HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - Deputies have arrested a Huntington man they say struck his mother with a hammer.

The Herald-Dispatch reports 47-year-old James Otis Brumfield II will remain in jail following his preliminary hearing Tuesday. During the hearing, Brumfield waived his case to a higher court and the case will go to the grand jury.

Sgt. S.G. Poff of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said authorities arrested Brumfield on one count of malicious wounding following the incident Dec. 29. Poff said Brumfield's 72-year-old mother told investigators she was attacked while she slept.

St. Mary's Medical Center spokeswoman Angela Henderson-Bentley told the newspaper Brumfield's mother remained at the hospital in stable condition Tuesday.

Brumfield had a bond set at $500,000.

More charges were filed Wednesday against a Beckley-based nephrologist who has a guilty plea hearing set for today.

Dr. Jose Jorge Abbud Gordinho, 67, was charged with health care fraud on Tuesday. In November, a federal grand jury returned a 21-count indictment against him, alleging he conspired to distribute prescription painkillers, such as oxycodone for illegitimate purposes.

A guilty plea hearing is set for today in Beckley in front of U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger.

The charges filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors state that between January and October 2015, Gordinho knowingly and willfully defrauded Medicare and Medicaid. The charge Wednesday came in the form of an information, which can't be filed without a defendant's consent.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Mike Hissam, one of the attorneys who represents Gordinho, wouldn't comment on the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Miller Bushong also could not be reached for comment.

Hissam filed a motion last month asking that Berger push back the plea hearing. She refused, writing that her schedule wouldn't permit it.

In November, federal prosecutors announced they had charged Gordinho with "multiple counts of distribution of oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone and morphine not for legitimate medical purposes in the usual course of medical practice and beyond the bounds of medical practice, as well as two counts of distributing controlled substances not within Gordinho's capacity as a medical doctor."

Among state nephrologists - doctors who specialize in kidney care - Gordinho wrote the sixth-most hydrocodone-acetaminophen Medicare Part D prescriptions, including refills, in 2013. That year, Gordinho handed out 1,577 hydrocodone prescriptions, according to ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization that tracks doctors and drugs in the United States.

Gordinho wrote almost 2,000 oxycodone prescriptions to Medicare patients in 2013.

According to the West Virginia Board of Medicine, Gordinho is a 1977 graduate of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara and did his post-graduate training at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1987. Gordinho obtained his West Virginia license in 1989, and is also licensed to practice in Virginia and New Jersey.

In 2003, the West Virginia medical board reprimanded him for "certain answers given by Dr. Gordinho on his license renewal form for the period of July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2002." The board has taken no other actions against him.

In June 1999, the Virginia Board of Medicine issued a notice to Gordinho saying the board was looking into allegations that he may have violated several laws in the treatment of seven patients at a hospital in Low Moor, Virginia. Following a six-month review, the board exonerated Gordinho and dismissed the matter with no action taken against him. The issue was the only one on file in the Virginia Board of Medicine's records on Gordinho.

The doctor has been held in the Southern Regional Jail since his arrest in November. The charges contained in the indictment carry a possible maximum 20-year sentence in federal prison and a $1 million fine for each of the counts. The charges filed Wednesday also carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Reach Kate White at

kate.white@wvgazettemail.com,

304-348-1723 or follow

@KateLWhite on Twitter.

Dunbar police arrested two Kentucky residents Wednesday afternoon for allegedly possessing $10,900 worth of crack cocaine, according to police Lt. Matt Arthur.

Ellis Hunter, 32, of Wheelwright, and Glema Chandler, 41, of Prestonburg, are charged with possession with intent to deliver, Arthur said. He said staff of the Super 8 motel at 911 Dunbar Ave. called police after they said they entered the suspects' rooms after they failed to check out by 11 a.m.

The staff told police that Hunter appeared to be passed out, and Chandler was sitting with a blank stare. The employees also said they saw syringes.

Arthur said Hunter was conscious by the time Patrolman L.S. Hayes responded to the possible drug overdose, and police found 54.5 grams of what's suspected to be crack cocaine, along with about $3,300 in cash, a loaded .38-caliber pistol and "various other items used in the trafficking of narcotics."

"That's a substantial arrest, a substantial amount of drugs and was a good arrest for our officer," Arthur said.

A police chase Wednesday in St. Albans ended in a suspect's car crashing and him running and hiding barefoot in the cold before being arrested, police say.

