Logan County Sheriff Eddie Hunter said he has no plans to remove the deputies from their duties while the investigation is underway despite the fact that the allegations are of a violent nature.
Hunter answered "yes" when asked if the officers are still on duty. He answered "no, sir" when asked if he has any plans of removing the officers from duty.
Hunter answered "no" when asked if he felt there were any safety concerns with the officers remaining on duty. But, he added "it could be considered."
Hunter said he doesn't plan to remove the deputies from duty "unless something happens in the investigation.
"Right now, these are just allegations. Sometimes you have fake allegations and sometimes they are true. I'll have to wait until the investigation is complete."
A concerned citizen, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, complained yesterday to The Logan Banner about the deputies remaining on the job while an investigation into such serious allegations continues.
"These guys should be taken off the streets - even if they're acquitted, they should be off the streets while the investigation is going on," the citizen said. "They could be a danger to the public. They need to be taken off the streets so we can feel safe. It's Eddie Hunter's duty to make sure we all feel safe. When he got word of the allegations, Eddie should have taken those guys off the road. I am incensed. I'm getting tired of staying home because I'm scared to go out on the roads."
The West Virginia State Police are currently investigating the three sheriff's deputies and one Chapmanville police officer in connection with the alleged gang rape of a 22-year-old woman.
According to a report published last week in The Charleston Gazette, State Police Sgt. R.D. Perry said the investigation into the rape allegation is ongoing and he is waiting for evidence to be processed in the State Police crime lab. Reportedly, a complaint has been filed, but, as of yet, there have been no charges filed.
The Logan Banner questioned Sheriff Hunter nearly a week after the incident allegedly occurred, but Hunter said he had not heard anything about the allegations.
Reports of the alleged rape and the arrests of the officers were circulating in the city of Logan from sources close to the matter only days after it allegedly occurred. Names of officers accused in the alleged rape were given to The Logan Banner at that time, but Hunter said none of the reports were true.
The Logan Banner will not print the names of the officers until they are made public by the West Virginia State Police.
"If any one of my guys were in trouble, I'd be the first one to let you know," Hunter said at that time.
According to the published report "The woman told police she was with her boyfriend and another male friend in the early morning hours of Sept. 7. They left the Glitter Girls strip club in Logan and drove a short distance before stopping the car along the side of the road under an overpass. She said she and her boyfriend got into a fight and he started walking away from the car.
"A Logan County Sheriff's Department vehicle allegedly came upon him. Inside were three Logan deputies and one Chapmanville officer, Perry said.
"The alleged victim's mother said the four officers asked the man specifically about her daughter.
"Perry said the boyfriend pointed in the direction of his girlfriend's car, at which point the officers drove to the car," the published report said.
"They took the woman out of the car, which was still parked along the side of the road, and gave her a field sobriety test, which she failed, Perry said.
"'She didn't even notice them; they came up without lights or anything,' her mother said. 'The first thing she knows there are lights shining in her car. ... She was drunk, plastered. That's why she wasn't driving home.'"
The published report said the woman's boyfriend came back to the car as police were searching it, according to her mother.
The mother reportedly told the Charleston Gazette the officers knew who her daughter was, though she didn't know them. "'That's the creepy part,' she said. '[The boyfriend] was getting irate - really, really upset.'"
The published report said Perry said the officers reportedly came upon the situation and were not looking for the woman.
According to Perry in the Gazette's story, the officers allegedly told the couple's friend to take the boyfriend home and then to come back.
"They told him to take [the boyfriend] home or they were going to kill him," the woman's mother alleged in the Gazette story. "They told [the friend] to come back and get her after taking him home. ... Then they loaded her in the car and drove toward Omar."
According to Perry in the published report, after the two men left, the four police officers allegedly took the woman to a secluded remote spot along what is apparently W.Va. 44 between Logan and Whitman.
There, three of the officers allegedly raped her, Perry told the Gazette. The fourth officer was allegedly drunk and throwing up, Perry said.
After the assaults, the four officers allegedly took her to a church parking lot near her home, where they dropped her off, Perry told the Gazette.
"They told her they couldn't go any closer because there were security cameras there," her mother told the Gazette.
The mother said in the published report that she drove her daughter to CAMC General Hospital to have a rape test performed on her.
State Police sent a female plain-clothes officer to interview her after first sending a male officer, the victim's mother told the Gazette.
Chapmanville police Chief Elbert Vance told the Gazette that the officer allegedly involved from his department no longer worked there. Vance told the Gazette he was under the impression the investigation was over.
"He wouldn't do something like that," Vance told the Gazette. "I hope they do something to the woman that claimed that."
Captain Spangler confirmed last week that the investigation is still ongoing.
The West Virginia State Police have directed all questions about the investigation to Logan County Prosecuting Attorney John Bennett during the investigation, Captain G.J. Spangler said last week.
Bennett called The Logan Banner this morning from a meeting in Charleston to say he has no information on the investigation.
"I, personally, have not seen anything yet," Bennett said. "Whether the office has received anything recently, I'm unaware of it. We're looking to see the results of their investigation, but, so far, I've not seen a thing yet. It may be in transit or they may have mailed it. All we've done so far is talk on the phone and I have listened like I would in any case."
Post a Comment
