Police say the death of a man found dead in his Charleston home Saturday is being considered a homicide.

John Thomas Coleman Jr., 50, of Charleston, was found dead in his home in the 1700 block of Seventh Avenue on the West Side, according to a statement from the Charleston Police Department. No other details about the death have been released.

-STAFF REPORTS

A mother and father were arrested after a neighbor discovered them passed out in a hot vehicle with their baby in the backseat Sunday afternoon.

The incident happened in the 1400 block of Sixth Avenue in Charleston, according to police.

Sergeant Christopher Burford of the Charleston Police Department said three adults in the vehicle were passed out because of a heroin overdose. Drug paraphernalia also was found in the vehicle.

A woman was walking by the vehicle and reportedly heard the screams of a child. When she approached the vehicle, a door was said to be open. After a failed attempt to wake the adults, she retrieved the child and notified authorities.

Burford said the child, who is ten months old, is safe and unharmed.

The father is in the hospital under police custody. He was administered Narcan on the scene, Burford said, a medication that combats the effects of an opioid overdose.

The mother is currently awaiting arraignment on child neglect charges, Burford said.

A third person, said to be a friend of the mother and father, has been released.

-STAFF REPORTS

A Jefferson County commissioner was arrested on sexual abuse charges Friday.

Eric Bell, 37, of Charles Town, is charged with sexual abuse by a person in a position of trust, possession of child pornography, and sending obscene material to a minor, according to a criminal complaint.

The victim was a 16-year-old boy. Bell was a "business associate and family friend," according to the complaint.

The boy's parents told police Bell had been acting as a mentor to the teenager, who had recently come out as gay, according to the complaint.

"Since Eric Bell was a family friend and someone whom they trusted, they asked Eric Bell to act as a mentor to [the teenager]," the complaint says.

Police say Bell and the teenager sent pictures and video via Snapchat.

Sgt. W.R. Garrett, who investigates crimes against children in the Eastern Panhandle, said DHHR's Child Protective Services alerted police.

The trooper said the teenager was not removed from the home because the parents did not appear to be complicit in the abuse. He said the teen's parents were "taken aback" when he informed them of the allegations.

Garrett said he interviewed the teenager at the Martinsburg Child Advocacy Center.

Bell, and Patsy Noland, president of the Jefferson County Commission, did not respond to emails Monday.

A woman was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with malicious wounding after allegedly stabbing and biting another woman at the Transit Mall in downtown Charleston.

Marquita Mells told police just before 2 p.m. that she had been stabbed several times with a small knife by Octavia Mitchell, 19, of Renaissance Circle in Charleston, according to a criminal complaint filed late Monday in Kanawha Magistrate Court.

Police wrote that paramedics reported seeing stab wounds on the right side of Mells' abdomen and that her right bicep had several cuts and scrapes. Also, her left nipple appeared to have "almost been bitten completely off," the complaint states. Mells was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital.

Mitchell was arrested at about 2:30 p.m., said Lt. Steve Cooper, chief of detectives at the Charleston Police Department.

While processing the crime scene, police were told that Mitchell was at Graziano's Pizza causing a disturbance, according to the complaint. Mitchell was immediately detained when police arrived at the restaurant. She allegedly admitted to stabbing Mells but said she had done so in self defense, the complaint states.

Mitchell and Mells have allegedly had problems before, police wrote that Mitchell told them.

On Monday, Mitchell says that when she and her daughter were dropped off at the transit mall, Mells approached her and began saying that she didn't need to have her child outside in the heat, the complaint states. Mells then allegedly struck Mitchell in the face with a closed fist, Mitchell told police, they wrote.

The women fell to the ground and continued to fight, according to what Mitchell told police, the complaint states. While on the ground, Mitchell allegedly told police she started biting Mells.

Mitchell said she eventually stood up and pulled a small kitchen knife from her pocket and began stabbing Mells, police wrote.

Mitchell was taken to South Central Regional Jail. Kanawha Magistrate Ward Harshbarger set her bail at $15,000.

Police on Monday released little new information in the investigation of the man found dead Saturday in his West Side home, but did reveal that the man had been shot and that investigators believe others may have information that could help them solve the case.

No charges have been filed and no suspects have been named.

John Thomas Coleman, 50, of Charleston, was found dead in his apartment in the 1700 block of Seventh Avenue on the West Side Saturday, according to Lt. Steve Cooper, chief of detectives at the Charleston Police Department.