Cody A. Hudson, 21, of St. Albans, faces felony charges of fleeing with reckless indifference, transferring/receiving a stolen vehicle and prohibited possession of a firearm, according to a St. Albans police news release. Police said they found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun in Hudson's allegedly stolen silver Mazda RX-8, and Hudson cannot legally have a gun because he pleaded guilty to robbery, a felony, in Kanawha County in 2014.

The release states Patrolman Jeff Lucas noticed the Mazda, which matched the description of a vehicle stolen Tuesday from the Indian Head area, around the intersection of B Street and U.S. 60 in St. Albans at about 2:15 a.m. Police said that when Lucas attempted to stop the car, Hudson, the driver, sped west into Putnam County along U.S. 60, and a short time later crashed into a hill as he attempted to turn onto a small road.

Police say Hudson and a juvenile female who fled the vehicle on foot were both caught. They say Hudson was wearing only a long-sleeve shirt, shorts and flip-flops when he fled, but the shoes had been lost by the time he was found in a small creek.

He was taken to Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston to be treated for mild exposure on his feet.

On Thursday morning, when Randy Atkins left Mojo's, the downtown South Charleston sports bar he has owned and managed for the past five years, everything seemed normal. By the time he drove to his Nitro home, he'd learned that his world had turned upside down.

"I got here about 7:15, to let the cleaners and Lottery people in and to go to the bank," he said, as he watched firefighters hose down flames that lingered inside his now-gutted business while an excavator operator began to tear down what remained of the structure.

"I left at about a quarter to 10," Atkins said. "There was nothing wrong in there. I didn't smell smoke or anything. But by the time I got home, I started getting calls that the place was on fire."

Shortly before 10 a.m., Kanawha County Metro 911 received a report of heavy smoke billowing from the two-story structure at 312 7th Ave., just across from South Charleston's landmark Adena Mound.

"Flames were visible when we arrived, and no one was in the building," South Charleston Fire Chief John Taylor said.

For more than an hour, flames continued to flare up through the smoke, despite being doused by several tons of water per minute by South Charleston firefighters, with assistance from the Charleston and Dunbar fire departments. St. Albans firefighters took over South Charleston's fire coverage while that city's firefighters focused on the Mojo's blaze.

"It's unbelievable. It's like an inferno that won't go out," said South Charleston Convention and Visitor's Bureau Executive Director Bob Anderson, as he watched firefighters battle the blaze. "It will leave us with a big hole on 7th Avenue."

Firefighters used a battery of water cannons in an effort to knock down flames and keep the blaze from spreading to adjacent buildings. By noon, the fire was under control but still not extinguished.

"We couldn't get inside, due to the partial collapse of the roof and a wall collapse," said Taylor. While the battle to contain the Mojo's fire raged on outside, some firefighters were stationed inside adjacent buildings to monitor for the possible spread of the fire.

While Mojo's was the only business destroyed by the fire, smoke or water damage was possible at neighboring buildings.

"I'm hoping that it won't be too bad," said Duane Swanson, who relocated his South Charleston Signs and Engraving business in a building adjacent to Mojo's about six weeks ago. "I was on the way to an installation in Beckley when I heard about the fire and came back. I was able to grab a couple of computers before I had to leave. It was smelling really smoky when I was in there, but the building looked all right. I can see the firefighters standing on the roof, now, so I guess that's a good sign. I'm hopeful that we won't come out of this too bad."

Swanson said he was particularly relieved to learn that the occupants of the apartment atop his business got out safely.

"They're a nice family with a little kid," he said. "Stuff is replaceable, people aren't."

"The fire department's doing a good job of keeping things contained," said Tonya Scruggs, who, with husband Sammy Scruggs, owns neighboring Bo Daddy's Sports Bar. "For a while, it looked like the whole block was going to go down."

"They gave us five minutes to get out what we could," said Sammy Scruggs. "I went in with a firefighter and got the cash register."

"This could have been a lot worse," said Mayor Frank Mullens, who arranged to have food and refreshments brought to the Mound for hungry and thirsty firefighters. "It's a testament to our firefighters' abilities and professionalism."

Atkins, whose building was a total loss, said that in addition to furnishings, inventory and the structure itself he lost a number of personal mementos to the blaze.

"The business had been doing really good," he said. "I had five bartenders working. Right now, it feels pretty bad."

