About 10 months after a sexual abuse charge against him was dropped, the suspended principal of Van High School in Boone County is resigning.

The Boone County Board of Education accepted the resignation of Garth Emil Mock on Tuesday. While the effective date given at the time was Feb. 16, Boone Superintendent John Hudson said that was an error and at the next meeting, the board would vote on changing the effective date to March 1.

Hudson said while allegations of misconduct against Mock were investigated and found to be "unsubstantiated," the school system still had "concerns." School officials and Mock came to an agreement that Mock would "irrevocably" resign, meaning he cannot return to his job.

"We felt it would be unwise to have him return to the school," Hudson said.

Mock was arrested on April 3, 2015 and charged with sexual abuse by a parent, guardian, custodian or a person of trust to a child for allegedly sexually abusing a 17-year-old student. She and an 18-year-old student told police they were going to go to the Rough N' Rowdy Brawl at the Charleston Civic Center on Jan. 9, but went to Mock's apartment instead.

He was placed on leave from his job and suspended without pay at the end of January, according to a statement from Hudson at the time.

Weeks later, the charge was dropped, although Hudson said Mock remained suspended. Prosecutors said at the time they still hoped to obtain an indictment, but didn't want a juvenile girl to have to testify. In a motion, assistant Kanawha County prosecutor Jennifer Gordon wrote that the case would be presented to a grand jury after the investigation was completed.

The 18-year-old student in the alleged incident, Destiny Lovejoy, told the Gazette-Mail that she and her friend wouldn't have testified anyway, and that in her view, she and the 17-year-old consented.

On Friday, Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Miller said that he believed the investigation continued briefly after the charge was dropped, but that since the teenagers had recanted their claims, the case was "impossible to go forward with." He said it was never presented to a grand jury.

"There was just not sufficient evidence after the alleged victim ... recanted and her family indicated that she was not going to cooperate in any way, shape or form," he said.

Lovejoy, who said she wanted to be publicly named for this story, said this week she hadn't spoken to police since shortly after the incident.

Again, she said she and her best friend didn't want Mock to be punished.

She said "it takes more than one person."

"So when I look back on [the] mistakes I made I think about how much we ruined his life and it does hurt me because I care about him more than just a friend and I will admit it," she wrote in a message. "I shouldn't have done that but he is much older and more responsible so he should have thought about the decision himself and what it would do to his future and career. I hope he's not out there somewhere [feeling] down and [hating] me for what happened... It hasn't been an easy journey for me for sure."

Lovejoy said it hurt to become a constant subject of gossip and judgment in Boone County. She said she had to start seeing a mental health professional and taking antidepressants and anxiety medication over what happened.

"It hurts and it changed my outlook on life," she wrote. "It just turned my world dark and grey."

Reach Erin Beck at

erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com,

304-348-5163,

Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

Some identities stick, outshining everything before and after.

He's held lots of titles: Alcohol Beverage Control Commissioner. Deputy Security Director, West Virginia Lottery. Supervisor, West Virginia Juvenile Services. Even (get this) Security Director, T.D. Jakes Ministries in Dallas.

He wore many hats as a city police officer. Beat cop. Detective. Juvenile investigations. Spokesman. Vice Squad. Drug Unit (he helped start that).

But no title defines him more than his reign as Charleston's first African-American police chief.

Mention Dallas Staples, and that's the role people remember.

Appointed in 1991 by Mayor Kent Hall, he made a lasting name for himself as a champion of hands-on community policing. He established Neighborhood Assistance Officers, put police officers on bikes and horses and beefed up foot patrols to promote a high-profile police presence and personal interaction with citizens.

Probably nothing about his tenure stands out more in the public eye than the horse patrols. An accomplished equestrian, he formed the mounted patrol with private contributions from civic leaders. Business contacts established during downtown duty led to donations for the bike patrol.

At 67, retired since 2014, he hasn't relinquished his role as a voice for public safety. He keeps his soapbox handy, ready to sound off, politely but passionately, on drug abuse, gun control and other life-altering issues that concern him.

"I grew up right here on Oakridge Drive. The house next door all the way up the street was all family. My great-grandfather purchased this tract and divided it into lots for his children.

"We were the only blacks in this end of Oakridge. We had a lot of family and friends on Wertz Avenue.

"My dad worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles and for eight or nine years was a deputy in the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department. My mom did a lot of day work but eventually retired from the county assessor's office.

"She was the disciplinarian for us. My dad was real easygoing. He never spanked me, but my mother, that's a different story.

"All the kids around here, white and black, we played together. I started integrated school in second grade. A friend in the Cub Scouts invited me to his pack's skating party at Skateland. His mother dropped us off. We were in line to pay, and when I got to the window, the lady told me 'No coloreds allowed.'

