Local News – WCHS Network | News • Sports • Business | Charleston, WV
WCHS-AM
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — U.S. Attorney for the state’s Southern District Will Thompson said a convicted sex offender has pleaded guilty to possession of prepubescent child pornography.
Court documents show that Benson Cline II, 49, of Cedar Grove, possessed 22 images and 134 videos of child sexual abuse material including digital media files depicting prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The files were stored on his instant messaging app account on his cell phone sometime between July 24, 2023, to on or about November 6, 2023.
Cline is a registered sex offender after being convicted in February 2011 of soliciting a minor via computer.
Cline’s sentencing is scheduled for July 25. He faces up to 20 years in prison, at least five years and possibly up to a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Thompson commended the work of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in the investigation.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The City of Charleston’s final Team Up to Clean Up event for the Spring is happening Saturday May, 4.
Volunteers will spend the day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. cleaning up Downtown Charleston and the East End in preparation for the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, which are May 14-19.
Supplies for the clean up can be picked up at the Shanklin Parking Garage on 503 Virginia Street East, next to City Hall. T-shirts, snacks, and water will also be provided.
Those wanting to participate in the clean up are encouraged to complete the online Volunteer Waiver and Release form before the event. People can also apply to volunteer in person at the event.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Special needs students from across Kanawha County were in Charleston Friday to put their athletic skills to the test.
Kanawha County Schools held their annual Exceptional Spring Games at Laidley Field.
GW senior Timmy Smith and his teacher
Megan McCorkle, assistant superintendent for special education and student support with KCS, said the event gives students the opportunity to compete in games and win prizes that they normally wouldn’t be exposed to.
“Often times they are not participants in other events that we hold so this is something that is very special for them. This is a way that they can celebrate themselves. This is something that their families can come to and feel the success of everything that they have put into their kids,” she said.
George Washington High School senior Timmy Smith was excited to bring home a gold medal after playing baseball with his coach and other classmates.
“My teacher is the head coach of George Washington High School,” he said. “I like throwing the ball.”
Herbert Hoover High School special education teacher Amy McVicker has been teaching students with disabilities for 19 years. She said her class looks forward the Spring Games each year as a way to celebrate their success.
“It makes their year. They come to school every day and they do what they can do and when we get to reward them with something like this, you can’t ask for anything better,” McVicker said.
Students got to participate in running, walking, jumping, softball, baseball, as well as hands-on craft activities, face painting, a sensory village and more. McCorkle said the event has grown over the years.
“We have expanded it so much that it’s not just athletic events,” she said. “Even if you are not a runner and you can’t throw a ball very well, there are things here that they would love and enjoy doing.”
Some students were in Charleston for the first time because they go to school in different parts of the county, McVicker said.
“They get to come here and they get to participate in things that normally they probably wouldn’t get to participate in. We have kids that live out in Clendenin or Elkview and they don’t always make to Charleston to do these kinds of things,” McVicker said.
McCorkle said the event also teaches students about real-life situations at large events.
“You get to teach them different skills. Often times crowds like this can be very intimidating and overwhelming for our students. It allows our teachers to prepare them for events in life that do have crowds,” she said.
High school marching bands and cheerleaders took part in Friday’s event. Each school was featured with a banner in a parade that took place before the games.
The explosion occurred Dec. 8, 2020. (Photo courtesy Andrew Spencer)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County civil jury has awarded the widow of a Belle Chemical Plant worker $15 million in connection with the December 2020 explosion that killed her husband.
The six-member jury announced the award Thursday following a wrongful death trial that stretched over two weeks before the jury and Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Tina Gillenwater, of Hurricane, sued the plant owner at the of the explosion, Optima Belle, chemical company Clearon Corp. and others for the death of her husband, John Gillenwater.
Gillenwater, 42, was working at the plant the evening a new drying process was being used to remove water/moisture from chlorinated dry bleach. Clearon contracted with Optima to perform the process.
Attorney Scott Segal, who represented Tina Gillenwater in the case, said the jury agreed the explosion that rocked that part of eastern Kanawha County should have never happened.