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.

NEW CREEK, W.Va. (AP) - Police in Mineral County say a motorist has died after his vehicle collided head-on with a school bus that had no students aboard.

Media outlets report the collision occurred shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday on U.S. Route 50 near New Creek. The bus driver wasn't hurt.

Sheriff Jeremy Taylor says the car's driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim's identity was withheld pending notification of relatives.

The accident remains under investigation.

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. (AP) - A Ravenswood man has been arrested in connection with a drug-related death.

Jackson County Sheriff Tony Boggs told media Wednesday 40-year-old Casey Cantrell was booked on charges including murder in connection with the death of 29-year-old Shannon Saffer who died of an apparent heroin overdose.

Boggs says evidence suggests that Cantrell provided Saffer the drugs that caused the overdose. He says Cantrell and Shannon Saffer's brother, Patrick Saffer, dropped off Shannon Saffer at Jackson General Hospital Tuesday morning. Saffer was suffering from an apparent drug overdose and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Boggs says Patrick was also booked on one count of obstructing an officer when he refused to identify Cantrell.

Cantrell was held without bail at the Southern Regional Jail.

It isn't clear if they have attorneys.

The man who allegedly drove the get-away vehicle was charged with murder for his role in the New Year's Day shooting in Charleston.

Sean Paul Burdette, 23, of Charleston, was charged with first degree murder and being an accessory before and after the fact to murder, according to a criminal complaint filed in Monongalia County Magistrate Court.

Burdette allegedly drove his van as the get-away vehicle when 20-year-old Shannon Cade was shot on Jan. 1.

Police announced earlier this week that Antonio Carnell Williams II, 23, had been charged with first degree murder in the shooting.

Both Williams and Burdette were arrested in Morgantown on Tuesday.

Cade was shot while sitting at a kitchen table, late at night in a house on the 800 block of Mathews Avenue, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. He died the next day at an area hospital.

A 14-year-old girl also was shot in the house. She was shot in the head, according to the criminal complaint, but sustained minor wounds.

Williams' arrest stemmed from a tip police received from an eyewitness, Williams' girlfriend, who said she was with Williams at the time of the shooting, said Lt. Steve Cooper, Charleston police chief of detectives.

Police do not believe that Cade was the intended target of the shooting, Cooper has said. Police believe the shooting was the result of a disagreement involving Williams' girlfriend.

According to the criminal complaint, Williams drove to the Mathews Avenue house with his girlfriend, Burdette and an underage girl after hearing that his girlfriend had spent time with another man there.

Williams and his girlfriend got out of the van, but the girlfriend believed he intended to fight the man inside, according to the complaint.

"Instead, Mr. Williams, retrieved a black semi-automatic hand gun from his waist and began firing his weapon at the people inside," the complaint says.

The girlfriend, as she was running away, heard a brief pause and then several more shots, the complaint says.

"Mr. Williams immediately came back to the vehicle and said, 'I've got to get a new gun because this one jammed on me,'" the complaint says.

A 17-year-old also was arrested in Morgantown and was charged with being an accessory after the fact, Cooper has said.

Cade's killing was the third in Charleston over a span of six days last week. Arrests have been made in all three cases.

Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163,

Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or

follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

A Beckley-based nephrologist admitted in federal court on Thursday that he would still prescribe hydrocodone to his patients after they had tested positive for illegal drugs and medications they were not prescribed.

Dr. Jose Jorge Abbud Gordinho, 67, pleaded guilty in federal court in Beckley to health care fraud and distributing hydrocodone for illegitimate purposes. He agreed to forever surrender his Drug Enforcement Administration Certificate, which is required to prescribe medication.

The deal Gordinho reached with federal prosecutors drops 20 other counts of illegitimate distribution he was facing and makes him eligible for a maximum 10-year prison sentence. The deal is binding, meaning if U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger doesn't accept it, he can withdraw his guilty plea. Without the deal, the doctor faces a maximum 30-year prison sentence.

Berger will sentence Gordinho on April 27.

The deal doesn't limit the amount of the fine Berger can sentence Gordinho to pay or the amount of restitution he is ordered to pay.

Gordinho owned and operated Responsible Pain & Aesthetic Management on George Street in Beckley.

The doctor "was aware of the high risk of abuse" of the medications he prescribed, his plea deal states.

