CHARLESTON — Pleasants County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Carr and a defense attorney facing ethics charges related to Carr’s dismissal of select misdemeanors in exchange for donations to a troubled Christmas gift program were once law partners.
Wood County Board of Education President Justin Raber, an attorney with offices in St. Marys and Parkersburg, is facing pending charges brought by the Investigative Panel of the Lawyers Disciplinary Board.
Raber is accused of alleged violations of the West Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct for accepting plea deals on behalf of clients offered by Carr and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Paul Marteney in exchange for gift cards and cash donations to the St. Marys Police Department’s Slow Down for the Holidays program.
Carr, a former municipal judge in St. Marys before becoming prosecutor in 2017, was charged along with Marteney by the Investigative Panel of the West Virginia Lawyer Disciplinary Board in October 2021 with multiple violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct for dismissing select state misdemeanor charges between 2018 and 2020 in exchange for monetary donations to the Slow Down program. The cases remain paused due to a federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the North District of West Virginia.
According to business filings obtained from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, Raber Law Offices PLLC is the latest name of a law firm first founded in 1997 as the Carr Law Offices PLLC. According to his LinkedIn profile, Raber was once the director of operations of the Carr Law Offices from 2008 to 2015, working for Carr and Marteney.
Beginning in 2016, the law firm’s name was changed to the Carr and Raber Law Offices PLLC. It was changed again after Carr’s 2016 election for county prosecutor to Raber Fleegle Attorneys-At-Law before being named the Raber Law Offices.
Carr remains listed as one of two officers for the law firm along with Raber.
Raber was charged by the LDB Investigative Panel in October with two counts of violating two Rules of Professional Conduct. The statement of charges was not made public until last week after Raber was formally served with the charging documents. Raber has chosen not to comment.
He is accused of violating Rule 8.4, prohibiting lawyers from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation; and engaging in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice. He is also accused of violating Rule 3.3, stating lawyers “shall not knowingly … make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact of law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer …”
In one of the counts, Raber is accused of receiving $2,500 from a client who was offered a deal to have two charges for driving under the influence of alcohol and first-offense driving on a suspended license dismissed in exchange for a donation to the Slow Down program.
The client requested that Raber take the $2,500 payment to the City of St. Marys for the Slow Down program. Carr and Raber submitted a written motion to dismiss the charges on Dec. 9, 2019. According to investigators, there is no record that the $2,500 payment was made.
Raber is one of three defense attorneys who have been charged by the LDB Investigative Panel with alleged violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Clarksburg attorney Jordan West and Martinsburg attorney Harley Wagner also face charges for accepting Slow Down plea deals on behalf of clients.
The Slow Down program began in 2008 by the St. Marys Police Department while Carr was a municipal judge for the city. The program would dismiss minor traffic infractions between October and December each year in exchange for donations of $50 gift cards or the equivalent of $50 in toys.
The Pleasants County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and the Pleasants County Sheriff’s Department became involved in the program in 2018. State investigators said Carr and Marteney’s selection of only a few misdemeanor cases, some for driving under the influence, in exchange for monetary donations constituted a “bribe.” Carr alone is accused of 178 violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct in 21 separate counts.
An investigation last year by the Judicial Investigation Commission resulted in the resignations of the county’s two magistrates for their role in the Slow Down program. The Investigative Panel of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board also found that the City of St. Marys did not keep track of funds to the Slow Down program, nor did it track how donations to the program were spent.
The federal investigation into the Slow Down program has already resulted in one guilty plea. Former St. Marys Police Department clerk Carolyn Taylor pleaded guilty to perjury at the beginning of summer for lying to federal investigators about taking gift cards from the Slow Down program for personal use.
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