David Hummel Admonished Removed

On March 12, 2022, during an attorneys-only hearing in an EQT fossil-fuel royalty dispute at the Wetzel County Courthouse in New Martinsville, Second Judicial Circuit Judge David W. Hummel Jr. objected to defense attorney Lauren Varnado bringing a private security guard she had hired after threats. Mocking the detail, Hummel said, "Aren't me and my guns and security enough? My guns are bigger than your security's guns!" He then produced a Colt .45, pointed it toward the defense table and the podium where Varnado stood, and — setting it on the bench — rotated the weapon until its barrel pointed directly at her, where, per her sworn affidavit, it remained throughout the hearing. Varnado called the conduct "psychotic." Hummel denied brandishing the gun. He resigned in November 2022 under the Judicial Investigation Commission proceeding, agreed never to seek judicial office in West Virginia again, and had his law license annulled by the state Supreme Court in March 2023.

David Hummel, a Second Judicial Circuit judge in Ohio County, West Virginia who served 13 years on the bench, resigned and accepted a public admonishment from the state's Judicial Investigation Commission after being found to have violated four judicial rules. The Commission found that while serving as the circuit's Adult Drug Court judge, Hummel requested funds to pay for a case coordinator and cover other drug court expenses, but only half of that money was actually retained by the mental health provider responsible for the coordinator role -- the remainder came back to Hummel and was improperly placed with a general receiver rather than accounted for as drug court funds. Separately, the Commission cited an incident in which Hummel pulled out a handgun and displayed it in the courtroom, violating his own administrative order -- conduct the Commission called "incredulous" for a sitting judge.