Gordinho required patients to sign a "pain management contract" in which patients agreed to drug screenings. If illegal drugs or medications that weren't prescribed were found in a patient's system, they were to be automatically discharged, according to the contract. Pain treatment patients were therefore required to submit urine samples each time before seeing Gordinho.

On Oct. 2, a long-time patient was seen and prescribed hydrocodone by Gordinho - despite the fact that on that date the patient had failed at least 16 prior drug screens, Gordinho's plea agreement states.

Other patients, mentioned in the charges against Gordinho, had been prescribed medication despite failing 10 or more drug screens, according to the agreement the doctor signed.

Gordinho, the deal states, "admits that each of these patients should have been discharged from his practice, and because they were not, the relevant prescriptions written for Schedule II controlled substances between January and October, 2015, were not for legitimate medical purposes in the usual course of professional medical practice and were beyond the bounds of medical practice."

Gordinho also defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by obtaining reimbursement for services that were not medically necessary, he admitted Thursday. The plea deal was signed by Gordinho, Mike Hissam, who is one of the attorneys representing Gordinho, and assistant U.S. attorney Miller Bushong.

Among state nephrologists - doctors who specialize in kidney care - Gordinho wrote the sixth-most hydrocodone-acetaminophen Medicare Part D prescriptions, including refills, in 2013. That year, Gordinho handed out 1,577 hydrocodone prescriptions, according to ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization that tracks doctors and drugs in the United States.

Gordinho wrote almost 2,000 oxycodone prescriptions to Medicare patients in 2013. According to the West Virginia Board of Medicine, Gordinho is a 1977 graduate of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara and did his post-graduate training at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1987. Gordinho obtained his West Virginia license in 1989, and is also licensed to practice in Virginia and New Jersey.

In 2003, the West Virginia medical board reprimanded him for "certain answers given by Dr. Gordinho on his license renewal form for the period of July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2002." The board has taken no other actions against him. In June 1999, the Virginia Board of Medicine issued a notice to Gordinho saying the board was looking into allegations that he may have violated several laws in the treatment of seven patients at a hospital in Low Moor, Virginia. Following a six-month review, the board exonerated Gordinho and dismissed the matter with no action taken against him. The issue was the only one on file in the Virginia Board of Medicine's records on Gordinho.

Gordinho was taken back to the Southern Regional Jail after his plea hearing Thursday. He has been held there since November, when the charges were filed against him.

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

A Kanawha County school bus driver accused of having sex with a student was arrested Thursday, South Charleston police say.

Leonard Earl Smith, 50, of Charleston, was charged with third-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by guardian or a person of trust.

A 13-year-old girl told investigators Thursday at the Children's Advocacy Center at Charleston Area Medical Center's Women and Children's Hospital that she and Smith engaged in sexual activity, including intercourse and oral sex, according to a complaint filed at Kanawha Magistrate Court. Smith, she said, is her school bus driver.

The incidents occurred between Dec. 21 and Jan. 3 while parked near the corner of F Street and Fifth Avenue in South Charleston, Detective P.C. Rader wrote in the complaint.

Smith is being held at South Central Regional Jail. His bail was set at $250,000 cash only.

A preliminary hearing was set for 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 15.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Two people have been sentenced to life in prison for the 2014 fatal shooting of a man in West Virginia.

The Journal of Martinsburg reports a judge sentenced 36-year-old Tulsa Johnson of Martinsburg and 20-year-old Vincent S. Smith, of Frederick, Maryland, Thursday to serve life without parole followed by one-to-five years in prison for their felony murder and conspiracy convictions, respectively.

Johnson and Smith were convicted in October 2015 of killing 33-year-old Michael Garcia in September 2014 after police say they set him up to do a drug deal. Garcia was found dead at a business park south of Martinsburg.

Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely argued that Johnson and Smith really intended to rob Garcia, but ended up shooting him to death.

A jury acquitted Jucobe Johnson of accessory after the fact of murder.

A man faces several charges after allegedly fleeing police overnight.

Elvis John is charged with driving with his license revoked for DUI, fleeing in a vehicle, and simple possession of marijuana.

Shortly before 1 a.m., police attempted to stop John, who was driving a yellow Jeep Wrangler that was weaving and traveling left of the center line on Edens Fork Road in the Sissonville area of Kanawha County, according to a news release from Kanawha County Sheriff's Office. John allegedly fled onto Interstate 77 southbound.

