Posted on 06/14/2012 5:23:36 AM PDT by marktwain
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A former candidate for state attorney general and U.S. Senate was arrested Wednesday for shooting a man in Clay County. He claims the man broke into his home.
State Police arrested Hiram Carson Lewis, 41, who nearly defeated state Attorney General Darrell McGraw in 2004 and vied for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2006, at his Elk River Road home in Procious, near Clay.
Troopers responded to the home about 1 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a shots-fired call from the home.
Lewis told troopers he shot Stephen Bogart in the leg after Bogart barged into his home, Sgt. Michael Baylous said. Bogart told troopers he also lives in the home and was not breaking in.
Lewis told a WCHS reporter that he exercised the Castle Doctrine, a legal principle that allows certain immunities for using force when a person fears for his or her life in their own home.
"He busted my door down, and I told him several times not to, not to kick the door in. Do not kick the door in. He kicked the door in, came at me, and threatened my life and I had to shoot him in the leg," Lewis told the reporter.
Police weren't buying his story, at least initially. They charged him with malicious wounding and wanton endangerment involving a firearm.
Baylous said prosecutors would look into Lewis' claims of self-defense.
Bogart was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital.
Charleston police were later called to the hospital because Bogart was being "unruly and uncooperative," Lt. Duke Jordan said.
A hospital operator said only that Bogart was "under evaluation" in the emergency room.
Lewis, an attorney, has never held public office but has been in the spotlight several times over the past decade.
In 2004, he lost to Democrat McGraw by 6,000 votes. Lewis, who had lobbed a number of accusations of corruption against the incumbent attorney general, received 49.6 percent to McGraw's 50.4 percent.
In 2006, the 35-year-old Lewis vied for the Republican Party's nomination for U.S. Senate. Party voters instead chose Morgantown businessman John Raese to challenge Democrat Robert C. Byrd. Lewis received 23 percent of the vote in a six-way race.
Raese lost that election and is again running for Senate.
During the 2006 campaign, Lewis was thrown out of an Atlanta hotel during Sugar Bowl week. He had been handing out placards with "Let's Go Mountaineers!" on one side, and "Distributed by Hiram Lewis for U.S. Senate" on the other. He said a WVU official asked him to leave and asked hotel security to remove him.
"She claimed that it would confuse voters as to whether the university endorsed my campaign," he said of the university official.
He threatened to sue Atlanta Marriott Marquis and WVU over the incident. WVU officials denied asking him to leave.
Lewis, a former Army ranger and JAG officer with the West Virginia Army National Guard, is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He grew up in the coalfields of Welch, McDowell County, and later graduated from Weir High School in 1989. While serving National Guard duty, Lewis also earned degrees in accounting, finance and law from West Virginia University.
He was being held at Central Regional Jail on $100,000 bond.
Anyone with background information on the incident can contact the State Police detachment in Clay at 304-587-2201.
A non compromiser, jail him!
I don’t see a problem here. Sounds like a great american..
“lovers spat or roommate who won’t pay the rent?”
Or maybe one of those “less fortunate” types who came for a short stay and wore out his welcome.
Part of the republican war on Bogarts?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.