W.Va. Supreme Court Revokes Former Circuit Judge David Hummel’s Law License
Read the Supreme Court’s order to annul the law license of David Hummel
CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia Supreme Court on Friday annulled the law license of attorney David Hummel, who late last year resigned as a judge in the state's Second Judicial Circuit.
Hummel's resignation and the formal loss of his law license came after the state's Judicial Investigation Commission lodged several complaints against him -- including that he improperly used public dollars meant for court treatment programs, that he belittled children who came before him, and also that he violated his own rules concerning handguns in the courtroom.
The order from the Supreme Court on Friday indicates that Hummel, of Moundsville, consented to having his law license annulled. It is addressed to "David W. Hummel Jr., an inactive member of the West Virginia State Bar."
"On Feb. 21, 2023, the Office of Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel, by Rachael L. Fletcher Cipoletti, Chief Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel … filed a petition for disbarment to request that the court accept the annulment of the license to practice law in the State of West Virginia of the respondent, David W. Hummel Jr., and the formal affidavit, under seal, of the respondent consenting to voluntary disbarment," the Supreme Court's order reads.
"Upon consideration, the Court does grant the petition. It is ordered that, pursuant to Rule 3.25 of the Rules of Lawyer Disciplinary Procedure, the license to practice law in the state of West Virginia of the respondent, David W. Hummel Jr., is annulled by voluntary consent."
The loss of Hummel's law license is the latest chapter in what has been a bizarre and concerning series of events in his former courtroom.
The Judicial Investigation Commission's complaint focused on three areas: the alleged misuse of public funds, how he treated some children in his courtroom, and how he brandished a weapon in front of attorneys arguing a case before him.
– 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."
– 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 6-year-old that she engaged in some 'sinister plan' regarding her father."
– 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."
Messages left for Hummel were not immediately returned on Monday.