John was stopped on the side of the road a short distance from Jefferson Road after exiting Interstate 64 in South Charleston onto Kanawha Turnpike. He allegedly refused to exit the vehicle and had to be "removed."

An Elkview man was arrested early this morning after allegedly shooting a house and fighting police.

Christopher P. Young, 47, was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment, disorderly conduct, public intoxication, and obstructing an officer, according to a news release from the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office.

Police responded to the 4000 block of Indian Creek Road in the Elkview area after a report of a man screaming and striking an attached garage. Dispatchers could hear gunshots in the background while police were on their way to the scene.

Young allegedly ran a short distance when police got there, then fought deputies when they caught him and attempted to handcuff them. According to the release, he yelled, "Shoot me! Just put me down!"

Deputies said they found a .22 caliber revolver with five spent casings in his front pants pocket. They also said they found that one bullet had struck a nearby house.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Friday that he is suing the nation's largest prescription drug distributor, but he did so without notifying the two state agencies that have been asking him to file suit for more than a year.

Morrisey is suing McKesson Corp. for "failing to identify, detect, report and help stop the flood of suspicious drug orders" into West Virginia, a news release from his office said.

The civil suit, filed in Boone County Circuit Court, alleges that McKesson sent nearly 100 million doses of the prescription painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone to West Virginia between 2007 and 2012.

"Many of those shipments allegedly fueled drug abuse across the state, an impact the lawsuit contends contributed to the nation's highest overdose rate, decreased worker productivity and exhausted resources statewide," the news release said.

In August 2014, the state's Department of Health and Human Resources and Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety asked Morrisey to sue the drug distributor on their behalf, saying that it shipped an excessive number of pain pills to West Virginia.

At the time, Morrisey's office resisted the request, instead taking bids from outside lawyers to assist in his own investigation into McKesson.

Morrisey's office did not respond Friday when asked what outside law firm had been chosen to aid in the suit.

The lawsuit Morrisey filed Friday does not include the DHHR or DMAPS as plaintiffs, and the two state agencies were not notified that the lawsuit was going to be filed.

"The Department of Health and Human Resources and the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety also have claims against McKesson and have repeatedly asked the attorney general to assert those claims," Chris Stadelman, spokesman for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, said Friday.

Morrisey's office did not respond to phone and email messages asking why the two agencies were not included in his lawsuit.

Morrisey filed his lawsuit Friday, one day after the Gazette-Mail filed a Freedom of Information Act request for details of his investigation into McKesson.

McKesson is a major player in a trade association that Morrisey lobbied for in Washington, before becoming attorney general in West Virginia.

Before taking office in 2013, Morrisey spent two years lobbying for the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA), an Arlington, Virginia-based trade group that represents McKesson and other drug wholesalers.

Morrisey's lobbying work generated $250,000 for his Washington, D.C., law firm, King & Spalding, according to federal lobbying disclosure forms. Mark Walchirk, president of McKesson's U.S. pharmaceutical unit, sits on HDMA's board of directors and eight-member executive committee.

The eight-count lawsuit filed Friday charges McKesson with violating state consumer protection laws, failing to meet industry standards and failing to develop an adequate system to identify suspicious drug orders.

"Those actions netted large profits, which the corporation used in paying bonuses and additional commissions to incentivize more business," Morrisey's office wrote.

McKesson, the lawsuit says, "knew or should have known it was causing the epidemic of prescription drug abuse in West Virginia."

According to Morrisey's lawsuit, in 2012 alone, McKesson shipped about 21.7 million doses of painkillers to West Virginia, enough for 12 doses for every person in the state.

Based on federal averages for what percentage of people use painkillers and McKesson's share of the market, the firm supplied nearly 7,900 doses of painkillers for each anticipated patient between 2007 and 2012, the lawsuit says.

"We have carefully investigated this matter and believe that McKesson should be held responsible for its alleged failure to comply with the state's laws," Morrisey said in a prepared statement Friday.

The lawsuit cites 10 counties, largely in Southern West Virginia, where alleged McKesson's overshipments were particularly blatant.

McKesson shipped more than 10.2 million doses of painkillers to Logan County from 2007 to 2012, Morrisey's office said, enough for 276 doses for every man, woman and child in the county.

