Department of Homeland Security Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Thousands Without Water In Mingo County; State Investigation Begins

Thousands of Mingo County residents are without water, and some have been since mid-January, prompting an investigation by the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC).

According to a press release from the PSC, a staff petition filed on Jan. 15 said approximately 600 customers experienced long outages this month in Mingo County.

On Saturday the Department of Health (DH) announced that 2,100 customers were without water in Mingo County’s Public Service District due to complications in the system’s sediment basin exacerbated by recent freezing temperatures.

The DH and the Department of Homeland Security have partnered with local officials and are working to resolve the issue.

These agencies also provided an unspecified number of pallets of bottled water to residents, according to the release.

Following the outage, the West Virginia PSC announced they opened a general investigation into the Mingo County PSD.

Charleston Drug Summit Aims To Connect Families To Resources

More than a dozen organizations are partnering to hold a summit for West Virginians affected by Substance Use Disorder to connect and share information.

More than a dozen organizations are partnering to hold the HOPE (Healing, Opportunities and Possibilities to Empower) Family Drug Summit for West Virginians affected by Substance Use Disorder (SUD) to connect and share information.

On Jan. 15, with sessions beginning at 8:30 a.m., substance use disorder experts, individuals and family members impacted by SUD will gather at the University of Charleston to exchange information, resources and support.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, Will Thompson says he wants attendees to come away from the summit with a better understanding of how addiction works and resources to help themselves or others.

“We’re also hoping that people who come and attend will be part of the solution,” he said. “Where they’ll be able to make contacts with one another, or they’ll see that, ‘Hey, I’m not alone in my struggles.’ You know, this is someone else whose son or daughter is also struggling with this, or how do I raise my grandkids now? Whatever the case might be, to give them a better understanding.”

Thompson said there are continuing education credits available to earn at the summit, but he thinks everyone could learn something from attending.

“I hope the community comes, even if they’re not getting the continuing education credits, it’s something I think anybody who has any interest in all, I think will gain a lot,” Thompson said. “In fact, I’m looking forward to hearing from some of the speakers myself and I’ve been dealing with the addiction crisis for basically my entire career that started in 1995.”

Attendance at the daylong summit is free and in-person only. Attendees have to register online ahead of the event.

Two Ex-Corrections Officers Charged With Setting Fire To Former Governor’s Mansion

Two Beckley men who were employed by the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been arrested in connection with the burning of a former governor’s home.

David W. Cole, 30, and Billy R. Workman Jr., 24, were arrested and charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy for their alleged role in burning down an unoccupied house in Beckley where the state’s former governor, Hulett Smith, once lived. Hulett died in 2012. Gov. Jim Justice’s family currently owns the house.

In a statement, Robert Cunningham, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security, said the men were employees of Southern Regional Jail at the time of their arrests, but their employment has since been terminated.

The Southern Regional Jail has a troubled history. In November 2023, six former corrections officers at the facility were charged by a federal grand jury in connection with the death of an inmate.

The indictment alleges that all six defendants conspired to cover up the use of unlawful force by omitting material information and providing false and misleading information to investigators.

There were 13 reported deaths at the Southern Regional Jail in 2022, and more than 100 deaths in the state’s regional jail system in the past decade.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the Mabscott Fire Department responded to the fire on Oct. 20.

Mabscott Fire Department Chief, Tim Zutaul, made a request for a fire investigation to the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Hotline.

Officers assigned to investigate learned Cole was spotted in the vicinity of the fire, leading them to check the surveillance footage at the Go-Mart at 2100 Harper Road in Beckley.

According to the criminal complaint, the footage shows the two men purchasing brake fluid and beer on the night of the fire.

On Oct. 25, Cole was brought into the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office for a voluntary interview.

Authorities say he confessed to officers that he and Workman entered the structure, but he was the one who poured brake fluid into a styrofoam plate on the floor of the residence and then lit the plate on fire with a lighter he’d brought with him.

The men left the area in Workman’s vehicle but returned to park at a nearby tobacco shop where Cole recorded a video of the fire on his cell phone.

According to a press release, Cole was arrested on the evening of Oct. 25 by officers with the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office. He was arraigned on Oct. 26 in Raleigh County Magistrate Court where his bond was set at $100,000. He remains in custody at the regional jail.

Workman turned himself in to officers on Oct. 28 at Raleigh County Magistrate Court where his bond was set at $100,000. Workman was originally transported to Southern Regional Jail but has since been released on bond.

NAACP Sues State Agencies Over Failure To Report Collect Data On Imprisoned Juveniles

Currently West Virginia legally confines youth at a rate almost three times the national average. In 2015, when West Virginia had two times the national average of legally confined youths, the state passed a law aimed at juvenile justice reform.

The law required what is now the state’s Department of Homeland Security, and what is now the Department of Human Services, to collect data on juvenile truancy and recidivism. The law requires the data collection to be by race and gender at minimum.

Eight years later the NAACP is suing those agencies for failure to collect the data mandated by law. The plaintiffs are asking the court to order the agencies to abide by the law and in doing so begin collecting data on truancy and recidivism in the state.