“The chemical companies should have realized that loading 8,800 pounds of dried chlorinated bleach into this type of dryer was 100-percent guaranteed to cause an explosion,” Segal told MetroNews.
The explosion occurred at 10:02 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2020. The force of it blew Gillenwater out of the building where the dryer was located and destroyed the building.
Segal said the jury listened intently to technical testimony. He said the trial ended up being the companies pointing fingers at each other. In the end, the jury found $10 million in damages under the state’s wrongful death statute. Clearon was found most responsible at 70% and Optima at 30%.
“The most important part of the trial was who the jury found to be the most responsible for not realizing that doing what they were doing was 100% guaranteed to cause an explosion that night and that explosion was almost the equivalent of two tons of TNT,” Segal said.
The jury also awarded $5 million for Gillenwater’s conscious pain and suffering. Segal said
“He was conscious for an hour and fifteen minutes after the explosion with horrible, horrible injuries that the jury had to listen to,” Segal said.
Gillenwater left behind his wife and two children. Segal said the trial was less about their suffering in the hours after the explosion and more about how they have used the tragedy to make them stronger.
“This is a deeply, deeply, special and very religious family and they used their faith not only to grieve but to come back strong,” Segal said. “This family can now move on to continue rebuilding their lives in the incredible way the jury heard that they crawled out of the darkest hours of this night to be some of the most wonderful human beings walking this earth today.”
In the days after the explosion, MetroNews spoke with Teays Valley-based River Ridge Church where John Gillenwater was a member.
“He had a way, even though he didn’t know you, that you walked away feeling or maybe even knowing, that he saw you, that he recognized you and you felt calmer and he was about to pass along that joy that was inside him. He was an incredible individual,” River Ridge Executive Pastor Chad Cobb told MetroNews at the time.
Segal credits the six-member jury and one alternate for being very attentive during the trial.
“They were focused the entire time,” he said.
He also said Judge Akers ran the trial efficiently.
DUNBAR, W.Va. — High school students in Kanawha County are receiving some recognition as they get a head start entering the workforce.
The Ben Franklin Career Center in Dunbar was host to its second annual #I Am Going To Work signing day Thursday for students who completed various programs and were hired on with different companies across multiple industries.
Ben Franklin Assistant Principal Nicole McCartney said these students deserve to be acknowledged.
“It’s a great event, we recognize students a lot of times for college and for military, but I feel like this is a kept secret, and we need to recognize these students for going to work,” McCartney said.
She said Ben Franklin offers about 17 high school programs that gives students the opportunity to acquire a career directly following their high school graduation. McCartney said they also offer six post-secondary programs where students will return to Ben Franklin after they graduate to complete the program.
Some of the programs offered at Ben Franklin include Animal Systems, Automotive Technology, Coding App and Game Design, Early Childhood Classroom Assistant Teacher, Law and Public Safety, Manufacturing, Medical Assisting, Pre-Nursing, and Welding.
McCartney said the programs offered at Ben Franklin are beneficial for every student as it gives them lots of options while they figure out their futures.
“It’s a good stepping stone, it’s an exploratory time,” McCartney said. “Kids need to be able to come to CT centers and decide, ‘is this for me, is this a skill that I am going to be good at, is this something that I want to do.”
Ben Franklin student Brooke Shaw is a graduate of the Honors Medical Assisting program. She was one of the few dozen students being recognized Thursday.
Shaw got an opportunity to go to work for WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals. She said the program was an experience she can truly be proud of.
“It’s a really great experience, I’ve been in here for two years and I’ve made a lot of great friendships and it’s really great to see them graduating with me,” Shaw said. “We’ve learned a lot about the Medical Assisting program, how great the healthcare field is, and how many options there are.”
She said tuition is free and she recommends every area high schooler to enroll at Ben Franklin as it’s a way to help them explore all of their options.
Shaw cautioned, however, that it’s sometimes not an easy path to navigate, and one that takes a lot of hard work and dedication.
