Judge declines to rule on former Berkeley County sheriff candidate's bail-bonding authority petition

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A Berkeley County, W.Va., circuit judge declined last month to rule on 2016 sheriff candidate John Orem's new petition to engage in bail bonding after Orem initially objected to submitting to a drug test.

Orem ultimately agreed at the end of an Aug. 27 hearing before 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Laura Faircloth to submit to a drug test upon his scheduled return to circuit court Oct. 29, according to an official transcript of the proceedings in Berkeley County Circuit Court.

Faircloth advised Orem at the August hearing to bring records of any prescription medications that he is taking to alert the judicial circuit's probation office, which will conduct the drug screening.

Faircloth acknowledged that she was aware that Orem was charged with a drug-use-related crime in August 2016 and that it was dismissed, but assured the Inwood, W.Va., businessman that he wasn't being singled out and that any others who request to issue bonds also will be asked to submit to a drug test.

Orem's authority to write bail bonds was suspended by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes after his arrest, but he was reinstated as a bond agent in August 2017. Orem currently has the authority to write bail bonds and has filed a petition seeking another three years of authority.

"(Orem), I believe, represented at the time — and I only understand this from what I read in the newspaper — that he may have been sick, and that whatever was found in his house was not his," Faircloth said of Orem's arrest. "But the court would think that Mr. Orem would want to make sure that there's not any question about his use of illicit drugs when he's (here) before the court asking the court to renew his authority to engage in the bonding business."

The drug-possession charge against Orem was dismissed in October 2016, but he still finished last in a three-way race for Berkeley County sheriff in the November 2016 general election.

During the proceedings before Faircloth, Orem told the judge that he was in a "a precarious situation," noting that he took "prescribed and unprescribed medications" in the two weeks leading up to the hearing because he was out of the country when he was injured.

Orem told the judge that he was scheduled to undergo "posterior interior fusion" surgeries at the Virginia Spine Clinic in Reston, Va., and that any drug test conducted "may not be able to tell one (drug) from the others" that he was taking, according to the transcript.

When asked further about taking prescribed and unprescribed medications, Orem told Faircloth that he had previous prescriptions from ongoing back pain and back surgeries, and codeine and Percocet left over from prior prescriptions.

Orem also told the judge he was at a new Nickelodeon Resort outside the country and obtained a prescription there after he was injured.

"Anyway, you know, I got a prescription there while I was there and I, you know, I have a lot different medications in me and you want me to go down and take a drug screen, yeah, I'm going to test positive for narcotics right now, absolutely, both prescribed and ones that were previously prescribed that I take," Orem told the judge.

Orem also echoed statements by his attorney, who previously told the judge that a drug test hadn't previously been a condition for anyone who has applied as a bondsman in the 23rd Judicial Circuit, according to the transcript.

Faircloth responded by noting state code requires the court to make a finding that Orem or any other person seeking authority to engage in the bonding business is to be a person of "good moral character," and any other individual seeking to engage in bonding will be required to take a drug test.

Orem's court appearance in state court came about 4 1/2 months after he and his wife filed a federal lawsuit against an unnamed individual and a West Virginia State Police trooper, claiming Orem was subjected to unreasonable search and seizure and that his right to privacy was violated during his August 2016 arrest, court records said.

The lawsuit filed in April stated that Orem was found unresponsive in the main bathroom of his home, and that there was "no way of knowing what specifically caused Mr. Orem’s unconsciousness and collapse to the floor."

"The collapse was likely caused by a reaction of medications combined with high blood pressure and flu-like symptoms which Mr. Orem had been suffering," the lawsuit said. "It was not caused by illegal drug use."

The trooper since has denied the allegations through legal counsel. Chief U.S. Judge Gina Groh has scheduled a trial for the case on Aug. 13, 2019, court records said.

The Orems asked the federal judge to award an unspecified amount of damages and requested a jury trial.