Cooper said a neighbor had gone to check on Coleman because he hadn't heard from him all day. They discovered the body at about 5 p.m.

"He seemed to be well-liked in his neighborhood," Cooper said. "He was 50 years old and friends and neighbors have been checking in with us regularly concerned about the case and adding their thoughts about him and any information that they may have that they think could be helpful."

The investigation has led to a lead in the case that detectives have been following "pretty much around the clock for the last couple of days," Cooper said.

He said officers have interviewed "potential" witnesses and continue to analyze evidence from the crime scene.

"We have interviewed several potential witnesses and several acquaintances of Mr. Coleman, just trying to put together the pieces of his life and what was going on over the last few days or weeks of his life," he said.

Cooper wouldn't say whether the home showed signs of a break-in, how many times Coleman was shot, whether a gun was recovered, whether any suspects have been questioned, whether drugs were found in the home, whether anything was missing from the home and when Coleman is believed to have died.

He said it was clear the death was not a suicide, but would not reveal how police determined that.

Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

West Virginia consumers are expected to begin Tuesday receiving their portion of the $400 million Apple agreed to pay over allegations of e-book price fixing.

Affected consumers in the state will receive as much as $2.4 million, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a news release Monday. The state will be paid $527,000 for reimbursement of costs, fees and expenses from Apple.

Most West Virginians will receive payment through account credits or checks. The refunds are set to "hit consumer accounts" beginning Tuesday and continue through Friday, according to Morrisey's release.

A settlement was reached in 2014 between Apple and 33 states and territories to resolve allegations that Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, colluded with e-book publishers to charge higher prices in response to steep discounts offered by Amazon.com. Jobs, who died in October 2011, negotiated the deals as Apple was preparing to release the first iPad in 2010, according to the Associated Press.

Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Cobo will credit accounts, unless consumers through the claims process indicated a check was desired instead. People with Sony and Google accounts will receive a check.

According to the news release, a federal judge in New York found that Apple violated antitrust laws by conspiring with five publishers to raise prices for e-books between 2010 and 2012. Penguin Group (USA), which is part of Penguin Random House; Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, doing business as Macmillan; Hachette Book Group Inc.; HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster Inc., agreed to pay $166 million.

The amount to be received is based on the number of e-books purchased between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012. Consumers will receive $6.93 for every New York Times bestseller purchased and $1.57 for all other e-books.

A federal magistrate judge on Monday advanced the case against a man who was acquitted of murder last week, then quickly charged with a federal gun crime.

Miguel Quinones, 37, was charged June 14 by criminal complaint with being a felon in possession of a firearm - a day after he was acquitted of the murder of Kareem Hunter, 28, who was beaten in a Marmet apartment in 2013 and buried in a shallow grave in Raleigh County.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Eifert, during a preliminary hearing in Huntington on Monday, "found probable cause that the defendant had committed the crime contained in the criminal complaint," court documents states. Eifert also ordered Quinones continue to be held in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

The judge wrote that "by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant is a risk of flight."

Quinones' preliminary hearing was held in Huntington by Eifert because U.S. Magistrate Judge Dwane Tinsley is "out of district" all week, according to the court's calendar for West Virginia's Southern District. Tinsley is assigned the case and is the judge who signed the complaint against Quinones, which was filed by Jason Berty, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Social Security Agency.

Berty was called to testify during Monday's hearing.

In December 2013, when Quinones was arrested at his girlfriend's Charleston townhouse for allegedly violating probation, a loaded and functional Sig Sauer M400 riffle was "in plain view" in a bedroom at the home, the complaint states.

Quinones was convicted 16 years ago of second-degree murder in the 1995 death of Christopher Reardon, a Beckley bar owner. He was released in 2011, but remained on probation. The felony conviction prohibited him from having a gun, the federal allegation states.

Shortly after Quinones' arrest in December 2013, he was charged with Hunter's death. After a six-day trial, jurors took about eight hours to find him not guilty of the murder charge.

A Cross Lanes man faces up to 50 years in federal prison after pleading guilty Monday to carjacking and drug charges.

David Allen Young, 24, pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston to two counts of carjacking and one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. He is set to be sentenced Oct. 5 by U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver.

Young admitted that from the summer of 2014 through last January, he sold at least 40 pounds of crystal meth and was part of a large-scale meth trafficking network, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office.

