State Supreme Court Justice Larry Starcher declined to step aside in a $240 million case involving Massey Energy and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Thursday, saying he would only consider such a move if Justice Brent Benjamin does also.

"I will step aside following the very moment that [Benjamin] does so, should he make that decision," Starcher wrote.

Starcher noted Massey CEO Don Blankenship spent or raised more than $3.5 million for Benjamin's 2004 election and Benjamin has since refused to recuse himself from hearing the company's litigation.

Cases involving Massey Energy in the state Supreme Court have made national news since December when pictures were made public of Blankenship and Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard vacationing together on the French Riviera.

Maynard, who has insisted it was public knowledge that he and Blankenship have been close friends for decades, has since stepped aside on hearing all other Massey cases.

Starcher questioned if the relationship was widely known. If it was public knowledge others would have previously requested Maynard step aside, he wrote.

"Rather, to me, this seems to be a recently manufactured response to the photographs having dropped into the public domain," Starcher wrote. "Where is the evidence of this 'common knowledge'? How could a 'good friendship' - that includes expensive dinner-buying, vacation-sharing and whatever else - have been 'commonly known' by members of the public like, say, the lawyers in the Caperton and Wheeling-Pitt cases - and those lawyers not make a motion to recuse the chief justice before the truth-telling photos were made public?"

Instead, he wrote, "the truth" is the relationship between the two men was never disclosed in previous Massey cases before the state's highest court.

In his filing, Starcher noted he did recuse himself from ruling in the rehearing of Massey's appeal of the Hugh Caperton case. Benjamin became acting chief justice and appointed Starcher's replacement. The replacement judge voted with Benjamin and Justice Robin Davis in a 3-2 decision in favor of Massey.

"I acted in the Caperton case because I wanted to help restore public confidence in this court," Starcher wrote. "But the hoped-for stepping aside by the justice whose election so greatly benefited from Massey's CEO did not occur."

Starcher said polls presented to the Supreme Court showed 67 percent in one poll and 88 percent in another believing both Maynard and Benjamin should recuse themselves from hearing Massey cases.

State Supreme Court Justice Larry Starcher declined to step aside in a $240 million case involving Massey Energy and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Thursday, saying he would only consider such a move if Justice Brent Benjamin does also.

"I will step aside following the very moment that [Benjamin] does so, should he make that decision," Starcher wrote.

Starcher noted Massey CEO Don Blankenship spent or raised more than $3.5 million for Benjamin's 2004 election and Benjamin has since refused to recuse himself from hearing the company's litigation.

Cases involving Massey Energy in the state Supreme Court have made national news since December when pictures were made public of Blankenship and Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard vacationing together on the French Riviera.

Maynard, who has insisted it was public knowledge that he and Blankenship have been close friends for decades, has since stepped aside on hearing all other Massey cases.

Starcher questioned if the relationship was widely known. If it was public knowledge others would have previously requested Maynard step aside, he wrote.

"Rather, to me, this seems to be a recently manufactured response to the photographs having dropped into the public domain," Starcher wrote. "Where is the evidence of this 'common knowledge'? How could a 'good friendship' - that includes expensive dinner-buying, vacation-sharing and whatever else - have been 'commonly known' by members of the public like, say, the lawyers in the Caperton and Wheeling-Pitt cases - and those lawyers not make a motion to recuse the chief justice before the truth-telling photos were made public?"

Instead, he wrote, "the truth" is the relationship between the two men was never disclosed in previous Massey cases before the state's highest court.

In his filing, Starcher noted he did recuse himself from ruling in the rehearing of Massey's appeal of the Hugh Caperton case. Benjamin became acting chief justice and appointed Starcher's replacement. The replacement judge voted with Benjamin and Justice Robin Davis in a 3-2 decision in favor of Massey.

"I acted in the Caperton case because I wanted to help restore public confidence in this court," Starcher wrote. "But the hoped-for stepping aside by the justice whose election so greatly benefited from Massey's CEO did not occur."

Starcher said polls presented to the Supreme Court showed 67 percent in one poll and 88 percent in another believing both Maynard and Benjamin should recuse themselves from hearing Massey cases.

That left public confidence in the court's decision in the Caperton case at "close to zero," Starcher wrote.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, which won a $240 million jury verdict against Massey last summer, had requested that both Maynard and Benjamin recuse themselves. Benjamin has refused.

Massey asked Starcher to step aside, noting previous public remarks the justice made. "I apologize for calling Mr. Blankenship 'stupid' and a 'clown,'" the justice wrote. "He is obviously an intelligent person. Intelligent people, however, can do stupid and clownish things - I should know."

But he said he could not see stepping aside and leaving Benjamin, who would again become acting chief justice, to replace him on the bench.

"And if I alone step aside, that acting chief justice will both appoint my replacement and vote on issues affecting that litigant ..." Starcher wrote.

If ultimately that leads to a federal or U.S. Supreme Court hearing, Starcher wrote, "we will surely be told that $3.5 million in electoral support by the CEO of an active litigant in the court is sufficient to create 'an appearance of impropriety' - not to mention 'the dinner,' and the French [Riviera] Connection."

Starcher had earlier alluded to Maynard admitting on national television that Blankenship paid for at least one of his dinners while on vacation together along the French Riviera and in the principality of Monaco. Dinner for four in such a place "could well approach $1,000 or more," Starcher wrote.

"I think a lot of people would like to see that check," the justice wrote.

He said the Code of Judicial Conduct says judges shall not accept gifts except from family and close friends "whose appearance or interest in a case would in any event require disqualification."

"In other words, the only way that Mr. Blankenship could have legally bought that 'dinner' for the chief justice was if the chief justice had already stepped aside in Massey cases - which he had not," he wrote.

To contact staff writer Tom Searls, use e-mail or call 348-5198.