"His mother picked us up and took us to the Capitol and we went to the museum instead. As a second-grader, how do you process that? That was my first taste of racism.

"I graduated from CHS in '66. A lot of the people I went to Charleston High with, they were progressive. We weren't segregated in any sense.

"When I went in the Air Force, I was a security police officer and that's what got me involved in law enforcement. I spent three years at a Royal Air Force base in England.

"When I came back, I worked for United Parcel, loading trucks, gassing them, washing them. I always say things happen for a reason. They promoted me to driver. You had to go 30 days without an accident to get in the union. On my 28th day, my truck bumper caught the chrome strip on a car and popped it loose.

"The guy the car belonged to was a coal miner. He said I could just pay for it. But I didn't want to be dishonest, so I called it in, and they let me go. I would never have gotten a job in the police department if that hadn't happened.

"I didn't have any intentions of going into the police department. A friend, Capt. Casey James, was walking a beat on Capitol Street. He said he thought the department would announce some hirings soon. The next Sunday, it was in the paper that they were hiring. So I filled out the application and took the test.

"You start as a patrolman. At first, I was in a cruiser on the West Side. After about three years, I went to a midtown car and then to the detective bureau. I went through the DEA academy and was in the drug unit for several years and then transferred to a walking beat on Capitol Street.

"That was when the downtown was Capitol Street. They had the Downtown Business Association. Business people understood that public safety was a big part of retail. People go and spend money where they feel safe. There was always a police presence downtown.

"We knew all the business owners, store managers and clerks. Out of that, I formed friendships. When I became chief, it was the Charleston Retail Credit Association that bought the first bicycles for the police department.

"I walked a beat in Orchard Manor from 5 p.m. to 1 in the morning with Dave Tucker. We never had a problem. It was some of the best times I had in the police department.

"You tear down the mystery when you engage people and understand the types of things they are going through. I walked Summers Street back when the Brass Rail and all the pool rooms were there, and I knew all those people.

"There was a mutual understanding. We knew what they were doing. They knew what we were going to do if we caught them, that I was just doing my job. But of course, everyone wasn't carrying a gun back then.

"I had the opportunity to come on the force with really seasoned police officers, Ed Leonard, Ed Clark. They made it a point to tell you to get to know everybody from the banker to the street person. They treated everyone with respect.

"In '91, Mayor Kent Hall appointed me police chief, the first black police chief. It's one thing to be first. I just don't want to be the first and only. I hope I opened the door for other people of color to have the opportunities.

"We set up community policing where you don't apply one resource to a problem. Say the police department identifies a community where kids don't have anything to do, a recreation problem. Government doesn't pull the police department in to supply that, they pull in the parks and recreation director to come up with a strategy.

"It's using all the resources of government. Look at the drug problem. It was given to the criminal justice system, which is crazy. Addiction is a health problem. Public health should have been at the head of this.

"All we've done is constantly try to interrupt the supply chain. If we had put as much emphasis on the demand side, we would have automatically killed the supply.

"We need some upfront programs. We used to have the DARE program where we teach children to resist ever using drugs. We make up 4 percent of the world population, but we consume over 80 percent of illicit drugs. You have to kill the demand.

"My biggest thing as far as community policing was the NAOs, Neighborhood Assistance Officers. I was visiting my sister in Dayton and there was an article about it in the paper. I contacted the people running it in Dayton and they came here and helped us set it up.

"The horse patrol lasted about three years. City Council wasn't going to fund it, so I formed a Mounted Patrol Commission, business people and lawyers and different people that I brought together. They said they didn't know anything about horses. I said, 'You don't need to. What I need you to do is raise money.'

"John Chapman from the Chamber of Commerce agreed to handle the funding so it wouldn't commingle with tax dollars. A woman named Marjorie Johnson sent us a $10,000 check. I went to thank her and she wrote a $50,000 check to build a barn. She paid for the officers' training in Washington. The barn is named after her. She was a horse owner.

"My grandfather had work horses at his farm on Davis Creek. He'd let us ride the horse back to the barn. When I got on the police department, I did security work for the Kanawha Valley Bank. A teller there had horses, and I bought my first horse from him.

"I started keeping horses. I still have a horse at Bill Archibald's Briar Patch Farm off the Clendenin exit. My horse's name is Max, a Tennessee walker.

"On horse patrol, there's a safety presence where there is no mistake that there is a police officer in the area. It's visibility. We were having a lot of problems with people breaking into cars at games at Laidley Field and the Civic Center. We put the horses there and never had any more trouble.

"When Kemp Melton was elected mayor, he replaced me with Fred Marshall as police chief. I was shift commander. That's when I got a call from T.D. Jakes Ministries.