Young also admitted that on Jan. 24, he stole a Ford Expedition in Putnam County and fired a shot at an occupied vehicle in St. Albans. Later that day, Young admitted he walked up to a Ford Edge SUV at the intersection of Big Tyler Road and Waycross Drive in Cross Lanes and pointed a 9-millimeter handgun at the driver. Young drove away in the SUV after ordering the man out of the vehicle.

When Young reached a Chevrolet S-10 truck, occupied by another man and his juvenile son, Young ordered them out of the truck at gunpoint. He then fled in that truck to the Dalewood Trailer Park in Cross Lanes, according to the release.

"He shot through the glass door of a residence in the trailer park and stole a television, which he intended to trade for drugs," the release states. Young was arrested two days later.

A Nicholas County woman on Monday admitted to taking advantage of her position as manager of a medical practice by issuing herself multiple prescription medications.

Cary Lynn Eades, 47, of Mount Nebo, pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston to obtaining the prescription opioid pain medication tramadol by fraud, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office.

On numerous occasions between January 2012 and March 2015, Eades used the names and DEA registration numbers of the doctors she worked for to issue herself prescriptions for the opioids. She filled the prescriptions at pharmacies in Nicholas, Fayette and Kanawha counties.

In February 2015, when one of the medical practices reported suspicious prescriptions being issues to Eades, the Central West Virginia Drug Task Force became involved. Eades was indicted in both Fayette and Nicholas counties in 2015 on more than 30 felony counts of obtaining a prescription by fraud. Her guilty plea in federal court reflects a consolidation of those charges as well as potential charges in Kanawha, the release states.

Eades faces up to four years in federal prison when she's sentenced Sept. 26 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston.

A federal judge on Monday again delayed taking any action on a settlement that lawyers for Kanawha Valley residents and businesses propose to resolve civil claims against two former Freedom Industries officials over the January 2014 Elk River chemical spill.

U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. told attorneys for former Freedom officials Gary Southern and Dennis Farrell that he wants to see more movement toward similar settlements in two other spill-related cases before he will sign off on the class-action deal between Southern and Farrell and thousands of area residents and businesses whose drinking water was contaminated by the spill of Crude MCHM and other chemicals from Freedom's facility on the Elk.

Farrell lawyer Mike Carey and Southern lawyer Pam Deem said that they had both held talks with attorneys in one of the other spill cases, filed by the West Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, but had not reached settlements. Carey and Deem both said that their clients had not been formally served with the other pending case, filed by the city of Charleston.

During a hearing Monday afternoon, Copenhaver also said he would not schedule further hearings on the case until he hears of some progress. Instead, the judge said, lawyers should plan to report any such progress to him each month during the regular status conferences that Copenhaver holds to discuss matters in the broader class-action suit pending against West Virginia American Water and Eastman Chemical over the water crisis that followed the Freedom spill.

"Until I hear from the defendants, Mr. Farrell in particular, but Mr. Southern as well, that some accommodation has been reached in these other matters, I don't see any reason for us to come back," Copenhaver said. The judge said he would continue the matter "on and on and on, until I hear something from someone that there's a break."

Monday's was the third hearing Copenhaver has held on the settlement with Southern and Farrell since the proposed deal was formally announced in court papers filed in December.

Under the proposed settlement, Southern would pay $350,000 and Farrell $50,000 to the class of residents represented in the case. The money would be paid into a court account, and then used only "to benefit the class" after some later order from Copenhaver. The exact plans for the money have not been made clear in court documents, hearings or a public notice to the class members.

Lawyers for the residents have defended the deals, noting that Southern and Farrell also both gave up claims to Freedom's insurance payments, a move that allowed more than $3 million to be used in paying spill claims in Freedom's bankruptcy and on the cleanup of the company's former Etowah River Terminal, where the incident occurred.

In one previous hearing, Copenhaver complained he had not been presented adequate evidence to weigh Farrell's financial situation and his ability to pay any settlement. During a second hearing, Farrell declined to provide additional financial information when Copenhaver said the details would have to be made public to be considered in his eventual ruling on the settlement.

The Southern-Farrell settlement issues come with the backdrop of continued litigation by lawyers for residents and businesses in their class-action against West Virginia American and Eastman Chemical in a case that had been set for trial next month, but has been delayed amid a huge number of pre-trial motions and wrestling between rival factions of lawyers, with one pursuing the trial before Copenhaver and another hoping to resolve the spill litigation in state court instead.

