Tag: Maj. Jim Mitchell

State Leaders Give ‘Final’ Update On Boone County Girl Case

Kyneddi Miller was found dead in her Boone County home in April. A police report said the 14-year-old girl was found in a near skeletal state. Her grandparents and mother have been charged with abuse and neglect. 

Kyneddi Miller was found dead in her Boone County home in April. A police report said the 14-year-old girl was found in a near skeletal state. Her grandparents and mother have been charged with abuse and neglect. 

Recently, there have been conflicting reports about the actions of state agencies involved in the case and calls for accountability.

Police officers claimed they saw the now deceased Miller nearly a year before her death. They say they were concerned about the girl’s well being, so they went to Boone County’s Child Protective Services office to file a referral. However, CPS, which is a division of the Department of Human Services, says they have no record of that. 

GPS data, police reports, and audio obtained from the police officer who visited Kyneddi in 2023, all corroborate the police officer’s claim that they went to CPS to make a referral after completing a welfare check on the child. 

Brian Abraham, the governor’s chief of staff, said he interviewed the police officers and has come to the conclusion that they did visit CPS, but that the officers may have not followed the proper protocol.  

“I believe the evidence established through both GPS and the testimony of those two troopers to me, that they did in fact go to the Department of Health or Human Services,” Abraham said.  “(When) they went there, there was informal contact with the caseworkers. They relayed the information to those caseworkers not intending to make any sort of formal referral of any accusation of abuse or neglect.”

He says the officers wanted to notify CPS workers that the child had an exaggerated fear of COVID-19 that was preventing her from leaving the home. 

Department of Human Services Secretary Cynthia Persily said the police should have called a 1-800 number to officially make a report, instead of going to CPS and speaking with staff directly. She says moving forward the agency will assist those wanting to make a child abuse or neglect referral. 

“So consequently, we won’t get into the situation where we have someone who says that they made a report or a referral, or whatever we want to call it, of abuse and neglect without that actually happening,” Persily said.  

Some lawmakers and child safety advocates say classrooms are often where child abuse is discovered and have attributed Miller’s homeschooling status a factor in her death. West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt says she would like to strengthen homeschool requirements. 

“The West Virginia Department of Education is eager to work with the legislature to really see how we can strengthen the guardrails around our homeschool reporting requirements,” Blatt said. “While we know that we have a great deal of homeschool parents that do things the right way and take care of their kids and it’s the best choice for those families, I think that our 7,000 foster kids in the system is proof that not all parents do what’s best for their children.”

Abraham said it’s up to policy makers to craft laws to keep these things from happening while protecting West Virginians’ right to home school their children. 

“The governor wholeheartedly supports school choice and the parents’ right to choose homeschool. But, you know, we can see it has potential ramifications,” Abraham said. “It’s a tradeoff, we have to find the sweet spot.”

Multiple members from the House of Delegates attended the press conference. They asked questions and took notes. Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said in an emailed statement he is eager to work with the House to pass legislation to prevent this from happening again. 

“As legislators, we have an obligation to protect our most vulnerable citizens, especially our children,” Blair said in the statement. “This case has highlighted that our current system of checks and balances has cracks. To that end, we will work with the Governor’s Office, the Department of Education, the Department of Human Services, and the State Police to discuss ways that we, legislatively, can improve our regulations related to homeschooled children to ensure that no children suffer this same outcome.”

State Police Public Liaison Tasked With Redemption

Mitchell says from a day-one cadet to a retiree, troopers vow to maintain the core values of respect, integrity, courage, compassion, honesty, and justice.

In his new position as West Virginia State Police Chief of Staff Services, Maj. James Mitchell acts as financial CEO and oversees the cadet academy, public relations, legal relations and a dozen or so other departments. The law enforcement veteran and Beckley native says he wanted to be a trooper ever since he saw the men and women in green when his farming family took him to the state fair as a youngster.

“I joined the state police in January of 2000, that was 23 years ago,” Mitchell said. “I was a city police officer before that in Beckley for about six years, and I was in the military before that. So I’ve got 33 years this year as a law enforcement officer.”    

Mitchell said when he learned of the hidden camera in the women’s locker room and all the allegations of wrongdoing, it broke his heart.

“It affects every single person wearing this uniform,” he said. “Not just the state police, it affects other agencies as well, because the public will group law enforcement together, regardless of the color of the uniform. It was heartbreaking not just to me, but to so many of the people in law enforcement that I’ve talked to. It’s happened, we can’t deny that. But we can make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”

Mitchell said cadet training at the State Police Academy evolves over time and changes in social culture. He said the loss of integrity by a few in the department makes balanced training even more important.  

“Number one, we’re honest about it,” Mitchell said. “We expressed to them the importance of Stress Inoculation Training. So, we’re going to talk about the balance of it. We try to make sure at the beginning of training, that they can respond and function under a life or death, high stress environment. Then it changes more to a mentoring style of training the mind when it comes to criminal work. They gain understanding of criminal investigations, crime scene investigation, traffic investigation, and officer survivability techniques. So, there’s a great balance of training, and it fluctuates.”

Mitchell says from a day-one cadet to a retiree, troopers vow to maintain the core values of respect, integrity, courage, compassion, honesty, and justice.

“I think their value system is very important,” he said. “It will hold them true throughout their career, and then they won’t have problems like we’ve experienced. Unfortunately, what some have done is a violation of the core values.”

Mitchell said he could not discuss the active investigations now underway involving alleged casino theft, the hidden camera and destruction of evidence, alleged rape and improper conduct – or pending litigation by a growing number of women law enforcement officers concerned with possible violations while training at the academy. He was asked, “Was there a problem with a few bad apples, as Gov. Jim Justice has said, or was there a counterculture uncovered that put integrity on the backburner?”

“All of the things that you ask, I’m sure, are being looked at in the investigations,” Mitchell said. “There will come a day though, we hope it to be sooner than later, where we’ll have all the facts of this and we’ll be able to openly discuss it.”

He explained that the wholesale leadership and personnel changes made by new Superintendent Jack Chambers come with the qualification of choosing your own top office staff.

“When a superintendent comes into office, he has by code, the ability to choose his own senior staff,” Mitchell said. “Anything above lieutenant – captain, major, lieutenant colonel, are all appointed positions by the superintendent.”

He said the State Police are working closely with Homeland Security and Gov. Jim Justice’s office, but all final decisions are made independently by Chambers.

“They trust him to do this job, that’s why they appointed him,” Mitchell said. “They trust him to make the right decisions, and they’re being very respectful and very supportive of him.” 

Mitchell said 99 percent of the agency, civilians and sworn personnel alike, are excellent, hardworking, compassionate people that really want to do a great job and want to arrest those who are doing wrong and protect the innocent. 

He said from what he’s heard, the rank and file, boots-on-the-ground troopers, female and male, still have the public trust and respect.

“Most people here support law enforcement, support the military, they’re very patriotic, they love their country. So we’ve been very blessed when it comes to good people,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said for the future of the West Virginia State Police, it’s about societal adapting while committing to those core values.

 “We want to continue to change where changes are necessary, continue to stay with our principles that we know are true and move forward to continue to provide a service that’s exemplary,” Mitchell said.

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