"Again, things always happen for a reason. A woman was pulled over on Greenbrier Street with her flashers on and her car hood up. I pulled over in my cruiser and put my flashers on and called her husband.

"Bishop Jakes was on his way to the airport and saw me and thought my cruiser was broken down. He told his assistant, 'I can't believe they would give him a cruiser that won't work. I'm going to offer him a job.'

"So I went to Texas to set up his security. That took about three years.

"Next, I went to the Juvenile Services Division as operations director. Then-Gov. Wise appointed me deputy director of security for the Lottery. I stayed there from 2001 to 2003. They moved me to enforcement director of ABC and from there, Gov. Manchin appointed me ABC commissioner. I stayed there until 2011.

"Gov. Tomblin transferred me to Military Affairs and Public Safety. I was on the safe schools project, prevention and response plans for all the schools in the state.

"In 2014, I retired. Now it's grandbabies. And I like to barbecue. A friend and I have always talked about opening a place. We do a lot of barbecuing.

"I've had a rich experience. Just with T.D. Jakes, seeing things, meeting people. I went to Bermuda and South Africa. I met David Robinson, the basketball player.

"My job experience has been wonderful. The only thing is, I regret that I didn't spend as much time as I should have with my son. That's the thing about police work. It really takes over. You got a homicide and you are gone for two days.

"I probably wouldn't want to be a cop today. It's a tough job. You get a Legislature that passes a bill where you can carry a concealed gun without a permit. You are in a movie theater or out to eat. Who's to say? The Second Amendment was to secure a safe, regulated militia. We have a militia. It's called the National Guard."

Reach Sandy Wells at sandyw@wvgazette.com or 304-342-5027.

The bankruptcies listed below are limited to those filed by residents or companies in the Gazette's circulation area. Chapter 7 designates the liquidation of non-exempt property; Chapter 11 calls for business reorganization; Chapter 13 establishes a schedule of payments to creditors. The following bankruptcies were filed between Feb. 19 and 26:

Adolfo Manuel Torres Roche and Annie Laurie Turley, St. Albans, Chapter 7. Assets: $113,346, Liabilities: $132,193.

Edward Lawrence and Laurie Ann McCabe, Frametown, Chapter 7. Assets: $51,418, Liabilities: $185,150.

Kevin Bradley Compton, Man, Chapter 7. Assets: $129,469, Liabilities: $132,653.

Noah Bernard Richmond III, Jumping Branch, Chapter 7. Assets: $46,930, Liabilities: $236,597.

William Harrison III and Debra Lynn McGraw, Beckley, Chapter 7. Assets: $393,860, Liabilities: $511,626.

Patricia Ann Bias, Shady Spring, Chapter 7. Assets: $40,025, Liabilities: $68,757.

Cambridge Stone LLC, Beckley, Chapter 7. Assets: $686,100, Liabilities: $0.

Flower Paradise LLC, Lewisburg, Chapter 7. Assets: $0, Liabilities: $126,539.

Allyson Hodges Owens, Nitro, Chapter 13. Assets: $116,454, Liabilities: $101,243.

John Menzies IV and Lois Susan McPhail, Pratt, Chapter 13. Assets: Unknown, Liabilities: Unknown.

Keith Ellis and Sharon Kay Todd, Clendenin, Chapter 13. Assets: $394,226, Liabilities: $225,003.

Corey Deene and Kimberley Dene Sexton, Renick, Chapter 13. Assets: $0, Liabilities: $113,683.

James Scott Calhoun Jr., Beckley, Chapter 13. Assets: $274,496, Liabilities: $244,520.

Jeremy Lee Seacrist, 36, and Amanda Lynn Smith, 35, both of St. Albans.

Trevor Wane Hustead, 27, of Glasgow and Megan Brooke Elmore, 24, of Clendenin.

Robert J. Ward Jr., 29, of and Melinda Nichole Burford, 34, both of Dry Branch.

Troy Allen Nelson, 52, and Kimberly Dell Javins, 50, both of Charleston.

Jason Brandon Cavender, 42, and Stacy Lynn Calhoun, 42, both of St. Albans.

Douglas Edward Thaxton, 41, and Farrah Nicole Daugherty, 39, both of Charleston.

Benjamin Aaron Merchant, 30, and Abigail Hope Steele, 25, both of Charleston.

Mark Christopher Pauley, 29, and Jordan Michelle Blake, 26, both of St. Albans.

David Keith Fleming II, 51, and Brienne Marie Smith, 37, both of South Charleston.

Paul H. Westerman, 53, and Tammy Jo Pinkard, 45, both of Charleston.

Joshua David Lightner, 28, of Clendenin and Sierra Noelle Smith, 27, of Charleston.

Bruce Wayne Elswick Jr., 29, of Clendenin and Allie Marie Robinson, 23, of Elkview.