Lawyers are pursuing West Virginia American, alleging the water company did not properly prepare for such a spill or respond appropriately to the incident. They allege that Eastman Chemical, which made Freedom's MCHM, violated chemical safety laws by not disclosing information about the chemical's health effects and its potential to corrode Freedom's storage tanks.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.

KEARNEYSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia law enforcement officers are getting a one-day crash course on investigating puppy mills, animal cruelty and animal fighting.

The Humane Society of the United States says the training will take place Thursday morning at the Jefferson County Maintenance Building in Kearneysville.

The event is for law enforcement officers only. They can register for the free training online, by phone or by email.

To register: go to http://bit.ly/28LsXtu , call (304) 590-5318 or email HMSevert(at)humanesociety.org.

BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - Authorities say a juvenile has been killed in an ATV accident in Raleigh County.

The Register-Herald reports West Virginia State Trooper J.G. Martin says the incident happened Monday afternoon in the Arnett area.

Martin says the youth was thrown from the four-wheeler after it flipped. Officials had not released the juvenile's identity, as of late Monday.

Authorities are investigating the incident.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. (AP) - A Jefferson County commissioner plans to step down after being charged with trading sexual images with a 16-year-old boy.

The Journal reports that Eric Keith Bell, 37, announced his intent to resign in a statement Tuesday by his attorney, Matthew Harvey.

Bell, a Republican elected in 2014, was charged with child pornography possession, sexual abuse by a person of trust, and distribution and display of obscene material to a minor.

Bell turned himself in to Berkeley County authorities Friday and was arraigned in Berkeley County Magistrate Court.

Bell's criminal complaint says the boy confirmed they traded pictures earlier this month. It says authorities found that the boy's self-produced sex act videos were sent to Bell.

The complaint says Bell admitted sending pictures to the boy.

A man acquitted of murder last week in Kanawha County was indicted on federal gun charges Tuesday.

Miguel Quinones, 37, is charged with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was found not guilty June 14 in the 2013 death of Kareem Hunter, who was beaten to death in a Marmet apartment and buried in a shallow grave in Raleigh County.

The day after Quinones was acquitted of the murder charge, federal officials arrested and charged him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was indicted on two counts of that charge Tuesday.

According to the federal filing, Quinones had two guns in Dunbar in October 2013, and two guns when he was arrested at his girlfriend's Charleston home on a probation violation in December 2013.

Quinones was convicted 16 years ago of second-degree murder in the 1995 death of Christopher Reardon, a Beckley bar owner. He was released in 2011, but remained on probation. The felony conviction prohibited him from having a gun, the federal allegation states.

In December 2013, Quinones was arrested at his girlfriend's Charleston townhouse for allegedly violating probation. He was charged in Hunter's death shortly after.

Quinones faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence if convicted of the federal charges.

Following several months of negotiations, members of the Dunbar Fire Department and Dunbar Police Department may receive pay raises starting in July if council approves.

Dunbar City Council members approved the first reading of a measure to increase the pay for both departments during its Tuesday night council meeting.

"No town can really pay [its fire and police departments] what they are worth," Dunbar Mayor Terry Greenlee said. "But you try and compensate them as much as you can. It is a year, I feel, that we can financially do it."

Fire Chief Butch Ellis and Police Chief Jesse Bailes were both pleased with the decision.

"It's always encouraging to get steady raises to keep up with inflation - we all know the cost of everything is going up," Ellis said. "It just keeps the morale high that they can get some kind of steady raise no matter how small. It helps keep guys interested in the job."

Dunbar firefighters' pay will increase 28 cents per hour. The unit has 15 firefighters, and will soon hire another.

"We've finally got our starting pay up to standards with everyone around us," Ellis said. "We were having a recruitment and retention problem, but now that our starting pay is the same as everyone else's, it makes it a lot easier."

Ellis noted Greenlee's administration and the last administration have supported the force well.

"Both [administrations] tried to give us small but steady pay increases," Ellis said. "Sometimes in years past, especially before they had a contract, they might go eight years without getting a raise."

Police pay increases vary by rank. Dunbar currently has 16 police officers.

A Dunbar probationary patrolman will earn $14.37 an hour and its highest-ranking officer next to the police chief - a captain - will earn $17.80.

"We will never be up to the level playing field when you've got officers that are making - as a two- to three-year-old patrolman - as much as the captain of the city of Dunbar," police Capt. Scott Elliot said, referencing nearby Charleston and the Kanawha County Sherriff's Office.