“We’ve all debated a lot of times if we wanted to finish, and we’ve taken a lot of tests, and it has been a hard, bumpy ride, but we made it, and we can finally say that we finished,” said Shaw.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, 55% of young people ages 16 to 24 were employed in the U.S. as of July 2023. It’s still remains below the previous level of 56% of young people who were employed prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2019.
McCartney said it’s always exciting to see more young people entering the workforce in the state and making the choice to stay and make West Virginia the place they work and live.
“It’s probably one of my favorite events so far that we’ve created here at the school, and it’s an exciting time, because I think it’s something that we miss sometimes,” said McCartney. “Like I said, we recognize our college, our military students, but we don’t always recognize our students that are going to work, and that’s important, that’s our workforce, that’s where we are as a state, so we need to recognize that.”
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act said that 34% of young people in West Virginia currently make up the state’s workforce.
WINFIELD, W.Va. — Putnam County voters will find a school excess levy question at the bottom of their primary election ballot when they go to the polls.
It’s a continuation of the excess levy which has been in place since 1949.
“It does not increase the tax rate and it is a continuation,” said Putnam County School Superintendent John Hudson.
The excess levy helps fund a number of different areas of the school system. It allows for the hiring of additional personnel above the state aid formula. Hudson said the additional personnel help improve student instruction.
The $23.7 million levy also covers the cost for many areas of school security. The salaries of some School Resource Officers and the cost of safety equipment and upgrades are funded by the levy. There are also dollars from the levy to supplement extra curricular activities like sports or fine arts programs in the county. Transportation to sporting events for teams is one of the costs covered by the levy. Teaching supplies and instructional materials along with programs like 4-H and the Putnam County public library also get a chunk of the funding.
Hudson said county taxpayers are getting their money’s worth out of the excess levy.
“The last two years in West Virginia among public school systems we’ve been number one on the reading and math assessments,” Hudson said.
He added it’s an important funding source even if you don’t have children in the school system. Hudson stressed the money helps enhance education in the county and becomes a huge factor for those who are looking to move into the region.
“Parents really move into this area because of the school system and the economics and community minded folks we have here in Putnam. That increases home values and it has an economic effect on all people in Putnam County,” he said.
The levy needs only a majority of the voters’ approval to be renewed.
The body was recovered near the Raymond City Boat Ramp Thursday. (Photo/WCHS-TV)
POCA, W.Va. — The body of a Putnam County man was recovered Thursday afternoon after he died earlier this week while kayaking near Poca.
Putnam County Sheriff Bobby Eggleton said Joseph Thomas, 57, of Poca, drowned on the Poca River Tuesday.
“He was last seen on the 30th (Tuesday) when a missing persons report was filed by his ex-wife,” Eggleton said. “He was last seen in a kayak on the Poca River. He was not wearing a life preserver.”
Eggleton said no foul play is suspected. He said it’s a tragic reminder of how important it is to be safe around the water.
“We’re fast approaching the boating season and we encourage people to have a good time but be safe. A life preserver is not only required in a kayak but it’s only commonsense to wear one,” Eggleton said.
Thomas’ body, which was brought down to the boat ramp at Raymond City after it was discovered, has been sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
DUNBAR, W.Va. — Recent events involving Dunbar police officers are becoming one of the main issues in the city’s primary election.
Democratic mayoral candidate, city councilman, Bob Yeager said the city got hit with another lawsuit recently in connection with alleged police actions which will probably end up costing the city more.
Bob Yeager
Yeager, a guest Thursday on 580 Live with Dave Allen, said even with a position on city council, there is little communication or transparency with Mayor Scott Elliott.
“I get very little information,” he said. “The city administration is not very forthcoming with what’s going with these situations, I find out about most of this stuff just like you do when I read it in the paper or hear it on the news, so that’s one issue where the city is not very transparent when it comes to these issues.”
Yeager said when the current administration took office, himself included, there were already four or five lawsuits pending. He said there was no plan from the mayor’s office.
“I sat down and talked to the mayor and said ‘Hey, what are we going to do about this,’ and he didn’t really have a plan, and here we are three years later, now I think we’re up to maybe 12 lawsuits that I’m aware of,” he said.
