Board recommends suspension for Nicholas County judge-elect over Obama fliers

A judicial disciplinary board on Tuesday recommended that the West Virginia Supreme Court bar the Nicholas County circuit judge-elect from taking the bench for a year.

The state Judicial Hearing Board also recommends that circuit judge-elect Stephen Callaghan, who faces ethics charges for allegedly using shady campaign tactics during the May primary, be suspended for a year from practicing law.

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About a week before the primary election, Callaghan sent out a flier to Nicholas County voters purporting to show Johnson partying with President Barack Obama. The ethics charges claim the fliers were meant to “deceive voters into believing that Judge Johnson and U.S. President Barack Obama were drinking beer and partying at the White House while conniving with one another to kill coal mining jobs in Nicholas County.”

Justices should also order Callaghan to pay $15,000 and pay for the cost of the proceedings against him, the hearing board’s filing states.

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