"They've got bigger tax bases, they've got a whole lot of different things. The thing we have going for us is our retirement."

Elliot said the team of negotiating officers - with each rank being represented - aimed for a big raise in hopes they would receive something.

"It's a small tax base in the city," Elliot said. "We knew the amount they wanted to spend."

No one from either department received a raise last year, Greenlee said. He added it was a "rough year."

But now the city's revenues are up and its expenses down.

"We have kind of restructured the way we do everything in the city," Greenlee said. "We are getting rid of what I call 'dead weed.'"

He's hopeful for a better year next year.

Also on Tuesday, City Clerk Connie Fulknier updated council on the city's efforts to collect delinquent municipal fees. Another 30 notices were sent out to property owners informing them of outstanding fees.

"[The notices] are still flowing out there," Fulknier said. "We are getting some results."

The effort to place liens on properties whose owners do not pay outstanding municipal fees within 90 days or receive a letter from the city started in early May with about $300,000 in delinquent municipal fees.

A Beckley man admitted his involvement Tuesday in a California-to-West Virginia drug conspiracy.

Velarian Sylvester Carter, 37, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine in federal court in Beckley, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office.

He faces at least 10 years and up to life in federal prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 13.

Carter admitted that between January 2015 through last March, he and multiple other individuals transported and distributed meth from California to West Virginia. Carter admitted receiving the drugs from Daniel Ortiz-Rivera, who pleaded guilty on Monday to his role in the conspiracy.

After Ortiz-Rivera was arrested, Carter began purchasing the meth directly from his supplier, the release states.

On March 21, a confidential informant had a conversation with Carter about bringing drugs to Charleston. That day, police stopped and seized about $28,000 in cash, along with cocaine, meth, marijuana and heroin, the release states.

On March 24, Carter arranged with confidential informants for the pickup of two pounds of meth in Charleston in exchange for $12,000, he admitted. When Carter arrived to pickup the drugs, police arrested him.

The investigation leading to the charges against Carter resulted in an eight-count indictment implicating 14 defendants, including Carter.

A Charleston man was sentenced Tuesday to spend four years in federal prison for selling heroin while he was on probation for another federal crime.

Alan Alexander Clark, 33, was on supervised release when he sold heroin to a confidential informant in July 2015 at the Rite Aid on Washington Street West, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office.

He also admitted that he sold heroin and methamphetamine to a confidential informant three other times while on supervised release.

Clark was on supervised release after completing a sentence for a gun charge. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm, even though he already had been convicted of delivering crack cocaine, a felony.

U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver Jr. sentenced Clark to two years for the drug charge and another two years for violating his supervised release. The sentences will run consecutively, one after the other.

A second former Blue Creek Academy student, along with one of his parents, has filed suit against the now-closed Kanawha County Christian boys boarding school, its leaders and its sponsor, Bible Baptist Church, over allegations that he was starved and physically abused there.

The minor's lawsuit, filed late last month, also alleges that he was sexually abused by a school staff member's son due to "lack of supervision and other improper standards utilized by the facility." The ongoing suit against the same defendants filed by a separate minor in May 2015 alleges sexual abuse by another student, but doesn't specify whether the alleged abuser was related to any staff.

Both suits also name as defendants Bible Baptist Pastor James Waldeck and J.R. Thompson, Blue Creek Academy's former director who, according to an extensive article on Blue Creek Academy in The Daily Beast, has started a new religious school in Montana. Waldeck told a reporter Tuesday he wasn't allowed to comment and quickly hung up the phone.

The defendants have denied the allegations of the first suit. They haven't yet filed formal answers to the allegations in the new case, nor have they been officially notified about the second suit.

Calls Tuesday to defendants' attorneys in the first suit weren't returned, and it's unclear whether the same attorneys will be representing them in the new litigation.

Charleston-based attorney Troy Giatras, who represents both former students, told the Gazette-Mail last month that he expected the litigation to expand beyond just one student. Both suits allege the defendants failed to report abuse to parents or authorities.

"We have been having ongoing discussions with multiple students, and know that more students have been harmed," Giatras said in an email Tuesday. "At this time two lawsuits have been filed and we would not be surprised if additional students authorize us to file suit on their behalf. At some point this has to come to a conclusion."

Giatras said he couldn't talk about conversations parents or students have had with police.

