Sexual Offense Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Lawmakers Close Marital Sexual Assault Loophole

Spouses can now be charged with marital sexual abuse against their partners after a bill to close the loophole in the law passed both chambers Friday.

Senate Bill 190 eliminates marriage as a defense for first and third-degree sexual assault in West Virginia.

The bill requires that there was physical force that overcame earnest resistance.

Lead sponsor of the bill, Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, said he is following in the steps of his predecessor, the late Sen. Judith Herndon, who removed the marital exception from the state’s sexual assault code. She was the only woman in the Senate at the time.

In West Virginia, sexual assault is in most cases considered rape. Sexual abuse is unwanted groping or otherwise unwanted touching inappropriately.

Previously, the state’s sexual offense statute that defined “marriage” allowed exemptions for certain kinds of assault when people are married or “living together as husband and wife regardless of the legal status of their relationship.”

The bill passed the Senate on Feb. 26, and the House on Friday unanimously.

Senate Moves To Remove Marriage Exemption To Sexual Assault

Marriage would no longer be a defense in cases of sexual assault if a Senate Bill becomes law.

Senate Bill 190 removes the defense of marriage from the definition of sexual contact and removes marriage as a defense to first and third-degree sexual assault.

Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, explained the purpose of the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“As it stands now, an individual could not be found guilty of sexual abuse in the first degree, if they were in fact, married to the victim, is that correct,” Weld asked of counsel. “And so that’s the distinction that we’re here making today, potentially within Senate Bill 190, so that would be what is called the marital exception. So we would be removing that.”

Senate staff counsel confirmed what Weld said.

The prosecuting attorney for Monongalia County, Gabrielle Mucciola, testified before the committee. She said that the marital exemption is a barrier to prosecution in crimes involving a marriage.

“These cases are wildly underreported,” Mucciola said. “And I would say that this exemption creates just another hurdle for victims of sexual abuse and sexual assault to come forward and feel comfortable that West Virginia adequately protects them.”

Opponents of the bill voiced concerns about false reporting and “he said, she said” arguments. Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, spoke in opposition to the bill.

“I wish that I could feel confidence in the checks and balances and judicial system that we have,” Rucker said. “But the reality is that in this day and age, there are many, many cases where individuals who are angry with each other, disappointed by each other, fighting and trying to take advantage of our system to try to hurt the other person because of whatever, angry, whatever has occurred. And they’re not always truthful.”

Weld spoke in favor of the bill, citing his trust in the justice system’s ability to try these crimes.

“The decision before us right now, is whether we want to signify to the married people around this state, man or woman and to the rest of the nation for that matter, that it is a crime to sexually abuse your spouse. That is the question for us,” Weld said. “Are we going to allow for spouses to be sexually abused in the state? Or are we going to put a stop to that and find that there is no difference? Whether or not you sexually abuse your spouse, or whether you sexually abuse a stranger off the street?”

Sen. Jay Taylor, R-Taylor, apologetically supported the bill.

“I’m sorry to, you know, some have encouraged me to vote against this bill,” Taylor said. “But I just I have to vote yes, because I respect my wife, and it just does not make sense to me that this is in our laws. And I understand that the argument about well, it could get abused. Well, all of our laws get abused by so many different things.”

The bill passed by a roll call vote of 13 to 4 and was read on first reading on the Senate floor Friday.

W.Va. Police Sweep Targeting Non-Compliant Sex Offenders Nets Dozens Of Arrests

Multiple sex offenders taken into custody were found to be non-compliant with the sex offender registry.

Led by the West Virginia State Police and the U.S. Marshals Southern District of West Virginia CUFFED task force, the recently concluded ‘Operation Blue and Gold Shield’ targeted non-compliant sex offenders in Kanawha, Wood and Wirt Counties and surrounding areas.

Multiple sex offenders taken into custody were found to be non-compliant with the sex offender registry. In total, 39 felony arrests were made in the operation, to include nine for violations of the sex offender registry, and five for sex related crimes.

Others with various warrants were also taken into custody for crimes of first-degree murder, attempted murder, second- and third-degree sexual assault, possession of child pornography, soliciting a minor via computer, escape, delivery of controlled substances, and supervised release violations.

A West Virginia State Police fact sheet shows there are 5,438 registered sex offenders in West Virginia. Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Waggamon says those who don’t report properly can be more likely to be repeat offenders.

“A lot of these guys, they’ll say, ‘Hey, I got one Facebook, they will have four Facebooks,” Waggamon said. “They’re not supposed to have internet access, and they have internet access.”

Waggamon said there are stipulations to the sex offenders being on the sex offender registry, explaining they’re required to report certain things.

“Some of those things are addresses, phone numbers, social media accounts, vehicles,” he said. “When they’re non-compliant, they’re not reporting these particular things.”

One sex offender, Gabriel Allen Hargus, 46, of Mineral Wells, was also indicted in federal court for failure to register as a sex offender.

Hargus is wanted by the U.S. Marshals, the West Virginia State Police, and the West Virginia Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation.

If anyone knows the whereabouts of Hargus or any non-compliant sex offender, you can submit a tip anonymously using USMS Tips or call 1-877-WANTED-2. Tips are kept confidential.

In a related case, Parkersburg YMCA CEO Jeff Olson has resigned after state police charged him with sex crimes involving a juvenile girl.

