Charleston, West Virginia (AP) Two West Virginia adolescents are facing sexual assault and other charges in connection with an alleged incident at a hotel involving members of a high school wrestling team, according to authorities.
According to a Facebook post from Raleigh County Sheriff James Canaday, the culprits are each charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, unlawful restraint, and conspiracy to commit a felony. He said juvenile petitions were filed on Tuesday in connection with the charges, which result from an ongoing investigation into an incident that occurred earlier this year in a Raleigh County hotel room. Students attended Greenbrier West High School.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield told The Associated Press on Wednesday that there are two victims, both of whom are children, resulting in two counts for each of the three felonies. He described the incident as “a completely avoidable situation that went so far beyond appropriateness that it became violently criminal.”
“This is a situation that I believe was intentional, that I believe was done with a lack of impulse control and that I believe needs to be punished,” he said.
He stated that at this early point in the case, his office requires additional information before determining the best course of action for seeking penalties. Prosecutors will undertake their own probe in addition to the sheriff’s investigation. He stated that he knows what they did; nonetheless, he wants to know why, whether it has ever happened before, and whether it has occurred to other children.
“I need to determine whether or not this was a single incident in the micro, or whether or not this was some kind of prevailing issue that’s going on,” he went on to say.
Officials stated that no additional information may be shared at this time because the issue involves children.
Second-degree sexual assault is a crime in West Virginia that carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A person commits second-degree sexual assault if he or she forces someone into non-consensual sexual intercourse or engages in sexual intercourse or intrusion on “another person who is physically helpless.”
If the case progresses, the court will decide whether or not to try the children as adults.
Raleigh County and Greenbrier County, which border Virginia, are both in the southern part of the state.
The Associated Press left messages on the Greenbrier County district office phone line Wednesday and emailed Greenbrier Board of Education President Jeanie Wyatt for comment.
The Greenbrier County School Board held a special session last week to accept Superintendent Jeffrey Bryant’s retirement and Greenbrier West Principal Adam Young’s resignation, according to The Register-Herald. The board convened the same week that news reports surfaced about a racist incident at Greenbrier West High School, in which a Black female student was called the n-word in graffiti on a class wall.
Bryant’s last day as superintendent is set for Friday, the last day of Spring Break.
