Tuesday, March 24, 2015

LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE...& then some!



(#94)  23 MARCH 2015, Vol.2, No.9>  LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE…& then some!






The POCAHONTAS CRIER
‘When the Righteous succeed the people rejoice,
But when the bad govern, men groan!’ – Proverbs 29:2


LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE…
& then some!

It is no secret that this Internet Blog has been critical in its efforts to ‘expose impropriety and the appearance of impropriety’, of all county agencies, including that of the  THREE STOOGES that comprise the current county commission in Pocahontas County, ever since Bill Beard, Jr. & David McLaughlin announced that they would be candidates in last year’s election, along with Jamie Walker whose term runs out in the next election.  The reason we say that is for multiple reasons but primarily due to the fact that NONE of the current commissioners have any experience ‘in government’ or any aspect of knowing exactly what is their respective duties and responsibilities as county commissioners!  None of them know WHAT they are supposed to do, or HOW to do what is expected of them, and what is even more egregious, none of them are capable of even finding out what they are supposed to do by reading the State Statutes that regulate their respective public office!

Both McLaughlin and Beard have spent the better part of their lives chasing after the collective derrières of cattle with the added ‘experience’ of driving around in circles delivering mail on the part of McLaughlin, while Jamie Walker is more at home chasing the derrière of a bear behind the collective derrières of inbred-bear-dogs in order to eat greasy-bear-meat and sell ‘bear-innards’ to Orientals!  So the combined knowledge of the THREE STOOGES regarding ‘government’ consists of them riding on a state road and wondering how it got there…or some such equivalent!

Meanwhile many of us know from experience that LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE in many cases while in others OPPOSITES ATTRACT!  So one thing is certain, we will know shortly just how these maxims will play out on the county commission as the THREE STOOGES just hired Robert Martin @ $36,000 per/year to become their ‘personal attorney’!  How is that for being responsible for the spending of ‘public funds’ to hire someone with such a checkered-career in politics as has Martin?  This is the same ‘Bob Martin’ that started out in Pocahontas County three decades or so ago, was partnered with Eugene Simmons way back then and who left the county after Eugene lost his license to practice law…the first of three times in his career!  You would think that the THREE STOOGES would have at least checked with the Ethics Commission before hiring Martin or anyone else to see if they have the authority to do such a deed WITHOUT VOTER APPROVAL – but NO, these Three Buffoons are too ‘stupid’ to make any kind of intelligent decision on their own! 

After Gene Simmons lost his license, Martin went to Charleston and tried to ‘blend-in’, before taking a leave of Charleston and going to Central America & ‘The Pink Motel’ in Belize in a series of erstwhile adventures and rumored ‘run-ins’ before returning to Charleston, and then back to Pocahontas County where he tried to run for County Prosecutor in 2012, only to come in second of three candidates.  And when Eugene Simmons won the election, who did he hire as his assistant?  None other than Bob Martin – but that relationship came to a sudden & radical END when County Prosecutor Simmons FIRED MARTIN for which the details still remain wrapped in mystery & secrecy!  

Meanwhile questions of ‘impropriety and the appearance of impropriety’ have plagued Martin in the following instances:

(1) Actual verifiable facts exist that pertain to the ‘suspension’ of Martin from ‘practicing law’ in the federal court system as per a 1992 case in which certain statements made by Martin at the time were interpreted by the Fourth Circuit Court to be erroneous and/or unsupported and therefore lead to his suspension from the practice of law in the federal court system – and that in turn lead to a ‘reciprocal disciplinary’ action against Martin by the West Virginia State Bar Association, later overruled by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.  The reciprocal case was the Committee on Legal Ethics of the West Virginia State Bar v. Robert P. Martin, et al., Case No. 21485, in the Supreme Court of Appeals dated 24 November 1992, in which at ¶ 6, the record shows that ‘[T]he suspension order of the Fourth Circuit found that the disciplinary action was warranted against the Respondents because of alleged misstatements made in a brief and reply brief filed on behalf of their client….’ 

(2) Then pursuant to Case Number 05M-3017, as found in ‘The Magistrate Court of Monongalia County, West Virginia’, Martin was charged with ‘Battery’, offense date ‘11/02/2005’, for violation of W.V. Code 61-2-9C, with a ‘Summons’ date of ‘11/03/2005’, arraignment (plea) date of ‘11/15/2005’, and dismissal date of 21 November 2005 since ‘the victim no longer wishes to pursue charges’.

This case was publicly reported in ‘The West Virginia Record – West Virginia’s Legal Journal’ when on 26 July 2006, an article appeared entitled, “Martin speaks out about fight”.  Within the referenced article, the following elements stand out, whereby Martin admits, to wit:

·        ‘[H]e has issued an apology to everyone who deserves one’;
·        ‘[D]oesn’t include the fellow lawyer he admits assaulting;
·        He had struck Michael Fisher with a beer can and punched him in the head before a West Virginia University football game’;
·        That Fisher and [Martin’s] ex-wife deserve more than what they got’;
·        ‘[T]o hitting Fisher in the chest with a nearly full beer can when he spotted him walking through the law school parking lot with Simpson’ [Martin’s Ex];
·        ‘Here they come walking up the stairs of the law school, and I threw that beer as hard as I could and hit him in the chest with him…[T]hen I invited him, with some very colorful language to come up the stairs’ [sic];
·        ‘When Fisher stumbled coming up the stairs, Martin said he began punching him and knocked him to the ground before some law students pulled him off’;
·        ‘[H]e hadn’t touched alcohol all day before being given the beer he hit Fisher with, and that he had only taken a sip out of it before throwing it’;
·        ‘I hired a lawyer and then [Fisher] asked to meet with me because he didn’t want it to happen again…I met with him and explained to him why he was a moron and that he [Martin] hadn’t given any thought to that warrant;
·        ‘He insists that the incident has not hurt his reputation as an attorney;
·        “After the thing hit the paper and it was on channel 3, I got tons of e-mails and phone calls from people saying, ‘I’m sorry but way to go’;
·        It had no impact on me.  If I was a plaintiff’s lawyer, it would’ve helped’;
·        ‘He even joked it could’ve been the start of a new advertising campaign’; and,
·        “Some people have had some great ideas for ads…like, ‘Bob Martin is proven fighter’ [sic] and ‘He will fight for you.’”. 