As of 2015 West Virginia juveniles were confined at a rate of 330 of every 100,000 children, a rate higher than any other state and more than double the national rate. Most recent 2021 data shows a reduction with 202 of every 100,000 children in legal confinement, which is the second highest rate in the nation behind Wyoming.

Constitutional Questions Surround Justice Appointment

The West Virginia Constitution prohibits legislators from being appointed to any position created under a law passed during their term of office.

On Aug. 30, Gov. Jim Justice appointed then Del. Mike Honaker, R-Greenbrier, to serve in the legislatively created position of Inspector General for the state Department of Homeland Security. Honaker immediately resigned his position in the House of Delegates.

The position was created by passing House Bill 3360 in the 2023 regular West Virginia Legislative session.

In an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting following the apparent appointment, Honaker said his primary duty is to conduct inquiries and, where needed, full scope investigations involving agencies that include the state Department of Corrections and the West Virginia State Police. He said he will work with the Corrections Inspector General on the many allegations and lawsuits facing that department and conduct his own prison inspection tour.

“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said in the interview.

When he was asked about taking the position he had just voted on, he said that was never discussed or considered.

“Absolutely not,” Honaker said. “It was never discussed, and never occurred to me.”

However, Article VI, Sec 15 of the West Virginia Constitution prohibits legislators from being appointed to any position created under a law passed during their term of office.

In a written statement, responding to an inquiry about the appointment, Justice’s Press Secretary C.J. Harvey said: “Mike Honaker was hired into an existing position within the Secretary of Homeland Security’s office as inspector general, rather than formally appointed to the statutorily created position as head of the Office of Inspector General. The governor believes Honaker to be the best man to serve in this role, and intends to formally appoint him to the statutorily created position at a later date.”

Honaker spent nearly three decades in numerous positions with the Virginia State Police, including special agent in charge of a division of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Richmond, Justice‘s office said in a press release. Honaker later served as the Greenbrier County Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and Director of the Greenbrier County 911 Center.

That appointment will have to go through the Senate, beginning with the Committee on Confirmations. Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, chairs the committee. In an interview just after learning of the constitutional confusion, Boley said the issue will be investigated.

“It’s unconstitutional for a delegate or senator to vote on something that he later benefits from,” Boley said. “The governor may be right. I don’t know, at this stage.”

Boley said there is a legal question to consider and she hasn’t spoken to the rest of the committee.

“We have good communications between the governor’s office and the Senate,” Boley said. “Normally, if something comes up that most of the committee members are opposed to, we’ll ask the governor to pull that nomination. I just don’t know at this point in time whether that’ll happen or not.”

The Inspector General position created in the statute covers all the agencies that are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Those include West Virginia State Police, Division of Corrections, Fire Marshal’s Office, Parole Board, the Division of Emergency Management, the Division of Justice and Community Services.

New Homeland Security Inspector General Creates ‘To Do’ List

“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said.

As a House of Delegates member in the 2023 general session, Mike Honaker, R-Greenbrier, said he had no idea in voting for House Bill 3360, to create the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security, that he would end up holding that position.

“Absolutely not,”’ Honaker said. “It was never discussed, and never occurred to me.”

Appointed by Gov. Jim Justice, Honaker said his primary duty is to conduct inquiries and, where needed, full scope investigations.

“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said. “Those investigations would be conducted in conjunction with the appropriate law enforcement agency if that were something that was necessary.”

Honaker is Inspector General for all the agencies that are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Those include West Virginia State Police, Division of Corrections, Fire Marshal’s Office, Parole Board, the Division of Emergency Management, the Division of Justice and Community Services. He says there’s “about somewhere north of 5000 employees” in Homeland Security positions.

Honaker said he will work with the Corrections Inspector General on the many allegations and lawsuits facing that department and conduct his own prison inspection tour.

“I’m going to be traveling around and personally visiting some of the prisons and jails and looking at the actual conditions there to make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” he said. “There is obviously pending litigation, so we are constantly reviewing that information as it comes in to see if there are more things we need to be doing or looking at to make adjustments.”

He hopes to create an internal homeland security fraud, waste, and abuse hotline.

“So that employees within organizations that maybe see things that they would not otherwise be comfortable reporting, they could do that anonymously,” he said.

Honaker said he will let the State Police investigations run their course, not ruling out any reviews.

“I don’t think there’s any cause for me to become involved because those investigations have been taking place for some months now,” Honaker said. “They are being appropriately investigated. There could be some cases that we would go back and review to maybe make sure they were handled appropriately with the previous administration.”

Honaker plans to conduct staff inspections of all departments and agencies, to ensure accountability.

“Are there checks and balances? Are there systems of accountability to make sure that these things are not occurring in agencies, whether it’s mismanagement of money or fraud, waste or abuse,” Honaker said. “We would only know that by actually sitting down with employees, reviewing files, interviewing employees, about their position.”

Honaker said he will report investigation findings to Justice and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia. He said he will not determine guilt or innocence.

“What I will fully do is conduct thorough, complete, fair, impartial investigations, to determine the facts and to produce reports that would allow the Secretary or the governor to make logical conclusions as to whether the allegations are substantiated or not,” he said. “I have no interest in being anything less than completely fair and impartial.”