WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — Even in southern West Virginia, where corruption is as much as a part of life as coal, people are shocked by allegations that a judge commandeered the legal system in a years-long attempt to frame a romantic rival for crimes he didn't commit.
Federal prosecutors indicted Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury on two counts of conspiracy Thursday, just hours after indicting County Commissioner Dave Baisden on extortion charges. Thornsbury attorney Steve Jory declined comment while Baisden's attorney did not return messages.
AP
Federal prosecutors on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013, charged Thornsbury with abusing his power and commandeering a southern West Virginia grand jury in a failed attempt to frame a romantic rival. )
The state Supreme Court has suspended Thornsbury and his law license, and a replacement judge was set to take over his caseload Friday.
Both officials are free while awaiting trial, but the indictments were painful news in a community still reeling from the assassination of its sheriff in April.
"It's hard for me to believe, because I personally know the judge. I know him as a personal friend. I've been to his home. I know his kids," said Williamson minister Butch Gregory.
Gregory's wife, Louise, hired Thornsbury as her lawyer long before he became the county's only judge in 1997.
"As a married man, he should have known better," she said. "I don't really trust nobody out here anymore."
The indictment says Thornsbury tried between 2008 and 2012 to frame Robert Woodruff for crimes including drug possession, larceny and assault. The judge had been having an affair with his secretary — Woodruff's wife, Kim — and he tried to eliminate the competition after she tried to break things off, it says.
The schemes involved a state trooper, the county emergency services director and another man, the indictment says, but none of them panned out.
Thornsbury faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, and a lawyer for the Woodruffs says he can also expect a civil lawsuit.
"My client should never have been placed under the stress of being charged criminally," said Charleston attorney Mike Callaghan, "nor should he have spent time in jail for crimes he did not commit.
"As a lawyer, I knew something was wrong," he said. "But never in my wildest dreams did I fathom the reason for the prosecution."
The indictment said Thornsbury, 57, wanted a friend to plant a magnetic metal box containing drugs on Robert Woodruff's vehicle in 2008. The friend didn't go through with it.
When that failed, prosecutors said the judge got the trooper to file a false complaint against Robert Woodruff for larceny. The judge wanted the trooper to pursue a case against Woodruff for salvaging mine-roof drill bits and scrap from the company he worked for, even though he had permission to do so.
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