The company shipped 3.4 million doses to Mingo County, Morrisey's office said, enough pills to give for 131 doses for each person.

McKesson sent more painkillers to Logan, Mingo and Raleigh counties than to counties with much larger populations, like Kanawha and Cabell, the lawsuit says.

"This fact alone," the lawsuit says, "should have raised suspicion or heightened defendant's awareness that it was supplying smaller communities with excessive quantities intended for diversion or illicit use."

Staff writer Eric Eyre contributed to this report. Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.

A second man has been arrested on a murder charge for allegedly killing an 18-year-old man outside of Artie's Kickback Lounge in Charleston last week.

State Police arrested Christopher L. Burton, 28, late Thursday in Logan, according to a news release from Charleston Police Department.

J'Shaad "Double O" Jones, of Charleston, was killed in the early morning hours on Dec. 31 near the Kickback Lounge on Charleston's West Side.

Charleston police Lt. Steve Cooper has previously said Jones was shot in the "upper body" somewhere outside of the bar, which was open, then he collapsed in a field behind the bar. Jones was pronounced dead at Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital.

Police had entered Burton's information into the National Crime Information Center database, so when police conducted an identity check during a traffic stop, they found Burton had a warrant out for his arrest.

Marlon Rush also is charged with murder in the case.

South Charleston police believe a school bus driver who allegedly sexually assaulted a student may have more victims.

"He didn't just decide yesterday to be a pedophile," Detective P.C. Rader said Friday.

Leonard Earl Smith, 50, of Charleston, was charged with third-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by guardian or a person of trust for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who rode his bus, according to a complaint filed Thursday at Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

South Charleston police are asking anyone else who may have been victimized to call them 304-744-5951.

The incidents occurred between Dec. 21 and Jan. 3 while parked near the corner of F Street and Fifth Avenue in South Charleston, Rader wrote in the complaint.

Rader said Friday the incidents did not occur on the bus.

Smith started working as a substitute bus driver in May 2006, then was a full-time bus driver in 2007, according to Carol Hamric, director of human resources for Kanawha County schools. She said he did pass a background check, which was submitted to the State Police and the FBI.

Kanawha School Superintendent Ron Duerring wouldn't say if Smith is suspended or otherwise comment, saying he never talks about personnel issues.

The West Virginia Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court, arguing that a Democrat should be appointed to fill the vacancy in the state Senate created when Sen. Daniel Hall resigned this week to take a lobbying position with the National Rilfe Association.

Hall was elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2012, but he switched parties to become a Republican just a day after the 2014 election. Hall's switch broke a 17-17 tie in the Senate, giving Republicans the majority for the first time in more than eight decades.

Since he was elected as a Democrat but resigned as a Republican, there has been confusion about which party Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will choose to fill the seat.

Both parties have said they will submit a slate of candidates for Tomblin to choose from.

The lawsuit, which names Tomblin, a Democratic governor, and the local Republican executive committee as respondents, argues that state law is ambiguous in determining which party should fill the vacancy.

The state code, the lawsuit says, "exists to best preserve the mandate of the voters when a legislative vacancy occurs."

Since voters elected a Democrat, the lawsuit says, Tomblin should be required to appoint a Democrat.

Republicans, unsurprisingly, disagree.

"The West Virginia Democrat Party files suit against a Democrat governor and asks him to break the law; it's that simple," state Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas said. "A Republican must be chosen to fill this vacancy."

Republicans have until Tuesday to file an official response with the court.

State code requires the governor to choose a replacement from a list submitted by the party committee "of the party with which the person holding the office immediately preceding the vacancy was affiliated."

The lawsuit argues that code never tells the governor to determine party affiliation at any specific point in time.

Democrats say there is no precedent in West Virginia for such a situation, but that two other state Supreme Courts - Wyoming and Kansas - have found in favor of their position.

They argue that finding for the Republicans could lead to "absurd and inconsistent" consequences.

For instance, the lawsuit says, a governor could offer a legislator of the opposite party a plum job in his administration, but only if the legislator switches parties before resigning. That would then let the governor's party pick up a seat in the Legislature.

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore emphasized that voters chose a Democrat, so the replacement should be a Democrat.

"When hardworking West Virginians of the 9th District voted, they voted for a Democrat," Biafore said earlier this week. "I believe, when Senator Hall changed parties for his own personal motivations, he turned his back on the voting process and the voters."

