Ritchie County Judge Tim Sweeney ordered leaders at the West Virginia Department of Human Services to his courtroom last February to compel them to address a severe shortage of child protective services workers. He then contacted the media.
Thursday, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia admonished him.
“While Judge Sweeney’s conduct happened to concern a matter that elicits universal agreement—the well-being of children—judges who stray so far outside their role such as to violate the Code are not immunized from discipline based on the popularity or success of their misconduct,” justices wrote in an opinion delivered by Chief Justice Haley Bunn, who was referencing the Judicial Code of Conduct.
In October of 2025, Sweeney, whose district includes Pleasants, Doddridge, Ritchie and Wirt counties, ordered CPS workers to send a severely traumatized child to an out-of-state mental health treatment facility.
The following February, when the child still hadn’t been sent, they told him the child had fallen through the cracks due to understaffing. One of them told him they had about 100 cases.
Sweeney ordered DoHS officials to report to his courthouse to start working as case workers. He admitted he wanted those leaders to solve the understaffing problem rather than to actually take new positions.
“I think somebody needs to stand up for the public, particularly the most vulnerable members of our community — the children,” he told the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “From a legal point of view, abuse and neglect cases are of the highest priority, and they should be, in my opinion, for the department and the government in Charleston as well.”
Sweeney’s actions came before the Supreme Court last month because they had caught the attention of the Judicial Investigation Commission, which found he violated ethics rules about speaking publicly about pending cases and warned him not to make similar comments in the future. The commission also found his Facebook activity violated the rules of judicial conduct because his posts suggested he favored police and prosecutors over defendants.
He appealed to the Judicial Hearing Board, which also found violations.
The same month Sweeney ordered health officials to his courtroom, Kanawha County Judge Maryclaire Akers ordered former DoHS Cabinet Secretary Alex Mayer to her courtroom after hearing children had been placed in hotels and 4-H camps. Akers discussed the foster care system and the placements on MetroNews the following month.
That case also went to the Supreme Court, but was dismissed over insufficient evidence.
In Thursday’s opinion, justices found Sweeney violated the code by making statements about pending matters, undermining public confidence in the judiciary and failing to fairly uphold the law. Friday, Sweeney said he respectfully disagreed with the opinion but intended to comply.
Noting that he’s never been disciplined before, and that his intentions were noble, the court ordered Sweeney to pay for the court proceedings when issuing the admonishment. Public admonishments are a milder form of discipline for judicial misconduct, compared to others like suspension or forced retirement.
“He was cooperative and forthright in this matter, and his misconduct was neither self-promoting nor dishonest,” Bunn wrote. “And while his motivations do not justify his actions, we find that an admonishment adequately deters similar misconduct in the future and is a proportionate sanction for Judge Sweeney’s conduct viewed in its totality.”
Shortly after Sweeney ordered DoHS officials to his courtroom in February, Mayer met with him to develop a plan to resolve the staffing problem, and the hearing was canceled.
The justices noted that judges aren’t supposed to affect the outcomes of cases before them. They wrote that he had created a case by ordering health officials to his court. And then, he affected the outcome when Mayer met with him to discuss staffing.
“Sometimes you just have to take a punch for the kids,” Sweeney said Friday. “Abused and neglected children were helped and shortcomings were addressed. That was and continues to be my goal.”
