judge David Hummel, who resigned last week, also agreed to never again seek judicial office and accepted a public admonishment from the West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission following several complaints against him.
The complaints against Hummel paint a picture of a judge who belittled children who came before him, who improperly used funds meant for the court and also one who violated his own rules concerning handguns in the courtroom.
In fact, the Judicial Investigation Commission, in describing Hummel's most recent alleged actions where he pulled a gun in his courtroom and placed it on his desk while attorneys watched on, said the judge "not only humiliated himself, but he also caused great embarrassment to the court system as a whole and is admonished for his actions."
Hummel resigned Wednesday, Nov. 23, in a short letter to Gov. Jim Justice. He had made headlines in recent months after he had been accused by a Texas attorney of brandishing a firearm in front of her in a courtroom.
That was one of three issues addressed in the Judicial Investigate Commission's admonishment released Friday afternoon.
Among the complaints against Hummel were:
— According to the JIC, Hummel presided over a 2020 hearing in an abuse and neglect petition alleging that the natural father of two minor daughters abused them. According to the admonishment, Hummel accused the older daughter, age 7, of lying, which brought her to tears, and told the younger daughter, age 6, that she had implicated the mother in a “sinister” plot to falsify allegations against the father. This was done via in-camera interviews, despite video recordings of prior interviews with the children.
Hummel issued a final order in the case holding that the children were not abused or neglected by the father and dismissed the petition. The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Hummel "failed to make the requisite findings of fact and conclusions of law" and sent the matter back to Hummel with instructions to issue a new order containing those findings of fact and conclusions of law.
In 2021, Hummel issued a revised final order which held there "was no clear and convincing evidence of any abuse or neglect by the father," reinstated parenting time and dismissed the action from the active docket. The matter again was appealed to the state Supreme Court, which vacated the lower court’s dismissal of the petition and remanded the matter to another judge.
"Respondent (Hummel) knew or should have known better," the JIC wrote in its admonishment. "He is a longtime lawyer and former assistant prosecutor. At the time of the incident, he was a seasoned veteran of the Court. He had absolutely no business calling a child of tender years a liar or suggesting to an impressionable six-year-old that she engaged in some 'sinister plan' regarding her father."
— Also according to the JIC, in 2019, in seeking to change the service provider for the Adult Drug Court in the Second Circuit from the Day Report Center to a local private mental health facility, Hummel went to the Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler county commissions seeking $30,000 from each to fund a case coordinator and take care of other expenses. Half of that money was maintained by the mental health provider. Hummel asked and received the rest back and “improperly placed it with a general receiver,” according to the JIC. The JIC said Hummel repeated that process again in 2020.
Hummel "used his position as judge to obtain money from the County Commissions," the JIC wrote in its admonishment. "He then incorrectly placed half the money with a general receiver when that process is clearly designed for active court cases and not the funding in question. He inappropriately retained absolute control of the money and spent thousands of dollars for improper purposes."
— Hummel, again according to the JIC, violated his own administrative order regarding firearms in the courtroom. His 2013 order directed that all circuit court judges, family court judges, Supreme Court Justices and senior status judges that carried a firearm in a courtroom “take reasonable measures to ensure that any firearm he or she may possess on the aforesaid premises is concealed such that the same is not displayed.” During a 2022 hearing in a civil case, Hummel took out the gun he was carrying and displayed it for all to see, the JIC said.
"It is incredulous for a judge to violate his own administrative order, but that is what (Hummel) did when he pulled out a gun and showed it in the courtroom," the JIC wrote. "It is no wonder to this Commission that his conduct resulted in nationwide publicity. He not only humiliated himself, but he also caused great embarrassment to the court system as a whole and is admonished for his actions."
The JIC concluded in a 7-0 decision, with two members absent, that probable cause existed to find that Hummel violated rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct that included compliance with the law, confidence in the judiciary, avoiding abuse of the prestige of judicial office and decorum, demeanor and communication with jurors.
The JIC also found that formal discipline wasn't necessary since Hummel had resigned. Attempts to reach Hummel on Friday evening were unsuccessful.