West Virginia State Police Story Archives - Page 14 of 15

West Virginia Trooper Injured Along Interstate 77

West Virginia state police say a trooper has been injured in a hit-and-run accident along the West Virginia Turnpike.

State police spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous says in a news release that Trooper D.R. White of the Parkways Authority detachment had stopped his cruiser to remove debris on Interstate 77. White was struck while walking back to his cruiser shortly after 5 a.m. today north of Princeton.

Baylous says the driver of the vehicle failed to stop and render aid. State Police are seeking information on the driver.

State Police say White crawled back to his cruiser, where he called for medical assistance. He was treated and released from a hospital.

Gubernatorial Cuts Halt State Police Unit Expansion

In the weeks following the 2014 legislative session, a group of activists proved that standing up for what you believe in can sometimes make a difference. After letters, meetings and rallies at the Capitol, organizations that provide children and family services got their funding restored by the legislature during a special session.

Despite the ability of those groups to get their funding back after gubernatorial cuts, not every agency or organization was able to do the same. For instance, a program that won’t be expanding this year due to a lack of state money, the West Virginia State Police Crimes Against Children Unit.

The unit was created in 2006 when the legislature passed the Child Protection Act. The bill set aside funding for 6 troopers to oversee investigations involving children throughout the state. In 2009, the unit expanded and has since grown to the 19 it includes today, but the State Police have been on a mission to expand the unit and put more boots on the ground.

Lt. Daniel Swiger is the Crimes Against Children unit commander and this year took his fight to the statehouse, lobbying so to speak for more money for more troopers.

Swiger teamed up with the Women’s Caucus and the House Select Committee on Crimes Against Children to get the funding approved for 50 new troopers over the next five years. The idea was that those new troopers would take positions out in the field, allowing more experienced officers to shift to his specialized team.

Swiger was able to get members of the House on his side, but as per typical budget negotiations, members of the Senate wouldn’t agree to add additional salaries into the base budget of the state.

During budget week, both houses did agreed to a compromise. They’d fund five to six new troopers this year allowing officers to move to the unit, and would consider approving more positions in the future.

The compromise, however, didn’t make it past the governor’s desk. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed the funding in the days following the session, bringing Swiger’s dream of a one day 85 member unit to a stand still, at least for now.

“It’s discouraging to me to know that it just wasn’t a priority. I think there’s funding there, it just comes down to what is the priority in government?” he said.

“I think the funding is there if the politicians search hard enough. It’s just whether or not someone wants to step up and make that bold move to say we’re going to fund this rather than something else.”

In just the past year, his small staff investigated more than 500 cases, arresting 194 people who were convicted on more than 1,000 felony counts.

“Everything they work will have a major impact on somebody’s life whether it be the victim, the suspect, or both. Every case that we work and it can be life alerting cases. So, there’s a lot of stress involved day in and day out and it takes a special person to want to work with what we have. I’ve had people tell me, I don’t know how you do that and my answer to them is how can we not do this? How can we not do this?” Swiger said.

This week, Sutton State Police Detachment Commander Sgt. Andrew Shingler will join the unit, taking the place of an officer injured in the line of duty. The agency has also managed to sacrifice one more field trooper who will join the Crimes Against Children team as well, but those two additions are it for now.

“You know, everything comes down to money and you have to prioritize and you have to decide what’s important,” Shingler said. “Let’s face it, what’s more important than the lives of these children? Nothing, as far as I’m concerned. Nothing.”

In the statehouse, Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, vice chair of the Committee on Crimes Against Children and the Women’s Caucus, said during interim meetings Tuesday finding funding will continue to be a priority going into next year’s legislative session.

W.Va. State Police Graduates 64th Cadet Class

The West Virginia State Police officially gained 27 new troopers Friday after graduation ceremonies at West Virginia State University.

Members of the 64th cadet classed marched into an auditorium full of fellow troopers and elated family members.

This class, however, is different than any other that’s graduated since the State Police began in 1919. The 26 men and one woman were recruited because of their previous experience in law enforcement. Combined the new troopers already have more than 135 years of experience.

Troopers were presented their new badges by Governor Tomblin and Colonel C.R. Smithers of the State Police.

Tomblin along with U.S. Prosecuting Attorney William Ihlenfeld gave the graduation addresses, encouraging the troopers to become leaders not just on the job, but also in their communities.

West Virginia Fighting a War Against Heroin Addiction, Overdose Deaths

Editor’s Note: We are airing a four part series on West Virginia Public Radio, about the drug heroin and how it is affecting West Virginia. A recent Associated Press story reported the number of heroin deaths in the state have nearly doubled since 2010. In the first story, Ben Adducchio reports on why heroin is getting into the hands of so many people.

