Last updated on November 10, 2019
Judge Jack Alsop
Fourteenth Judicial Circuit (Braxton, Clay, Gilmer, and Webster Counties)
Judge Alsop is a native of Webster Springs. He has a 1973 bachelor’s degree in political science from West Virginia University and a 1977 law degree from West Virginia University College of Law.
He was a sole practitioner in Webster Springs from 1977 to 1996 and served as the elected Webster County prosecutor from 1985 to 1989. He was chairman of the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facilities Authority from 1989 until 1996.
Then-Governor Gaston Caperton appointed him to the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit (Clay, Braxton, Gilmer, and Webster Counties) bench in 1996. He was elected in 1998 and re-elected 2000, 2008, and 2016.
Judge Alsop is chairman of the Supreme Court Compliance Committee on Prisons and Jails. He is a past president of the West Virginia Judicial Association and serves on the Legislative, Re-alignment, Pensions, and Special Needs Committees of the Judicial Association. He is a frequent speaker at continuing education seminars and is very active in the Supreme Court’s Robes to Schools program, in which he reads to school children and tells them about the judicial system.
He was named a Bar Foundation Fellow in 2013.
He and his wife, Linda, live in Webster Springs. They have three children and five grandchildren.
When you’re running in circles in Gilmer County ….
February 15, 2017
Circuit Court of Gilmer County
ATTN: Honorable Jack Alsop
10 Howard Street
Glenville, West Virginia 26351
Re: Case No. 16-C-8
Michael Murphy, Executor, etc. Plaintiff
v
Gilmer County Commission, et. al.,
Dear Judge Alsop:
By this letter, I am pleading with you to reconsider your orders granting Michael Murphy permission to close my father’s estate, and allowing the Neals to be recognized as owners of the land at issue. I am sending you this letter directly as I feel that I have no other recourse. You know that I have not been able to afford a lawyer to represent me. You also know that you did not include me as party to the order in the case against the commission. How can I appeal an order that I am not named as a party to? You previously ordered Mr. Murphy to add my name specifically to the above titled case.
As best as I understand, your orders are based on a technical interpretation of actions for declaratory judgments. However, that technical perspective ignored the reality that my siblings and the estate executor took other actions prior to the action for a declaratory judgment to try to remove Ruth Mitchell from the land, which was clearly inconsistent with the express wishes of my late father in his will. Those prior actions alone justify the commission’s recommendations to find me the sole heir. Even without those actions, the Court of Appeals already indicated that the action for declaratory judgment in this case was, in fact, something more — it sought Ruth Mitchell’s ejectment in addition to a legal opinion.
In addition, Mr. Murphy did not do any maintenance of the property, also required by the wishes of my father in his Will. This was never an issue of majority rule, as I was never even notified of any actions by Mr. Murphy over the past seven years. He has never represented ME as an equal heir to my father’s estate. Also, I have recently discovered that tax documents in my name have been diverted from being sent to me so that I would have no knowledge of same.
Justice requires that your orders be reversed as they fail to honor the express wishes of my late father. (I am absolutely disgusted with the lack of justice in Gilmer County in that the commission did not appeal the decision already). I have no choice but to continue this fight — it is my moral responsibility to my father. Please do not continue to subvert justice by ignoring this letter. Please reverse your orders without further delay. In the alternative, please issue an amended order in the estate action against the commission that includes me specifically as a party to that action in order that I may pursue an appeal of same.
Thank you for your consideration.