"Defendants combined their efforts to engage in a conspiracy of silence to protect the reputation of the Defendants while endangering the health, safety, and welfare of BCA students," the new suit in Kanawha Circuit Court states.

Giatras said Blue Creek Academy was in the Clendenin area, near the border of Clay and Kanawha counties. Bible Baptist Church is in Belva, a small Nicholas County town.

The new suit says the minor spent 17 months at Blue Creek, where he faced isolationism and corporal punishment. Both minors allege they now suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the alleged abuse.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources removed Blue Creek Academy's students, after which state Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano sent Waldeck a letter in September 2014, saying that he was revoking the school's Exemption (k) status. That exemption allowed students to attend the school.

"Due to the egregious nature of the non-compliance [with state law], children's health, safety and welfare, any future attempts by the school to seek reinstatement of the exemption status will be denied by this office," Martirano wrote.

According to DHHR documents, a child allegedly ran away from Blue Creek Academy in June 2014 and was taken into custody by Clay County Child Protective Services. The child reported being molested by another student in 2012.

"An investigation was completed at the time and was unsubstantiated," the documents state.

The child said he was whipped with a paddle if he failed a test or failed to memorize scripture, and that punishment also included a diet of beans and water. The documents state there were seven more boys at the school at the time.

"All children present at Blue Creek Academy have disclosed abuse/neglect," the documents state. "The academy is infested with rats."

Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Rocky Holmes advised removing the children.

Kanawha Prosecutor Chuck Miller said Friday that only one criminal investigation involving Blue Creek Academy is ongoing, and it involves alleged sexual misconduct against one former student by another.

"Because they're juveniles, we can't disclose anything about the investigation or their identities," Miller said. "... There's no investigations or allegations that have come to our attention with respect to adults at this time."

He said his office can request that law enforcement agencies do investigations, and he's never had one refuse to.

"We don't have anything right now that tells us that we need to have an investigation done, nor has anyone brought anything to our attention that we need to investigate," Miller said.

Sgt. Brian Humphreys of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office said his agency hasn't received direct statements or direct allegations of corporal punishment or other forms of child abuse involving the school's staff, and said there's no investigation into these adults at this time.

Humphreys said his office doesn't review lawsuits for the possibility of criminal conduct, and noted the evidence threshold is higher in criminal cases than in civil ones. He said his agency has been looking into allegations of criminal activity at the facility since at least 2014, but declined to specify what the allegations were.

"We are literally a phone call away for anyone who wants to report an allegation of criminal misconduct," he stated.

Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.

Big Tyler Road in Cross Lanes is shut down while emergency responders work to free a person trapped in their vehicle, Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatchers said.

Two vehicles hit head-on at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 4700 block of Big Tyler Road, which is near Shawver Way, according to dispatchers.

At 8:30 a.m., all lanes in the area of the crash were still shut down, dispatchers said.

A Charleston man reported a fake hostage situation to Kanawha County Metro 911 Tuesday so police would be distracted while he sold drugs, police say.

More than 40 Charleston police officers as well as fire and EMS personnel responded to the Oakwood Terrace Apartments on Westminster Way after 1 p.m. for what they thought was a hostage situation, said Lt. Steve Cooper, chief of detectives for the city's police department.

Police searched the residence and found that there was no such situation, Cooper said.

Police tracked the text message to Charles Loftis, 40, of Charleston, who admitted to making the report, Cooper said.

Loftis sent the text message on a prepaid cell phone while he was in a building across the parking lot from the Oakwood Terrace Apartments, Cooper said. Police were able to track the text message because Loftis had previously used the same phone to report a traffic accident to Metro 911, Cooper said.

"He admitted to police that he had indeed made that 911 call and that the reason was that he wanted police to be distracted while he conducted a drug transaction," Cooper said. "He was also afraid of the other drug dealer. So he while he wanted the police to be distracted, he wanted them nearby also because of his fear of the other drug dealer."

Loftis is charged with misuse of 911 and filing a false police report, he said.

Cooper said the incident was especially unnerving for officers once they realized the call was a hoax. It was clear someone was watching the officers because they kept communicating with dispatchers, he said.

"In light of what happened in Dallas last week, it was a little nerve-racking not knowing who was watching us and why all of these officers were being summoned to one area," Cooper said. "We were on heightened alert because of that."

Last week, five Dallas police officers were killed during a protest over the killings of two black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.