Since 2001, the number of deaths associated to heroin overdose have increased. According to statistics from the Health Statistics Center in the Department of Health and Human Resources, there were only 9 deaths in 2001, as compared to 67 in 2012.

Heroin is tan in color, and granular in texture, according to Carrie Ozalas in the West Virginia State Police Forensic Lab. She’s the section supervisor of the drug identification section, so any heroin taken to the lab is sent her way.

“It comes in a small quantity. Heroin when we get it, it weighs point zero one grams. A sugar packet is one gram. So it weighs a tenth of that. It comes in packaging, a wax paper bag called a bindle. A very small paper bag,” she says.

“Sometimes it’s stamped with different marking. Something like 9 mm or Flintstones. Something that’s unique to the drug dealer, or the area where he’s coming from. We’ve seen them with all kinds of different things. Emblems for cars. Officers can tie those back to the areas where they initially came from.”

MORE THAN BEFORE

West Virginia’s heroin is coming here from Mexico, according to law enforcement officials. It reaches Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and then trickles into the state from those cities.

And it’s coming in like never before, Carrie Ozalas says.

“As far as heroin is concerned, I started in 2001 and in 2001 I rarely saw heroin. It was here, but it wasn’t here in a large amount. We saw more cocaine, cocaine base. That’s a lot of what we are seeing,” she said.

“Now we are starting to see the heroin. The heroin has kind of replaced the oxycodone, we are still seeing them but we are seeing them a lot less than we were two years ago. The heroin, we’re seeing, it’s just crazy, how much we’ve seen of it. I would say two thirds to three fourths of the cases we are receiving right now on a daily basis are either all heroin or has heroin mixed into it.”

WHY PEOPLE ARE HOOKED

Dr. Carl Sullivan is the director of addiction programs at West Virginia University. He says opioids like heroin and prescription drugs do a lot of different things to the body.

“They provide pain relief, euphoria, which is what most people are looking for, they also cause constipation, they cause your eyeballs to constrict. They do a lot of things, they relieve anxiety,” Dr. Sullivan said.

Heroin is an opiod and it’s illegal but it wasn’t always that way. Dr. Sullivan says it was once legal to use heroin, and it was a substitute for morphine many years ago. Dr. Sullivan says heroin proved to be more addictive than morphine and doctors misjudged just how addictive it could be.

And not only is it addictive, Sullivan says it serves as a substitute for pills when they aren’t available to people needing that fix.

OPIOID ADDICTION

Dr. Sullivan says 20 years ago, prescription opioids were given to patients seeking help for pain, at a fast rate. When people weren’t able to get the medicine they wanted, they turned to heroin.

“We have a large group of patients who have been exposed to opioids and they are dependent on opioids. What’s come into fill that gap as the number of prescriptions has gone down is heroin,” said Dr. Sullivan.

“Heroin is illegal, it is much cheaper to buy on the street than most prescription opioids were and heroin has met the demand for patients who can’t get the drugs.”

And heroin is being used all over the state. According to the data from the West Virginia Health Statistics Center, 59 of the state’s heroin overdose deaths since 2001 occurred in Berkeley County, in the Eastern Panhandle, while 41 occurred in Cabell, and 30 were from Monongalia. Then Kanawha, and Jefferson round out the top 5.

Kanawha Prosecutor Charged with Domestic Battery

Kanawha County prosecutor Mark Plants is facing a misdemeanor domestic battery charge.

Plants turned himself in Monday morning after an arrest warrant was issued. He was released on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond following an arraignment in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

Plants is accused of hitting one of his sons more than 10 times with a leather belt on Feb. 22. West Virginia State Police began an investigation after Plants’ ex-wife, Allison Plants, reported the incident.

Plants said after his arraignment that he is not guilty of any criminal misconduct.

If convicted, Plants faces up to one year in prison and a $500 fine.

Romney Center Abuse Allegations Probe Continues

A West Virginia State Police spokesman says an investigation of child abuse allegations at a center in Romney might not be completed until the fall.

Lt. Michael Baylous tells The Cumberland Times-News of Maryland that state police investigators are still conducting interviews. He says some of those being interviewed are special needs children.

The investigation began in January after upper management at the nonprofit Potomac Center reported allegations of physical and sexual abuse to the state Department of Health and Human Resources. The department removed 24 children from three intensive training program houses at the center and stopped Medicaid funding for the programs.

The center serves children and adults with developmental disabilities.

The center is cooperating with the investigation.