Garrett Lee Holstein, 21, and Cassidy Shea Milgram, 19, both of Miami.

Matthew Dale Wolfe, 32, and Vanessa Carolina Stacy, 26, both of Dunbar.

Chadwick Aaron Jones, 44, and Jessie Rae Coulter, 34, both of Charleston.

William Issacc Holstein, 65, and Rebecca Lynn Holstein, 54, both of Charleston.

Kenneth Alan Petry, 36, of Charleston and Amanda Dawn Legg, 31, of Hurricane.

The following property transfers of $50,000 or more were recorded in Kanawha County between Feb. 18 and 25:

Michael Ray and Nancy S. Ward to JJ and L Land LLC. Parcels, Charleston, $425,000.

John C. and Brenda K. Krivonyak to Scott and Amanda Fox. Lot, Loudon District, $227,500.

Brittany L. Lowe to Bobby Jo Dawson. Lot, Union District, $65,000.

Seneca Trustees Inc. to Wells Fargo Bank N.A. Lot, Nitro District, $103,000.

Golden & Amos PLLC to Federal National Mortgage Association. Lot, Malden District, $153,600.

Rebekah Goff-Jarrell, et al, to Samuel and Ileana Oliver. Lot, Spring Hill District, $59,500.

James O. II and Brooke H. Bunn to Michael R. and Lindsey L. Goins. Parcels, Charleston, $1,210,000.

P&L Enterprises LLC to Pamelan Miller. Lot, St. Albans, $108,000.

Barbara C. Mason to Travis H. and Catherine C. Eckley. Parcels, Charleston, $340,000.

Lana L. Chaffin and Joyce Ann Peters to Gregory Alan James. Parcels, Big Sandy District, $121,500.

David A. Arthur and Linda G. Arthur to Kristina L. Monroe. Lot, Nitro, $88,500.

Andrew G. and Liana B. Sovick to Patrick G. Spainhour. Lot, Dunbar, $110,000.

Carlene Oxley to Brandon L. Haynes and Brooke S. Boster. Lot, Union District, $62,500.

Pill & Pill PLLC to PennyMac Holdings LLC. Lot, Union District, $67,656,71.

Krisene N. Stanley to Mark Hornbaker. Lot, Charleston, $79,000.

Planters Bank and Louisa H. Swift to David R. and Allison Suzanne Bungard. Lot, Charleston, $342,000.

Mark and Louise K. Thaxton to Paul J. and Jeffrey Ray Linville. Lot, Washington District, $85,000.

Angela G McMillion, Donald L. Pauley II, Cheryl W. Johnson, Wayne M. Pauley and Brian A. Pauley to Jeffery H. anbd Cheryl L. Snodgrass. Lot, Loudon District, $80,000.

Steven R. Jr. and Kimberly D. Arden to Charles Allen Hicks. Parcels, Loudon District, $69,000.

Nancy E. Vary to Christopher L. Schafer. Lot, Elk District, $150,000.

David L. and Denise G. Tucker to Timothy A. Guiden Jr. Lot, Poca District, $187,500.

Encil Bailey to Thomas P. and Deborah A. Schoolcraft. Lot, Charleston, $175,000.

Janet Burkheart, Shirley Rowh, Karen Shumaker and Alice Young to Stephen L. and Joretta R. Gray. Lots, Big Sandy District, $65,000.

Brenda Riffe to Michael S. and Kay M. McDonald. Tracts, Washington District, $154,900.

Robert E. Hudson,James W. Hudson, Carol J. Abbott, Charles R. Hudson Linda K. Taylor, Mark W. Hudson and Kevin L. Hudson to Tonya Frye. Parcels, St. Albans, $81,000.

Lois M. Carter to Woodacre Properties LLC. Tracts, Loudon District, $135,000.

Robin Ragsdale to Michael Joseph and Monica Gail Stock. Condominium, Charleston, $85,000.

James W. Lane Jr. and Bradford P. Bury to John and Peggy J. Barker. Lots, Charleston, $54,400.

Sara N. Bailey to Stuart D. and Patricia A. Friend. Lot, Dunbar, $120,000.

Larry J. Buckner to Dana R. Lewis. Lot, Poca District, $65,000.

AB Contracting Inc to Joyce P. Stevens. Lot, Elk District, $269,670.

William A. and Teri S. Wood to Arpit Bhargava and Sujoyeeta Majumdar.Lot, Charleston, $357,000.

Sacred Heart Riverview Terrace Inc. to Adryon Hamilton Clay. Condominium, Charleston, $346,561.

Margarette E. Offutt to Nicole D. Whiting. Lot, Kanawha County, $115,000.

William E. and Junie Kirk to Eddie C. Craft. Lot, Union District, $217,000.