He said before he filed to run for office, he went back to the mayor to again address the mounting lawsuits, and he said again, nothing got done about it.
Elliott, also a Democrat and a retired Dunbar police officer, told 580 WCHS Thursday his office has responded appropriately.
“We have taken steps to do what we need to do by suspending officers until the investigations are over,” Elliott said. “From day one if the first incident, we have suspended the officers, contacted outside agencies to investigate them, to make sure there are no criminal laws that the police officers have broken. If they are we will fully cooperate.”
Two people filed suit against the city in February claiming public records relating to misdemeanor arrests were denied. The lawsuit cane after a $2 million wrongful death settlement was made in Dunbar where a man was fatally injured while in police custody.
Dunbar Mayor Scott Elliott previously served as a police officer in the city for 22 years. (WCHS)
There was another lawsuit in recent days, Elliott confirmed Lt. Chad Shafer has has been suspended after being accused in a federal lawsuit of violating a woman’s constitutional rights, sexual harassment and battery.
Yeager, who retired as a South Charleston police officer after 26 years, said the problems are too many and confidence needs to be restored. That’s why he’s running.
“When the Friday before the filing day, when that federal judge issued that default order against the city for failing to respond to a lawsuit, that was the moment that I felt, well, now’s the time, I can’t put this off for four more years,” Yeager said.
He said if elected, he plans to get Dunbar’s image back in good standing to the way it once was.
“The people that live there, we know what a great place it is, but the outside world, with all of the negative publicity going on right now, if you Google Dunbar, West Virginia, you’re not going to see what a great place it is, you’re going to see these lawsuits,” said Yeager.
Elliott said he believes he’s earned another four years in office. He said he’s given the city more than 30 years of his life.
“I just everybody to know that I am here to talk to and I feel the city has went in the right direction and we’ve got a lot of things done over the last four years and I hope they continue to vote with confidence,” he said.
Elliott said accomplishments during the last four years, his first term in office, include an active program to remove dilapidated houses from the city and an agreement with Prestera to provide counseling to residents with substance abuse disorder.
Courtney Williams (Facebook)
“We definitely have tried to talk people into going to drug rehab and there are a lot of success stories,” Elliott said.
A third Democratic candidate for mayor in the May 14 primary is long entrepreneur Courtney Williams.
Williams’ campaign announcement said she recognizes Dunbar’s potential.
“She has made it her mission to foster a safe and thriving environment, leading her to run for Mayor in the upcoming election. For over a decade, Courtney has fearlessly confronted injustices and tirelessly worked to improve the lives of her fellow citizens,” the release said. “Known for her exceptional ability to build bridges and foster unity, Courtney rallies people towards common goals that benefit the entire community.”
The winner in the primary will advance to the November General Election. There are currently no Republican candidates in the mayor’s race.
Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin and Public Works Director Brent Webster check out storm damage. (Facebook)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The April 2 storm that included 10 tornadoes in West Virginia cost Appalachian Power at least $30 million.
Company spokesperson Karen Wissing said they’re still totaling up the final numbers but it was one of the worst hits to the system since $70 million in damages from the 2012 Derecho and Superstorm Sandy.
That $30 million is a combination of damage and storm response, Wissing said.
“It includes our mutual aid that came to help us restore power. It includes the equipment that needed to be replaced, any and all costs,” Wissing said.
Here’s a list of some of what was replaced by more than 3,000 workers:
–468 power poles
–716 cross-arms
–234 transformers
–52,2 miles of wire
There were 2,300 outage orders and 74 total circuit outages.
“Our vice president of distribution said it was the highest number of circuit outages he has seen in his career,” Wissing said.
Most customers were back on line within three to four days. Wissing said flooding the serve area with thousands of workers from outside the state was key.
“Fortunately we were able to secure thousands of outside resources to come to our aid and thankfully restore power to roughly 100,000 customers within 48 hours,” Wissing said.
West Virginia Public Service Commission Chair Charlotte Lane previously praised the utility for its response to last month’s storm.