Couldn’t a knowledgeable and reasonable person easily wonder why Martin wasn’t additionally charged with: having in his possession and drinking from an open container of alcohol in a public place; on the public property of WVU Law School; reckless endangerment by throwing an almost full can-of-beer and hitting someone; assaulting that same person with punches to the head; and showing no remorse?  Again, this all goes to the question of  ‘impropriety and the appearance of impropriety’ in regards to an ‘officer-of-the-court’ , someone involved in law enforcement, which traditionally has been expected to be at all times above-reproach.  Now how many of us common folk could expect the same kind of leniency shown to Martin were we found drunk & reckless stumbling around Marlinton or anywhere else?  Is there a ‘double-standard’ or what?


(3)  Yet another incident occurred on 21 October 2012 whereupon Martin was actually ‘arrested’ by the State Police via a ‘Criminal Complaint’.  It was also filed in ‘The Magistrate Court of Monongalia County, West Virginia’, Case No.12M-7854, Obstructing an Officer – WVC § 41-3-17.  The complaint states that Martin appeared to the arresting State Trooper Officers as being under-the-influence of alcohol, as was admitted by Martin.  However, as things developed prior to the hearing, the arresting State Police officer was ‘transferred’ FROM Morgantown TO Huntington and therefore was unavailable on the day of Martin’s hearing, so the matter sort of conveniently disappeared as a direct & proximate result of the arresting officer not being able to return to Morgantown to testify!  Isn’t this reminiscent of a similar disappearance of the arresting Lewisburg police officer after having arrested the late Walt Weiford for DUI on Rt. 219 north of Lewisburg?  In that case, the matter was tucked away in City Court instead of Circuit Court and Weiford only received ‘home-confinement’ for 24 hours instead of losing his license to drive for six-months!  Yet this is the same Pocahontas ‘county prosecutor’ who prosecuted others for the same or  lesser offenses and degrees of drunkenness!  Ah, but the local deputies during the time of Weiford were always able to get away with the multiple-abuses of youth & others by holding the DUIs over Weiford!  So there is a ‘double-standard’ after all!

Now while McLaughlin & Beard just took office in January 2015, already they are so INCOMPETENT in NOT KNOWING THEIR DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES that they feel they need their own private-attorney to guide & instruct them in their decision making – SO WHO DO YOU THINK WILL BE MAKING ALL THE DECISIONS FOR THE THREE STOOGES FROM THIS MONTH FORWARD?

Here we are with ONE PERSON, BOB MARTIN, AN UNELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIAL who will be making all the decisions for the county commission simply because McLaughlin, Beard & Walker ARE SO INCOMPETENT!

And for anyone who actually has read the law, then they would know that all legal advice must come from the ELECTED COUNTY PROSECUTOR – NOT FROM AN UNELECTED PERSON WHO IS NOT A PUBLIC OFFICIAL!

And what about a CONFLICT OF INTEREST whereby Martin owns property at Snowshoe along with a former girl-friend – what happens when he has to ‘advise’ the THREE STOOGES about the upcoming RAD VOTE?  What then?  Will Martin recuse himself and will Eugene Simmons then advise the county commission about the ramifications of giving Snowshoe Mountain, Inc. (SMI) FULL PRIVATE-CORPORATE CONTROL OF COUNTY LAND & RESOURCES? 

In less than three-months the new county commission has ‘fubarbed’ the county government by turning three votes into ONE VOTE as directed and ordered by the ‘private attorney’ hired by the THREE STOOGES who still do not know their respective Duties & Responsibilities!  If it’s this bad so soon – then just wait & you will see just how bad it can become…and then some!  No wonder folks are LEAVING the county!  And just think, at every meeting, the THREE STOOGES each get $1700 per/meeting, and now Martin will get $1500 per/meeting!  That’s $1700 x 3 = $5100 + $1500 = $6600 per/meeting x 2 meetings a month = $13,200 per/month these ‘parasites’ are bilking the public and living off the WELFARE of all those folks being paid Minimum Wages & on Fixed Incomes!  What a scam these THREE STOOGES & THEIR ATTORNEY have going for themselves & then some!


ONE WAY OR ANOTHER…WE ALL REAP WHAT WE HAVE SOWN…& then some!

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

The Pocahontas Crier is an independent, free, non-subscription, Internet News Service providing in depth reporting on important issues directly affecting the Citizens of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, and meant for entertainment in the true ‘muckraking’ & ‘iconoclast’ tradition of questioning authority, challenging corruption, exposing impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, and offering Common Sense Alternatives for
THE GREATER COMMON GOOD BEFORE SELF…
or any Special Interests! 
We fight for Social Justice on all fronts and are an integral part of The Crier Coalition of Internet News Services comprised of  The Pocahontas Commentator, The Pocahontas Crier, Signal Fires of WV, & Rolling Thunder in association with Echoes from the Holl’r.  

Email comments & suggestions to: pocahontascrier88@gmail.com  

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