Daniel O. Martin to Louis M. Carter. Tracts, Charleston, $220,000.

Carolyn G. Hall to Marty Cloer. Lot, South Charleston, $94,000.

BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - A federal inmate in West Virginia has been sentenced to an additional year and nine months in prison for possessing a weapon.

Acting U.S. Attorney Carol Casto says in a news release that 36-year-old Rafael Carrera-Fuentes was sentenced last week in federal court in Beckley.

Carrera-Fuentes admitted to having a shank, or homemade knife, last April at the Federal Correctional Institution in Beckley.

Casto says the sentence will run consecutively to an 11-year sentence Carrera-Fuentes is serving for a 2011 federal drug conviction.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - Authorities have arrested a West Virginia woman and her husband after officials say they scammed more than $82,000 from another couple by pretending the woman needed money for cancer treatments.

The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown reports that 27-year-old Lee Anne McCauley has been arrested on charges including theft scheme and theft scheme conspiracy of $10,000 to $100,000. The Washington County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that her husband, 34-year-old Brian Keith King Jr., has also been arrested in connection with the case.

Charging documents state that McCauley had told the couple she needed help for different treatments she was receiving across the nation.

A judge set bail at $80,000. Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Steiner told the judge Friday that McCauley and her family has no money to post bond.

The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office made its largest drug bust in more than a decade last week.

Detectives and officers with the Sheriff's Tactical Operation Patrol intercepted a drug shipment in South Charleston last Friday, seizing nearly half a million dollars in heroin, crystal methamphetamine, marijuana and cash.

Following an investigation, officers stopped and detained Bryan Lee Palmer, 43, of Montgomery, outside a South Charleston motel. Palmer admitted to having a loaded .45 semi-automatic handgun in his backpack without a concealed carry permit. He also told officers he was a convicted felon, according to a criminal complaint in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

Officers executed a search warrant on Palmer's backpack and another duffel bag he was carrying, and found roughly 710 grams of heroin valued at $142,000; 1,585 grams of crystal methamphetamine valued at $317,000; 764 grams of marijuana valued at $7,640; and $30,379 in cash.

Chief Deputy Mike Rutherford told reporters in a press conference Monday that Palmer has been "allegedly transporting quantities of drugs and money from North Carolina into Charleston."

But investigators believe the drugs may have originated from Mexico because of the way they were "professionally packaged." Some drugs already were packaged for delivery.

"This is highly unusual," Rutherford said of the bust. "We have some detectives and [officers] that have been in drug units for about 15 years here, and they've never seen a bust that has this much value, as far as heroin and meth go."

He added that officers are "following up on several leads right now" to determine if Palmer had any accomplices.

Palmer faces three felony counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substances for the marijuana, heroin and meth. He is being held at the South Central Regional Jail.

Rutherford noted that the sheriff's office makes almost daily busts for heroin and meth - but never of this magnitude.

"This individual is, we believe, higher up on the food chain, so to speak, on the drug apparatus here," he said.

He also noted that Palmer's possession of a concealed firearm without a permit, in addition to his convicted felon status, made it "a whole lot easier" for officers to carry out the search warrant and make an arrest.

Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.

A Charleston man was booked into South Central Regional Jail early this morning on a malicious wounding charge for a stabbing that happened nearly three years ago.

On May 7, 2013, James William Martin allegedly stabbed another man, Jamie Morris, in the right side of his torso with a pocket knife, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. Morris had a laceration about 6 inches long, the complaint says.

Martin, 58, was booked into the jail at about 3 a.m. According to a jail employee, he also faces a charge related to child support.

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) - A Pittsburgh man has been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison for operating a heroin trafficking ring.

Thirty-one-year-old Christopher T. Gyorko was sentenced Monday in federal court in Wheeling.

Federal prosecutors say Gyorko orchestrated shipments into Ohio and Marshall counties and in eastern Ohio for redistribution and sale.

Twelve others also were charged in either state or federal court as part of the distribution operation.

BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - A woman accused in the slaying of a Raleigh County minister is seeking bail.

Local news outlets say 20-year-old Camille Browne appeared in court Monday for a bail hearing. Browne is charged in the death of Ronald Browning, who was the pastor of Cool Ridge Church.

Police say Browne entered Browning's home in February 2015 and killed the clergyman. An investigator said he died from injuries to the head and neck.

Browne's attorney Jesse Forbes said the slaying was the result of a "substance-induced psychotic" reaction Browne had from smoking marijuana the night before the killing.

Prosecutor Kristen Keller opposed the bail motion because of the violent nature of the crime.

A judge said he would consider Browne's request for bail. The case is scheduled for trial in June.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia judge says he plans to rule whether a former Marshall University football player accused of assaulting two gay men after he saw them kissing on a city street can be charged with a hate crime.

