No Benefits for Former Mingo Judget

The West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled a former judge serving a corruption sentence and his ex-wife are not eligible for public retirement benefits. The Gazette-Mail reports the court affirmed a 2017 ruling from Kanawha County circuit court to terminate ex-Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury’s membership in retirement systems for public employees and judges. The justices also denied access by Thornsbury’s ex-wife to the benefits she previously were awarded as part of the couple’s divorce settlement. Thornsbury was sentenced in 2014 to four years and two months in federal prison for conspiring to deprive a campaign sign maker of his constitutional rights. Thornsbury is being held in a federal residential re-entry facility in Nashville, Tennessee, pending his scheduled release on March 15.