Longtime magistrate Qualls suspended

HUNTINGTON -- Cabell County Magistrate Alvie Qualls will be off the job while he waits to see if the state's high court will remove him permanently.

But the longtime magistrate will continue to draw a paycheck on his $50,000 salary as he awaits his fate.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals suspended Qualls with pay in an order filed Friday. He will remain on that status until the court can consider a recommendation from a judicial disciplinary panel to force Qualls into retirement.

A special board of the Judicial Investigative Commission made the recommendation after a February hearing in which five women who had either worked for the 78-year-old Qualls or had contact with him at the Cabell County Courthouse gave detailed testimony concerning graphic, sexually explicit remarks they claim Qualls made. Qualls denied any wrongdoing during the hearing.

After a brief deliberation, the board said it would recommend forced retirement, and would file an official report to that effect with the Supreme Court. That report was filed March 14.

The report stated the board not only found the women's testimony credible, but that Qualls, who suffered a stroke in 2003, was mentally incapable of fulfilling his duties as a magistrate.

Exactly how long Qualls might remain suspended is uncertain.

He has until April 9 to refute the report from the Judiciary Commission, which he has not yet done, Supreme Court spokeswoman Jennifer Bundy said.

Even if Qualls doesn't file a response to the report, the Supreme Court could go ahead and remove Qualls from office, but the court is not bound by the board's recommendation.

If the report is refuted, then a hearing before the Supreme Court will be scheduled.

After hearing arguments, the high court would have to come to a decision on whether Qualls should be removed from office.

Qualls has filed to run for re-election, and Bundy said the suspension issued by the high court doesn't cover what voters decide in November.

She did say the court could still remove Qualls from office if he wins re-election, but that it's hard to say at the moment what might happen.

"There are too many hypothetical questions right now," she said. "He might not even be re-elected."

Cabell Chief Circuit Judge Alfred Ferguson said Qualls has not been seen at the courthouse since his suspension. The magistrate had been sleeping in his office as of late, and had been seen conducting business in what were described as pajamas. Ferguson said that situation had been resolved.