By Alan Olson, The Intelligencer
NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. – An attorney for an oil and gas company has accused Second Judicial Circuit Judge David Hummel of pointing a gun at her and also at her colleagues in his courtroom during a bench trial earlier this year.
Lauren Varnado, a Texas-based managing partner of the law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP, told The Intelligencer that Hummel had been openly hostile toward her team after they sought to have the judge disqualified from a case in Wetzel County involving oil and natural gas royalty payments.
Varnado said she has provided an affidavit to the West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission, which outlined her claims of Hummel’s alleged unprofessionalism. She said she also has contacted the FBI about the situation.
Varnado said it was investigators with the state’s Judicial Investigation Commission that had originally contacted her about her experience. She said an investigator told her the commission was looking into Hummel in an unrelated manner and, in that process, had a witness in that investigation bring up Varnado’s alleged situation…
To read more: https://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2022/07/judge-hummel-accused-of-intimidating-oil-and-gas-counsel/
