New appointment to WV Supreme Court of Appeals

CHALRESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - A native of Wyoming County has been appointed to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday he has appointed C. Haley Bunn to fill the seat vacated by former Justice Evan Jenkins, who resigned to return to the private practice of law in February.

Bunn is a descendant of generations of West Virginia coal miners and a former federal prosecutor with deep trial and appellate experience that she will bring to the state’s highest court, Gov. Justice says.

“Haley Bunn is a wonderful West Virginia story,” said Governor Justice. “She’s a coal miner’s daughter and a daughter of southern West Virginia who’s committed her life to serving her state and her community. She’s from Wyoming County, where the opioid epidemic hit as hard as it has anywhere in America, and she decided to devote much of her career to fighting that epidemic. Haley’s also a seasoned courtroom veteran whose experience as an elite litigator will be invaluable on our Supreme Court of Appeals.”

Bunn is an honors graduate of West Virginia University and the West Virginia University College of Law. She began her legal career in private practice at Steptoe & Johnson PLLC before serving seven years as a federal prosecutor. During her federal service, she prosecuted a series of public corruption cases in Mingo County that drew national attention and resulted in the convictions of four elected officials.

In 2017, the United States Department of Justice selected Bunn as one of 12 prosecutors in the country to serve in a newly created Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit.

Bunn prosecuted numerous major drug cases, including those of a group of methamphetamine traffickers whose collective prison sentences totaled more than 90 years; a Wyoming County doctor who prescribed opioids to patients without examining them; a Charleston neurologist sentenced to more than five years for illegally prescribing opioids; multiple distributors of deadly illicit fentanyl; and an opioid dealer who was sentenced to seven years in prison after being arrested with more than 300 illegally obtained opioid pills and $570,000 in cash. She also played a key role in a parallel civil and criminal fraud investigation of one of the largest mental health care providers in the world, which resulted in a $17 million civil settlement.

Both as a prosecutor and in private practice, she has tried numerous cases to jury verdicts, and she has handled a host of appeals in both the federal and state courts. She has successfully argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the federal appellate court for West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas.

She and her husband reside in Charleston with their two children.

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