Cabell Circuit Judge Paul Farrell is presiding in the case of Steward Butler. The 24-year-old Huntington resident has pleaded not guilty to felony civil rights violations and misdemeanor battery.

The state Supreme Court had declined to hear a request on whether state civil rights code includes violent actions directed at another person based solely on the victim's sexual orientation.

The Herald-Dispatch reports Farrell on Monday asked for written arguments from prosecutors and the defense by March 21, after which he will take 10 days to make a decision.

A Wood County woman, charged with obstruction after stepping in front of a State Police trooper who had his gun pointed at her dog, was acquitted by a jury this week.

It took jurors about 30 minutes on Monday to find Tiffanie Hupp, 23, of Waverly, not guilty of obstructing an officer, according to Hupp and her attorney David Schles, of Charleston. The charge was filed against Hupp on May 9, 2015 after an incident with Trooper Seth Cook on Carpenter Run Road.

Cell phone video taken by Hupp's husband, Ryan, circulated on the Internet several weeks after the incident. That video played an important role in the trial, Schles said.

"A little chubby white dog ran toward [Cook], barking," Schles said, explaining the video he showed jurors. The trooper "pulls his gun on the dog and is holding it in a posture that looks like he was prepared to shoot the dog. Tiffanie runs in between the cop and the dog. She is just standing there. The officer alleged in the complaint that she raised her arm, but we did stop-frame [of the video] for the jury and it showed she was stationary, her arms at her side.

"All she said was 'Don't do that' and [the trooper] grabbed her by the bicep and spun her around and she ends up falling down," Schles said.

Troopers were at the house after receiving a call about a dispute between neighbors, Schles said. Clifford Myers, Ryan Hupp's stepfather, had been in an argument with his neighbor at a nearby gas station, Tiffanie Hupp said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Cook followed Myers' daughter as she walked toward the house to get her father's driver's license, according to Hupp. That's when he was met by "Buddy," a Labrador-husky mix who, Hupp said, "is a big baby. Buddy was at the end of his chain and couldn't go any further in the yard when he met Cook.

"I immediately thought, 'I don't want him to get shot,'" recalled Hupp, who was outside with her 3-year-old son.

Wood County Magistrate Joyce Purkey appointed Parkersburg attorney Lora Snodgrass to represent Hupp, but Purkey later denied Hupp's request for a different attorney after she learned that Snodgrass is married to a State Police trooper.

Schles learned of the incident through an animal law subcommittee of the West Virginia State Bar, which sent out an email containing the cell phone video of the incident.

"I thought it was outrageous this girl is being charged for standing in her yard doing nothing but saying, 'Don't shoot my dog,'" said Schles. He agreed to represent Hupp for free.

Schles said he assumed prosecutors in Wood County would agree to dismiss the obstruction charge. Prosecutors in the case couldn't be reached Tuesday, nor could Cook, who testified during Monday's trial, Schles said. Lawrence Messina, spokesman for the state Division of Military Affairs and Public Safety, did not return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

"You're not obstructing an officer under West Virginia law unless you hinder or obstruct an officer who is performing official duties. Pointing a gun at a dog on a chain is not official duties," Schles said he told jurors.

Also, Schles told jurors on Monday, as long as someone is acting lawfully - even if they do obstruct an officer - it is not illegal.

"For instance," he said, "you have a First Amendment right to say 'don't shoot my dog.' It is defiant, if you want to look at it that way, but it's still a free country."

Hupp said she's relieved jurors found her not guilty and said she trusts the criminal justice system.

"I'm glad it's over with. I know it sounds corny, but now I know what justice feels like and it feels pretty darn good," she said. "I've heard stories of people having trouble with the system and I never thought I would have to go through it because I don't do anything stupid."

She said the video her husband took of the incident didn't surface until several weeks later because Cook took his cell phone, along with several others.

"We called [police] and said we know it's on there, just to hope they didn't delete it," Hupp said. "I've never had a problem with officers before. I'm a little nervous around them now."

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

An inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary at Hazelton on Tuesday was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of a fellow prisoner.

Marricco Sykes, 36, is alleged to have strangled another man during an altercation late last year, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld of West Virginia's Northern District.

Sykes was sentenced in 1998 when he was 18 years old to spend 220 months in prison for carrying a firearm during two robberies in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to a report at the time from Tulsa World news. Sykes was due to be released March 14, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.

The newspaper reported that the judge had been told Sykes was an "'aggressive' prisoner while awaiting sentencing," the article states, adding that during one of the robberies Sykes might have attempted to shoot a gas station employee.

An indictment is not a finding of fact. It means only that grand jurors believed enough evidence exists to warrant a jury trial.

The murder charge carries the possibility of the death penalty in federal court.