“Losing power is a frightening and painful experience for everyone involved,” Lane said. “I believe these companies deserve special credit for their heroic efforts to so quickly put right what these devastating storms did to our state residents.”
Praise also came from longtime Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, who has been one of Appalachian Power’s sharpest critics in recent years.
“I think they’re response has been as good as I’ve ever seen,” Carper told MetroNews on April 4, two days after the storm hit.
Recovery
Appalachian Power will turn to its customers to recover the $30 million in damages.
Wissing said they’ll do so in a future filing with the PSC and they’ll ask to do it over a several year period.
“We do plan to seek recovery over a period of years in a future proceeding,” Wissing said. “The reason we do it over a period of years because we want to take our customers into consideration because in a one-year period the cost would be too much and we certainly want to be fair to our customers.”
The PSC already allows Appalachian Power to collect about $18 million a year as part of its base rate for storm response. The $30 million would be above and beyond the annual cost.
Appalachian Power took a similar path after those 2012 storms when it sought recovery of nearly $70 million in its 2014 base rate case. The PSC granted recovery over five years.
Record tornadoes
There were 10 tornadoes that were part of the storm, all in the Appalachian Power service area.
The National Weather Service, which said it was a record breakout for one day, confirmed those tornadoes in Fayette, Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell and Wayne counties.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There’s a wide array of music set to emphasize the 34th year of a multi-cultural and diversity festival in Charleston.
The Multi-Cultural Festival returns to the Capital City Thursday, August 1 through Sunday, August 4.
The musical line-up for this year’s MultiFest celebrating diversity in the area includes The Chuck Brown Band, Ginuwine, Petey Pablo, Brian McKnight and more.
Organizers of the four-day event met with Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin among other city and community representatives Wednesday to announce the lineup. MultiFest Executive Director Tamara Eubanks said it’s an exciting lineup this year.
“The artists we have picked up this year have been phenomenal in working with us, so we’re very, very excited,” Eubanks said. “This music is not just for one set, it’s for all ages, different ethnicities.”
The festival will kick-off with “GoGo Night” featuring the Washington D.C-based Chuck Brown Band on Thursday, August 1. 
On Friday, August 2, is All White Ladies Night, where all of the ladies who attend the event are encouraged to wear their best white attire. R&B singer Ginuwine, who also hails from Washington D.C. will take the stage with his hit songs on that night followed by British rapper and radio personality from New York, Monie Love.
An all-day musical lineup on Saturday, August 3, Las Vegas-based Jazz musician Justin Young is the first to take the stage. He will be followed up by Joe Little III, the lead singer of Rude Boys out of Cleveland, Ohio. Greenville, North Carolina singer and rapper Petey Pablo will help headline Saturday’s lineup, along with Brian McKnight, an Atlanta, Georgia R&B singer.
Finally, on Sunday, August 4, Kelontae Gavin, a South Carolina gospel singer will kick off the day, followed by Paul Wall, a hip-hop performer, rapper and DJ out of Houston, Texas, and the Original Lakeside Band, an American funk band from Dayton, Ohio.
Eubanks said they listened to the community on what they wanted to see and hear.
She said they particularly had people approach them about bringing back GoGo Night after they held that theme for the first time last year.
Eubanks said the 34 year mark of MultiFest is a testament to everyone who comes together to help put the event on.
“We are the largest diversity festival within West Virginia, and one of the longest-running festivals within West Virginia, and that is solely due to our sponsors and the dedication of our board members who are volunteers, as well as the community who comes out and supports us,” she said.
Like in previous years, Eubanks said the festival will also host various food and artesian vendors, kids activities, and a Sunday morning worship session.
She said, though, that the music stands as an ultimate reflection of what the event is all about.
“We have jazz, we have R&B, we have hip-hop, we have gospel, and it represents a huge array of music that our participants will be exposed to as they come,” Eubanks said.
However, Eubanks said more than the music and activities, MultiFest is a chance for the community to come together and learn from one another and celebrate the diversity that makes them up.
The event will be held at Haddad Riverfront Park along the Kanawha Boulevard August 1-4.