The lawsuit asks the Supreme Court to hear the case on an expedited basis and to make a decision before the Legislature gavels into session on Wednesday.

The stakes are high.

With the vacancy, the Senate stands at 17 Republicans and 16 Democrats. A Republican replacement would restore the narrow majority that the party had last session after Hall's switch.

But a Democratic replacement would create a 17-17 tie, throwing the Senate into turmoil, with no obvious way forward and both parties attempting to cajole an opposing senator into switching to their side.

Republicans have made clear that they intend to move contentious bills - like a "right to work" bill and a repeal of the state's prevailing wage law - early in the legislative session.

A tie in the Senate would stymie those plans, as a tie vote on legislation would result in that bill not moving forward.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said earlier this week in an advisory opinion, that the seat should be filled by a Republican.

Judicial elections in West Virginia are now nonpartisan, but the Supreme Court is comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans.

Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.

A Wal-Mart grocery store will not be built along W.Va. 34 in Putnam County, a judge ruled Friday.

The Putnam County Board of Zoning Appeals, in July, granted Wal-Mart a special permit to build a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Teays Valley. However, Circuit Judge John Cummings, on Friday, sided with a group of residents who said the development would cause traffic and safety issues in a nearby residential area.

Plans to build the grocery store, which is considerably smaller than a Wal-Mart Supercenter, cannot go forward. Wal-Mart can reapply for the permit, although the company would have to start the process over again.

"This cancels it, unless they come back and go from scratch," said Jennifer Martone, a spokeswoman for Keep the Promise Coalition, a group of residents who appealed the zoning board's decision.

Members of the group, which Martone said numbers at least 100, are relieved.

"I know the majority of the community didn't want that big of a store in the area," Martone said. "Traffic is congested enough. It would have just been horrible."

The Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market would have been located on a parcel on Teays Valley Road, about a half-mile west of Teays Lane, and near the Fox Run housing development. The grocery store would have been 43,000 square feet, which is smaller than most Kroger stores in the region.

Locals argued that the store was too big and would have complicated an already congested traffic flow.

"That large of a building and store would have caused safety issues," Martone said.

If Wal-Mart reapplies for a permit and tries to build the grocery store as originally proposed, Martone said, locals will continue to oppose it.

"As long as they keep it at 43,000 square feet, we don't want it," she said.

The group's appeal, filed in Putnam Circuit Court in August, said the Putnam County Board of Zoning Appeals wrongly relied on an inadequate traffic study when it granted Wal-Mart the permit to build the grocery store. The appeal asked the court to review and reverse that decision.

The appeal was granted Friday during a court hearing in Winfield.

"We're very happy they went through and reviewed everything," Martone said.

A clerk in Putnam Circuit Court said the judge's order wouldn't be ready Friday.

A call to Mike Cassel, a lawyer who represented Keep the Promise Coalition, was not returned Friday afternoon.

Wal-Mart asked for a special permit for the store last February. There were several neighborhood hearings in which area residents came out in droves to oppose the development.

Reach Samuel Speciale at sam.speciale@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939 or follow @samueljspeciale on Twitter.

More lawsuits were filed Friday over the January 2014 Elk River chemical spill, as Saturday's two-year anniversary of the incident approached.

Lawyers for the city of Charleston, the Kanawha County Commission, the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Kanawha -Charleston Health Department filed one suit that seeks a variety of compensation for the spill, as well as creation of a court-ordered medical monitoring program for residents.

Named as defendants in that suit were West Virginia American Water Company, Eastman Chemical, and former Freedom Industries officials Gary Southern and Dennis Farrell.

In a second complaint, a separate class-action suit was filed against Little Caesar's Pizza that alleges that company's local stores continued to use contaminated water to make pizzas, while trying to convince customers they were using clean water instead.

Both suits were filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Huntington - After an unprecedented year of drug overdoses, a group of city and county officials in Cabell County joined West Virginia's junior senator Friday to talk about the local solutions already being put to the test in the region, and the legislative support still needed to curb addiction and prevent more deaths.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., flanked by city officials, law enforcement and medical professionals, led a round table discussion in Huntington on Friday that focused on the local and national approach to combating the drug epidemic in West Virginia, and particularly in Cabell County, which has been hit hard by the heroin epidemic sweeping the state.