A man accused of starting a fire in the South Charleston Wal-Mart to cover up his theft from the jewelry counter was arrested Wednesday in Logan County, police say.

Robert Rogers, 42, was charged late Wednesday with arson and grand larceny, both felonies, said South Charleston Detective P.C. Rader.

South Charleston detectives began their investigation early Wednesday after fire broke out in the sporting goods section of the South Charleston Super Wal-Mart. Rogers allegedly set boxes of plastic tarpaulins aflame shortly after midnight, Rader said. The flames spread to nylon holsters and gun bags, he said.

South Charleston Fire Chief John Taylor said the fire was mainly contained to two sets of shelves in the sporting goods/automotive area, but that the store was filled with smoke and water spread throughout the building. There were customers in the store at the time of the fire.

The detective said the fire was a cover for Rogers' real target: the jewelry counter.

"The working theory is that the fire was a diversion or distraction for what he was doing at the jewelry counter," Rader said.

Rogers escaped the store with thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.

South Charleston firefighters quickly responded to put down the flames with assistance from Charleston firefighters. Rader said the firefighters' quick work kept the fire from spreading and becoming worse. The fire took about 25 minutes to extinguish, but first responders stayed at the store for hours to make sure the flames were completely out and to investigate the cause.

Rader said detectives received information about Rogers on the department's tip line. South Charleston officers coordinated with Logan sheriff's detectives on the matter. Detectives then learned that Rogers had two outstanding warrants for his arrest for failure to appear in Logan County and in Virginia.

South Charleston and Logan County detectives found Rogers at about 2 p.m. Wednesday at his sister's home in Bruno, near Man, Rader said.

"We spoke to him and he's been cooperative," Rader said.

Rogers was booked at about 5 p.m. into Southwestern Regional Jail on the outstanding warrant from Logan County. He is being held without bail.

Charges of arson and grand larceny were filed later Wednesday. Rader said Rogers likely would be arraigned by video on those charges early Thursday by a Kanawha magistrate.

He praised South Charleston detectives C.A. Cook, J.K. Halstead and J.M. Thompson for their hard work on the case.

On Wednesday morning, Wal-Mart South Charleston thanked the first responders on its Facebook page.

"All parties are safe and what part of the building can be open is open," managers of the store wrote.

A federal judge on Wednesday gave former Freedom Industries President Dennis Farrell permission to travel to Florida before he spends 30 days in jail for pollution crimes related to his role in the January 2014 chemical spill that contaminated drinking water supplies for hundreds of thousands of residents in the Kanawha Valley and surrounding communities.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston approved the travel one day after Farrell defense lawyer Mike Carey filed a motion asking for court approval for the trip.

Carey wrote that Farrell owns a home in Ormond Beach, Florida, and wants to travel there "for the purpose of maintaining that residence." He asked to be able to leave on Thursday and return to Charleston on March 15.

Farrell was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston to serve 30 days in a federal Bureau of Prisons' facility to be designated by the U.S. Marshal's Service.

"Should a prison designation be made by the United States Marshal prior to defendant's return to Charleston, he will immediately return and meet all of his reporting obligations," Carey wrote in the motion.

Farrell remains free on bond, and according to an order issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dwayne L. Tinsley in January 2015, must receive court approval before traveling outside the Southern District of West Virginia court region.

Last month, Johnston ordered Farrell to serve 30 days in prison and pay a $20,000 fine. Farrell pleaded guilty to two water pollution crimes: causing a discharge of refuse into a stream, and negligent violation of a Clean Water Act permit condition.

Also, former Freedom co-owner William Tis filed a separate request with Johnston for permission to travel outside of the Western District of Pennsylvania - where he lives and is being supervised by probation officials - "for the purposes of attending to certain financial and business matters."

Tis was sentenced to three years probation and a $20,000 fine. He pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of causing an unlawful discharge of refuse matter. Defense lawyer John Carr asked for the court approval because he said probation officials have a "blanket policy" of not allowing travel outside the district during the first 60 days of supervision. Johnston had not yet ruled on the request from Tis.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.

Beginning Friday, law enforcement agencies will be stepping up enforcement again with "Click it Or Ticket" campaign.

The Metro Valley Highway Safety Program, along with the Governor's Highway Safety Program, are reminding all drivers and passengers to buckle their seat belts, said Sgt. M.W. Kinder of the Charleston Police Traffic Division in a news release.

In 2014 there were 93 unbuckled West Virginians killed in vehicle crashes, according to information from the GHSP. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that if every person in these crashes had buckled their seat belt, 28 of those lives may have been saved.

Nationwide, nearly half of those who lost their lives in road crashes during 2014 were not using their seat belt at the time of the crash. Among teens aged 13 to 15 and young adults aged 18 to 34, the statistics are worse - more than half of those lives lost were of vehicle occupants who were not using seat belts.

