MORGANTOWN, W.Va. A close friend and former law clerk for Larry Starcher, Tom Rodd came to MetroNews “Talkline” to reflect on the life and impact of the former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice and Monongalia County circuit judge, who passed away Christmas Eve at the age of 80.
Rodd said Starcher was a dedicated family man with endless confidence in youth and, most of all, the next generation of legal minds. After retiring as a judge, Starcher taught at his alma mater, the WVU College of Law, and established an education fund there.
“Many of them were intimidated a little bit by the whole prospect of studying the law,” Rodd said. “Larry just took everyone under his wing; he was a great mentor to all these people, so I think of him as a very affectionate and tender person.”
Starcher was a juvenile justice reformist who proposed using work release and community service for non-violent offenses.
Starcher also introduced cameras and microphones in Monongalia County courtrooms, making it a test county for the process. Soon, broadcast media access to the courtroom became policy in other counties.
“He started in Monongalia County as a circuit court judge and just made a tremendous difference in the Morgantown area in the quality of justice,” Rodd said. “Just one innovation after another, just remarkable.”
Rodd said Stracher loved to work, and there was no better example than the process of evaluating inmates in order to reduce the population at the Huttonsville Correctional Center.
“They tasked him with reducing the population of the Huttonsville Correctional Center, which was not a popular thing—they called him “Letem Loose Larry,” Rodd said. “But that was his job—to reduce some of those people’s sentences, and he interviewed over 500 inmates one at a time.”
Starcher also presided over 20,000 asbestos injury cases. Rodd said Starcher would not stop forcing lawyers into the courtroom to hear the injury cases until the insurance companies began to listen.
“Finally, the insurance companies got tired of that and started settling the cases,” Rodd said. “So, literally, 10,000 West Virginians receive compensation for their exposure because Larry wouldn’t let the system drag on.”
According to Rodd, many view the judicial branch of government as a way to react when problems arise, but Starcher would hold regular meetings with community leaders looking for ways to solve problems proactively.
“Larry used to get everyone together in Morgantown and talk about what the big problems were in the community and how the Judicial Branch could help deal with these problems,” Rodd explained.”So, he was an activist; there’s no question about it.”
Starcher was a circuit judge for 20 years, 18 as chief judge. While on the bench, Justice Starcher served as a special judge in 23 of West Virginia’s 55 counties. In 1996, he was elected to a 12-year term on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. He served as chief justice in 1999 and 2003.