In 2015, Cabell saw a record 944 overdoses - an average of roughly two and a half overdoses every day, and more than triple the 2014 count of 272 overdoses. About 70 of those overdoses resulted in death, and the county averaged one overdose death roughly every five days, according to the Mayor's Office of Drug Control Policy.

Scott Lemley, the criminal intelligence analyst for the Huntington Police Department, said that overdose demographics tended to reflect the make up of the county's general population in 2015, but that more men than women died as a result of overdoses. He said overdose victims ranged in age and socioeconomic background - the median age for overdose patients in 2015 was 37, the youngest was 12 and the oldest 78.

"(Overdoses) have covered a broad range of ages and socioeconomic groups," Lemley said. "In terms of race, it kind of follows the population - it's about eight to 10 percent African American; the rest have been Caucasian."

West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate in the nation with 33.5 deaths per every 100,000 people, but Cabell's 2015 total of 70 was more than double the state rate. The problem is even more prevalent in the city of Huntington, which saw 121 overdose deaths last year.

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said the round table was organized to give stakeholders a chance to meet with Capito and share their unique approaches and concerns in tackling opioid addiction.

"We wanted the senator to be aware of everyone who is involved with the process; we have been communicating so much with her staff, about the harm reduction program, about the challenges we're facing from a law enforcement standpoint, and we felt it would be best to let the senator hear from everybody and from every aspect of the community," Williams said.

Williams praised Capito for her work in securing federal grant funding for the region to combat the problem, but added that he believed there is still more Congress can do to provide support for what has become a bipartisan, national problem. Williams pointed to the recently passed budget bill, which he said included legislation that would transfer seizures made during drug busts into to federal control, potentially cutting into a source of revenue that helps municipalities fund local law enforcement.

"When something like that happens, it's going to have a direct effect on partnership on federal cases," he said. "In essence, more state charges will occur, and it will interfere with the partnerships the (Drug Enforcement Administration) and local law enforcement, because...when there's a big drug bust, and cash and drugs are seized, the resources from those are distributed, it helps local law enforcement to function so that their operations are not just dependent on local tax dollars.

"That's awfully short sighted, and that's what we're trying to communicate to our senators and representatives."

The round table highlighted several programs within the county created to combat the addiction epidemic, including the Cabell-Huntington Health Department's harm reduction program, which includes a needle exchange, counseling services, medical testing and education. Dr. Michael Kilkenny, the health department's health officer, said the program has had an enormous response - more than 650 addicts have visited the program since its launch.

"We saw a presentation from the director of the syringe exchange in the city of Pittsburgh, and they see 650 clients in a year," Kilkenny said. "The extent of our problem, the extent of our challenge, is also the extent of our opportunity...the goal of this whole program is to recover our citizens, our brothers and sisters who are suffering with this disease.

"We want them back...as citizens alongside us."

Kilkenny said the health department is considering expanding its harm reduction program to other locations, as well as exploring a program that could help prevent another problem created by addiction.

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome affected 275 infants born in Huntington in 2015, with many more who went undetected, said Rebecca Crowder, the executive director of Lily's Place in Huntington, the state's first treatment center for infants born addicted to drugs.

The city is also home to the state's largest residential treatment facility for men, Recovery Point of Huntington, which has expanded its peer-to-peer Recovery model to Bluefield, and will soon open a location for women on Charleston's West Side.

Law enforcement is working toward expanding its own naloxone program. Naloxone, an opioid antagonist used to treat overdoses, cannot be abused, said Dr. Kevin Yingling, dean of the Marshall University School of Pharmacy, who added that the drug needs to become more widely available to the public.

The county has also established a successful drug court program - according to Cabell County Family Court Judge Patricia Keller, more than 80 percent of the county's drug court graduates have remained sober after the program. The county recently launced the Women's Empowerment and Addiction Recovery (WEAR) program, a drug court program that addresses the needs of drug-addicted prostitutes.

According to Capito, the addiction issue is one that has found support in a deeply partisan Congress. The senator has partnered with multiple Democrats on legislation geared toward curbing addiction, she said, including a recent bill she joined on with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that would allow patients to request that their prescriptions only be partially filled.

"We live in a land of politics sometimes - I live in it all the time - and it can get very frustrating," she said. "We're going to lose a whole generation here if we don't acknowledge this around the state and around the country. That, to me, is said - people my age are cycling out of the workforce, and this generation of drug issues is hitting that cross section of workers who are coming up to replace them."

Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.