18-year Veteran Deputy Will Stand Trial on Felony
A sheriff's deputy is indicted by a grand jury on three felony charges. The charges allege he abducted and sexually assaulted a woman in back in December. The Sheriff Deputy Mark Smith was indicted by a grand jury on three felony charges. The charges allege he abducted and sexually abused a woman in December while on duty.
Because the case involved allegations against a County law enforcement officer, a special prosecutor from the County and a State Police commander from another County handled the investigation.
The Special prosecutor Tim Haught of Wetzel County and Cmdr. Scot Goodnight of the West Virginia State Police declined to reveal any details that weren't already released in the indictment.
"Pre-trial publicity is generally not in the best interest of the defendant, the victims in the case or the system of justice," said Haught. "I would encourage people to wait and let this case go to trial and the facts will develop there."
“Here we're shocked, just shocked,” said Hancock County Sheriff Mike White. “This is a surprise to all of us,”
White said immediately after the allegations surfaced, he placed Smith, an 18-year veteran of the department, on paid administrative leave. As of Tuesday, Smith was placed on paid suspension, and he could be fired soon.
“We'll be looking for a termination of his employment here,” said White.
According to the indictment obtained by NEWS9, Smith forced contact with the sex organ of the alleged victim. The incident allegedly took place on Route 2 near Newell in Hancock County.
White said while he feels bad for Smith’s family, he won’t tolerate any inappropriate actions by his employees. He also said the allegations are a black eye for his department.
“It's a hard pill to swallow. We got a lot of good people doing a lot of good work every day. It's hard on them and it's hard on the department,” said White. Source: Officer.com (Officer FROM- NEW CUMBERLAND, W. Va)
