Justice offers credit record for Monaco: ; Maynard says he paid for trip

The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV) January 29, 2008 | Lawrence Messina Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard’s re- election campaign has offered a credit card record to counter questions raised about his 2006 Monaco meet-up with Massey Energy chief executive Don Blankenship. here american express online

The document indicates Maynard bought a pair of $2,077 plane tickets six days before the July 2 departure date, and a $1,393 travel package from Expedia.com two days later. The campaign said the latter covered Maynard’s hotel expenses.

Maynard, a 65-year-old Democrat who filed last week for re- election to the $121,000-a-year post, maintains he paid his own way when he spent time abroad with Blankenship, a longtime friend.

Maynard disqualified himself from a pending $76.3 million case involving Massey, after lawyers from the other side filed photos from Maynard’s and Blankenship’s Riviera rendezvous. Time stamps on the photos suggest Maynard and Blankenship were together from July 3 to July 5.

Blankenship earlier told The Associated Press that he had been in Paris before spending a few days in Monaco, a short drive from where Maynard was staying in Nice, France.

“It just came out in conversation that we would be staying in the same place,” Blankenship said. “I don’t know if it’s totally a coincidence [but] I know that we didn’t travel together, we didn’t vacation together.” Maynard has not responded to repeated requests by the AP for comment, including one left at his chambers Monday, since the Monaco photos surfaced Jan. 14. He has also not replied to questions submitted in writing, at his request, on Jan. 18.

When he filed for re-election on Friday, Maynard told The Charleston Gazette of the controversy, “There’s really nothing there … It’s a bunch of rumors, but the people have to decide that.” The recusal petition had questioned “the source of payment for the luxurious accommodations at issue as well as the cost of transportation and similar expenditures.” In a Jan. 15 court news release, Maynard said: “I paid my own way, paid for my travel expenses, paid my own hotel expenses out of my own pocket. I have receipts and records to prove it.” The printout offered by the campaign, from an American Express online account, indicates the round-trip flight to Nice began in Charleston with a connecting plane in Atlanta. One ticket was bought in Maynard’s name, while his campaign withheld the name of the other passenger. The recusal petition said he and Blankenship each had a female companion.

Maynard met up with Blankenship in Monaco more than a year after Massey announced it was appealing the $76.3 million judgment against it in a Boone County coal contract dispute. The Supreme Court had also ruled on matters stemming from the case within months of the trip, while the appeal was filed Oct. 24.

Harman Mining Co., and its president, Hugh Caperton, won the 2002 civil trial. Both sought Maynard’s recusal before successfully petitioning the court last week to reconsider its November reversal of the verdict. web site american express online

Maynard disqualified himself Jan. 18 after citing “public perception and public confidence in the courts.” But he also said he had been impartial in the case, having earlier called allegations of impropriety “nonsense.” Court rules call on judicial officials to recuse themselves from “a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Legal experts have criticized the socializing revealed by the photos, obtained anonymously by lawyers in the case. Georgetown University law professor Roy Schotland said Maynard showed “zero judgment.” “I’m floored,” Schotland told AP. “That’s why I go to the word judgment. You don’t do that.” AP writer Tim Huber contributed to this report.

Lawrence Messina