Supreme Court Chief Justice Brent D. Benjamin honored Circuit Judges Russell M. Clawges, Jr., and James J. Rowe on September 13, 2009, for their election as ASTAR Science and Technology Fellows.

Judge Clawges is Chief Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Monongalia County. Judge Rowe is Chief Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Greenbrier and Pocahontas Counties.

ASTAR, The Advanced Science & Technology Adjudication Resource Center, is based in Washington, D.C. In January 2007, ASTAR began operation of a Congressionally mandated project administered by the U. S. Department of Justice to improve science and technology training of judges in the United States. The program seeks to identify, recruit, train, and deploy science and technology resource judges.

Resource judges are able to preside in complex cases featuring novel scientific evidence and issues, are skilled in mediation and other procedures that may save litigants from the financial and emotional costs of lengthy trials, and they can provide background and procedural information to their colleagues.

Judge Clawges and Judge Rowe were among 190 judicial officers from across the country who each completed a 120-hour case-related science and technology curriculum beginning in 2007 and concluding earlier this year. As part of the National Resource Judge Program, they now can serve as resources to other judges in the state. 

The curriculum included reviews of criminal and civil cases involving complex and novel scientific and technical evidence in forensics, addiction science and treatment technologies, genetic science and technologies, neuroscience, computer science and Internet technologies. The program consisted of sixty hours of ASTAR-accredited "boot camp" and advanced program attendance, twenty hours of a neuroscience-related case conference in which judges had to write a memorandum of law in a complex case, thirty hours to download an archival science and technology desk book, and ten hours to prepare a judges' science and technology education program for fellow judges.

Judge Clawges and Judge Rowe participated in the program under scholarships from the U.S. Department of Justice, funded in a cooperative agreement between the Department and ASTAR. 

Chief Justice Benjamin presented them with plaques signifying their achievement during the first day of the fall Circuit Judges Education Conference at The Resort at Glade Springs.

Circuit Judge given 110% award for volunteerism

Mercer County Circuit Judge Omar Aboulhosn was recently at a Mercer County Board of Education meeting waiting on approval for a mentoring program project when he was inducted into the 110 Percent Club.

The 110 Percent Club is a recognition the local Board has given for many years to volunteers who go above and beyond what you expect from volunteers, said Mercer County Board President Greg Prudich. 

Judge Aboulhosn became a member of the 110 Percent Club after being nominated by Montcalm Elementary School, where he has been working with sixth-grade classes for more than ten years.

He reads to students there once a week and participates in numerous activities and field trips each year.

"He does an extraordinary amount with the school, and it's something he has always done," said Prudich. "He has adopted that community and they have adopted him."

Retired Wood County judge receives Nicely Award

Retired Wood County Circuit Judge Daniel B. Douglass, 80, received the William P.A. Nicely Award for Lifetime Achievement from Wood County Republicans.

The award, an engraved Fenton glass vase, was presented to him during a dinner November 3, 2009, at the Parkersburg Country Club. It was named after a former legislator and three-term mayor of Parkersburg who died in 1991. The award is given every two or three years.

"I'm very pleased that Judge Douglass is receiving this award and this recognition of his service as circuit judge and his leadership of the Wood County Republican Executive Committee," Marge Nicely, Nicely's widow and a member of the award selection committee, told the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

"It is an honor to have Judge Daniel B. Douglass receive this coveted award," Beverly Lockhart, executive committee chairwoman, told the newspaper. "He joins the ranks of great individuals who faithfully served this community as well as the Republican Party here in Wood County." 

Judge Douglass is a graduate of Parkersburg High School and the West Virginia University College of Law. He joined the Wood County Republican Executive Committee and was party secretary under five chairmen before he became chairman in 1972, a position he held until 1984.

Judge Douglass served on the bench from 1986 to 1994, when he retired and became a senior status judge. He is a past winner of the West Virginia Trial Judge of the Year award from the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, now called the West Virginia Association for Justice.

He continues to practice law, is a fifty-year member of Masonic Lodge 172, and is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Parkersburg. 

Judge Douglass and his wife, Pat, have been married fifty-nine years and have three children who are attorneys. They also have five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. 

Freshman is first winner of O'Hanlon essay contest at Marshall 

Marshall University freshman Aaron N. Preece was the first winner of the Dan O'Hanlon Constitution Week and John Marshall Celebration Essay Competition at Marshall University.

Preece, a history major from Huntington, won $1,500. Second-place winner Katherine Nicole Bush will receive $750. She is a junior forensic chemistry major from Huntington.

The essay contest is named in honor of Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Dan O'Hanlon. It was created earlier this year with a $50,000 anonymous donation. 

The topic of the inaugural competition was: "Free speech in the marketplace of ideas is a cherished but much debated right in this society. No where is it deemed more valuable, constructive, and necessary than on a university campus. Should colleges and universities be allowed to place restrictions on what is reasonable speech for faculty?"

The winners were announced during the university's celebration of Constitution Week in September. 

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