Justice announces Supreme Court appointee
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CHARLESTON - The governor this morning announced an appointment to the West Virginia Supreme Court.
C. Haley Bunn, a Charleston-based lawyer and former assistant U.S. Attorney, will succeed Evan Jenkins, who resigned in February to return to private practice.
Gov. Jim Justice announced Bunn's appointment to the state highest court Wednesday morning in a press release.
"Haley will be a strong conservative voice on the court. She understands the importance of faith, traditional values, and law and order. Those things are the backbone of West Virginia" Justice said. "She'll apply the law fairly and impartially, and she'll be a Supreme Court Justice that all West Virginians will be proud of."
Bunn, a native of Oceana, W.Va., is an attorney for the Steptoe and Johnson law firm in Charleston where she has been since 2019. Bunn returned to Steptoe and Johnson after working for the firm between 2010 and 2012. In between, Bunn worked seven years as an assistant U.S attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
"Haley Bunn is a wonderful West Virginia story," Justice said. "She's a coal miner's daughter and a daughter of southern West Virginia who's committed her life to serving her state and her community."
During her time with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Bunn assisted in prosecuting a major corruption probe of officials in Mingo County in 2014 that resulted in prison terms for former Mingo County prosecuting attorney C. Michael Sparks, former Mingo County circuit judge Michael Thornsbury, former Mingo County commissioner David Baisden, and former Mingo County chief magistrate Dallas "Big Dal" Toler.
Bunn also was active in combating the opioid epidemic in Southern West Virginia. She was selected in 2017 as one of 12 assistant federal prosecutors to join the new Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit. Prosecutions included busting up a methamphetamine ring, a doctor in Wyoming County who was writing improper prescriptions for addictive painkillers, a neurologist in Charleston who was sentenced for illegal distribution of controlled substances.
"She's from Wyoming County, where the opioid epidemic hit as hard as it has anywhere in America, and she decided to devote much of her career to fighting that epidemic," Justice said. "Haley's also a seasoned courtroom veteran whose experience as an elite litigator will be invaluable on our Supreme Court of Appeals."
House Bill 4785, passed during the 2022 legislative session last month, will allow Bunn to serve the remainder of the 12-year year until 2024 when the seat is up for election, otherwise there would have been a special election coinciding with the November general election.
Jenkins is a former Democrat-turned-Republican state legislator and congressman who was first appointed to the bench in 2018 when former justice Robin Davis resigned after the House of Delegates levied multiple articles of impeachment against all the sitting justices at that time over accusations of improper spending and mismanagement. Jenkins won a special election later in 2018 to serve the remainder of the term.
Bunn's appointment is Justice's fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court since taking office in 2017. Justice appointed former Republican House Speaker Tim Armstead in 2018 to replace former justice Menis Ketchum who resigned shortly before agreeing to plead guilty to wire fraud in federal court for misuse of a state gas card. Later in 2018, Justice appointed former Raleigh County circuit judge John Hutchison to replace former justice Allen Loughry after Loughry was convicted of multiple federal charges for misuse of his office.