Overall, West Virginia's seat belt usage rate has gradually increased more than 8 percent in the last five years, from 82.15 percent in 2010 to 89 percent in 2015, Kinder said. In West Virginia, violation of the seatbelt law is a primary offense and carries a fine of $25. Violation of the child passenger safety seat law carries a fine between $10 and $20.

With funding provided by the GHSP, law enforcement agencies are able to conduct focused patrols on seat belt and child safety seat violations and encourage citizens to drive safely, Kinder said.

According to prosecutors, two men shot bouncer Jimmy Beasley at a downtown Charleston nightclub in 2014. But on Wednesday, one of the men was handed a much stiffer sentence than the other - who has already been released from jail.

George Sawyer, 31, was ordered to spend as long as 15 years in prison for malicious wounding and wanton endangerment. Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey called Sawyer a danger to society and handed down the maximum sentence the charges carry - two to 10 years for malicious wounding and five years for wanton endangerment. The judge said the sentences are to run one after the other.

In January, the day his trial was set to begin, Sawyer made a deal with prosecutors. He admitted that he fired the shots that hit Beasley multiple times at the corner of Kanawha Boulevard and Capitol Street.

The shooting occurred after Sawyer and another man, Tasheem Collins, left The Cellar nightclub, where Beasley was working.

Collins, 39, also made a deal with prosecutors in January, but his deal allowed him to be released almost immediately from jail. Collins entered a Kennedy plea, under which a defendant doesn't admit guilt, to two counts of wanton endangerment.

Collins' plea deal was binding, meaning if the judge didn't agree to sentence Collins to just a year for each count, he could have withdrawn it. After the judge accepted it - "somewhat reluctantly," she said at the time - Collins was immediately sentenced. He has already been released from jail.

Both men originally faced charges of attempted murder, among others. Police and prosecutors alleged both men fired shots at Beasley after being kicked out of the bar.

Prosecutors say they had more evidence against Sawyer.

"He's not necessarily more culpable. The evidence is stronger with regard to Mr. Sawyer," assistant Kanawha prosecutor Michele Drummond said after Wednesday's sentencing.

Sawyer is on video firing shots and Collins is not, she said.

Last year, attorneys for Sawyer and Collins asked Bailey to dismiss the charges against their clients because of problems with some of the video surveillance footage that captured the shooting.

Richard Holicker, a deputy Kanawha public defender who represented Collins, previously argued that the video of the shooting provided by prosecutors couldn't be enhanced. A clearer version would have proven Collins didn't shoot Beasley, Holicker has said.

Sawyer's attorneys, Matthew Victor and Brendan Doneghy, have argued that Sawyer was acting in self-defense the night of the shooting. They said Beasley also had a gun the night he was shot.

Prosecutors say those claims aren't true.

"He had a flashlight. There is no evidence he had a gun," Drummond said. "If you watch the video, it's clear that Jimmy is walking away with his back turned toward the shooter."

Beasley spent more than two months in the hospital after the shooting. He has had to relearn how to talk and walk.

Like prosecutors, Beasley's wife, Donna, asked Bailey to give Sawyer the maximum sentence.

Before the judge sentenced him, Sawyer spoke and said that he prays for Beasley's full recovery, his lawyer said.

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

An employee of a Logan County pawn shop admitted Wednesday that he has engaged in more than 50 illegal gun purchases.

Steven Adkins, 38, of Man, pleaded guilty to making and aiding and abetting false statements relating to firearms purchases, also known as "straw purchases."

Adkins was an employee of Uncle Sam's Loans, a gun and pawn shop in Man, where he would sell and transfer guns to people he knew were not the actual buyers of the weapons, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office.

Adkins fraudulently filled out federal forms required to complete a lawful sale, or directed others to complete the forms, the release states. The fraudulent forms reflect straw purchases when the guns were sold to other buyers.

Between 2009 and 2014, Adkins engaged in more than 50 straw purchases and transfers of guns, the release states.

He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced June 6 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston.

Marion County Sheriff's Deputy David Forsyth and White Hall Police Chief Gino Guerrieri were presented with certificates of recognition from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin at the Capitol on Wednesday.

On Sept. 29, 2015, Guerrieri and Forsyth responded to a call that Patti Satterfield had collapsed and stopped breathing at Almost Heaven Family Chiropractic, in White Hall, where she works. The men performed CPR on Satterfield for more than 10 minutes while waiting for a Marion County Rescue Squad to arrive.

On Wednesday, Tomblin and the American Heart Association presented the officers with certificates of recognition and CPR Heartsaver Hero awards during their visit to Charleston. Satterfield surprised them by showing up to express her thanks.