A State Police press release notes that in 2017 and 2018, Olson, previous Head Coach of the tennis team at Parkersburg High School, allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations and distributed sexually explicit images with a juvenile female athlete in Wood County.

Olson was arrested on (1) count of the Solicitation of a Minor via Computer and (3) counts of Distribution of Obscene Matter to a Minor.

He was arraigned before a Wood County Magistrate and a surety bond was set at $40,000. Olson posted bond and now awaits a preliminary hearing.

Senate Moves Health Bills in Saturday Morning Session

After a late night lawmaking session Friday, the Senate was quick to action Saturday morning, the final day of the 2023 Regular Legislative Session. With so many bills surrounding the health of West Virginia being passed from chamber to chamber, and committee to committee, there are a lot of loose ends to tie up.

SB 187 – Sexual contact between students and teachers

The Senate refused to concur on the House of Delegates’ amendments to a bill to ban sexual contact from school staff regardless of age.

Senate Bill 187 would make it a felony offense for a school employee or volunteer to engage in sexual contact with students.

On Saturday, the Senate refused to concur with the House’s amendments to Senate Bill 187.

“The Senate version of this bill prohibits primary and secondary school employees from being sexually intimate with students regardless of age,” Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, said. “The House version eliminates elementary schools, adds colleges and caps the student age at 20. I urge the House to recede.”

The bill now returns to the House of Delegates.

SB 559 – Relating to Spousal Privilege

A measure of protection for children that has been shuffled throughout legislation this session is Senate Bill 559.

As originally presented, the bill expanded the exceptions to spousal privilege of not being compelled to testify against a spouse to exclude cases in which the offense at issue was committed against any child rather than a child of one or both spouses.

The Senate rejected the House’s amendments and proposed their own.

“The House amended to add a number of new exceptions to spousal privilege,” Takubo, R-Kanawha, said. “The proposed Senate amendment limits the exception of spousal privilege in instances where a spouse commits an offense against a minor.”

The amendment adopted by the Senate with 33 yeas, 0 nays. The bill now goes to the House for their concurrence.

SB 577 – Insulin Co-Pay Cost Reduction Heads to Governor’s Desk

Senate Bill 577 aims to reduce the co-pay cap on insulin and related treatment devices and permit the purchase of testing equipment without a prescription.

On the last day of the 2023 session, the Senate accepted the bill’s House amendments and passed the bill.

“To limit cost sharing to 35 per 30 day supplies of insulin,” said Takubo. The amendment changes the effective date and makes technical changes.

The bill passed both chambers and will take effect Jan. 1, 2024.

SB 273 – Reallocating CPS workers by population

After passing technical amendments, the Senate passed Senate Bill 273, to allocate child protective service workers in counties according to the average caseload per county and the county population based on the 2020 Census.

The bill now goes to the House for their concurrence.

Strangling Could be Seen as a Felony Offense

The House Judiciary Committee is struggling with the definition of the word “strangling” as it relates to domestic violence and sexual offense laws.

House Bill 2240 would insert language making an act of domestic violence or sexual offense by strangling an aggravated felony offense, leading to criminal penalties.

By adjusting this language, the bill could potentially help a person or family involved in a domestic violence case get out of the situation sooner rather than later.

“One of the studies that we looked at found a very high correlation between strangulation and later homicide,” noted Danielle Swann of the domestic violence community at the YWCA in the Kanawha Valley, “and the reason that strangulation was considered with the seriousness that it was in the proposed language is because of this correlation in the hope to prevent any additional violence in the future.”

Swann is also an attorney in Charleston. She mentioned the bill could also cover someone who was strangled even without visible evidence of strangulation.

“Strangulation actually requires very little force to cut off the air passageway,” Swann explained, “in fact, ten seconds a victim can lose consciousness, and in four minutes, they can lose all brain activity. And when looking at the bill and speaking with other experts on the issue, that’s why no physical markings were required, because in fact strangulation actually requires very little force.”

The bill concerned some delegates because the term strangling could be viewed as very broad; potentially affecting someone who was either protecting themselves or accidentally performing the act.

Delegate Geoff Foster of Putnam County was one of the delegates who expressed this concern. He questioned Kip Reese, House Judiciary Counsel, with a hypothetical scenario involving three people; one person handled a knife and tried to hurt one of the two, and the third performed a choke-hold to protect the one being attacked with the knife. Foster asked if the person performing the choke-hold would be deemed guiltier than the person with the knife.

Reese explained that the decision would depend on the prosecutor, but the person who performed the choke-hold could be seen as guiltier.

Other concerns were how the bill would affect things like high school wrestling matches, as well as someone dying while under erotic-asphyxiation by a consensual partner.

But by the end of the meeting, three amendments were suggested to better narrow the definition of strangling, but Delegate John Shott, chairman of the committee, decided the concerns were too numerous to deal with in one day.

“In view of the numerous amendments we have and the apparent high level of concern over this bill, we’re going to refer this to our criminal working group and encourage them to get with the domestic violence group and representatives of the prosecuting attorney’s office and see if they can resolve some of these concerns that have been raised,” Shott said, “I think they’re all legitimate concerns, and rather than force through a bill that might have unintended consequences, we still have time to work this bill up.”