HUNTINGTON â Two former Huntington politicians indicted in a 2019 shooting that left a man paralyzed asked Chief Cabell Circuit Court Judge Gregory Howard to dismiss those indictments due to a âfundamentally unfairâ presentation to the grand jury.
Thomas McCallister, a former Huntington City Council member and mayoral candidate, was indicted in September on charges of malicious assault and use of a firearm during commission of a felony, and his brother, Johnny McCallister, a retired Cabell County magistrate, was charged with wanton endangerment involving a firearm.
The investigation into the men began April 27, 2019, after police were dispatched to a shots-fired call around 4 p.m. in the 400 block of West 3rd Street in Huntington. The shooting victim, Ron McDowell Jr., said two men, believed to be the McCallisters, were holding him at gunpoint, lead investigator Andre Jackson said during Thomas McCallisterâs preliminary hearing in May 2019.
Opioid trials
A federal trial for a case filed by Huntington and Cabell County against drug companies they accuse of creating and fueling the opioid epidemic in the area will not take place in January as planned due to COVID-19.
The lawsuits argue the companies had a duty to monitor and report the high volume of pills being shipped into the area, but ignored it.
The case had been set to go to trial Jan. 4, but U.S. District Court Judge David A. Faber continued the trial indefinitely due to COVID-19. A pretrial conference will now take place Jan. 6 and Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. via videoconference to further discuss the case.
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