A state board that oversees lawyers in West Virginia admonished one of the governor's former cabinet secretaries for moonlighting at his old law firm while serving as the Lottery Director, defying state law.
The Lawyer Disciplinary Board found no evidence that former Lottery Director Alan Larrick used state resources in his private practice or leveraged his state job to benefit his legal clients.
However, the board found Larrick "knowingly continued to engage in the practice of law while serving and receiving a state funded salary as the Director of the West Virginia Lottery Commission in violation of West Virginia Code."
Larrick, who could not be reached for comment, resigned from the helm of the West Virginia Lottery Aug. 31, 2018. This came after repeatedly receiving extensions from the Lawyer Disciplinary Board on his deadline to respond to the complaint filed against him.
The board opted against stricter punishment because his resignation from the Lottery put him in compliance with the law.
GOP operative Rob Cornelius, an outspoken critic of Gov. Jim Justice, filed the complaint.
While Larrick told the board Cornelius' complaint was "politically motivated," the board found the complainant's motives to be irrelevant given the facts of the matter.
Larrick's ouster came just one day after legal sports betting launched in West Virginia, and weeks before the Lottery's top lawyer was also forced out. State lawmakers raised concerns at the time that Justice may have forced the two out when they rebuffed his efforts to change sports betting rules to assure that professional sport leagues would get a cut of the sports betting revenue.
Local media first reported on Larrick's ongoing private employment while serving as Lottery Director in August 2017.
Good work by the Lawyer Disciplinary Board.
No one is above the law.
Weird. According to Gov Justice's comments back in 2018 when Alan resigned, Larrick " had done an excellent job & would be missed." Under Larrick's command, the WV lottery saw a 12% increase in instant sales, a$12 mil sales increase from the previous year. So an investigation into Larrick's side job shows he essentially did " nothing wrong" but he needed to be admonished?
*That's like the highway patrol pulling you over and telling you " you've done nothing wrong, you driving Great, keep it up."
This story confirms what I've always said about appointments to executive and leadership positions at a state lottery agency. They are largely given away as favors to political allies because the lottery can pretty much run itself once it's been set up. Make a big donation to the governor's election campaign, and get your wife's nephew's wife appointed as a VP of such and such at lotto head quarters. I mean, lots of state agencies are like that, but the lottery especially so. Vendors like Scientific Games and IGT and outside advertising firms do most of the heavy lifting that make the lottery hum along. I can't fault Larry for getting bored and craving the intellectual stimulation of practicing law. The extra money didn't hurt either!