The Braxton County prosecuting attorney resigned this week and agreed to give up her license to practice law for three years over her handling of sexual abuse allegations made against her father-in-law.
Kelly Hamon McLaughlin, who has served as Braxton prosecuting attorney since January 2009, appeared Thursday in Charleston before a three-member disciplinary panel.
The panel will make recommendations to the West Virginia Supreme Court, who ultimately will make the decision about the fate of McLaughlin's law license. The prosecutor agreed to ask the state Supreme Court that her discipline consist of her resignation as prosecutor, never running for that office again and giving up her law license for three years. The state Lawyer Office of Disciplinary Counsel agreed to do the same.
According to a statement of charges filed against McLaughlin, an 11-year-old girl told her father on about July 26, 2013, that she had been abused by an elderly neighbor. The girl's father, in turn, reported the alleged incident to a different neighbor, a retired West Virginia State Police trooper.
The Braxton Sheriff's Office was notified by the retired trooper about the allegations on Aug. 5, 2013, the filing against McLaughlin states. A police report, according to the ethics charges, stated that the girl reported the elderly neighbor tried to place his hands down her bathing suit bottom while she was swimming in his pool.
Members of the Tri-County Children's Advocacy Center, including forensic interviewer Sarah Gregory, met the next day and talked with the alleged victim. Gregory, Child Protective Services worker Kami Griffen and then-Braxton deputy D.A. Propst also were at the meeting.
During the interview, the girl said that the alleged perpetrator's name was "Valgene." About two weeks later another investigative team held a meeting over the allegations. Then-Braxton assistant prosecutor Keith Cooper and Chelsie Beaver, a family advocate for the Child Advocacy Center and two State Police troopers were in attendance, according to the ODC filing.
Gregory's notes from the meeting indicate the case "needs new prosecutor," the ODC wrote.
Gregory "recalled that Assistant Prosecutor Cooper advised that [McLaughlin's] office could not handle the same, but did not provide a reason as to why and did not divulge any relationship between the elected prosecuting attorney and the alleged perpetrator," wrote head ODC lawyer Rachael Fletcher Cipoletti in the charging documents against McLaughlin.
Another meeting on the case was held at the end of September 2013. McLaughlin attended this meeting in which it was again noted that a special prosecutor needed to be assigned the case. However, McLaughlin never disclosed "the reason her office was unable to handle the case," the ODC wrote.
At meetings in November and December of 2013, McLaughlin, despite hearing attendees discuss that they were waiting on the appointment of a special prosecutor, never said anything about why that was, the ethics charging document against her states.
In February 2014, the same year that she said it could be dropped, the State Police determined after an investigation that Propst had broken into the Braxton sheriff's office. McLaughlin allowed him to resign instead of facing prosecution, the filing states.
It was during another meeting about the allegations in April 2014 that McLaughlin advised that "the case should be closed and removed from the meeting agenda," the filing states.
A year later, in April 2015, the girl and her father moved away from the alleged perpetrator to Hacker Valley in Webster County.
On Oct. 12, 2015, Sgt. A.J. Shingler, of the State Police's Crimes Against Children Unit, notified McLaughlin that he had been presented with allegations that a girl had been sexually assaulted by McLaughlin's father-in-law, Valgene McLaughlin.
The prosecutor replied, the charges against her state, that "she thought the Sheriff's department had taken care of that" and that the case had been referred to Webster County.
Shingler called the Webster prosecutor's office that day and was advised lawyers in that office knew nothing about the case.
The girl's father in 2015 contacted the Braxton prosecutor's office and was told by a secretary to call the sheriff's department. He did multiple times but never received a call back, the ODC complaint against McLaughlin states.
In early February 2016, the girl's father called McLaughlin's office and left a message with a secretary. Assistant prosecutor Jasmine Morton took the call and this was the first time she learned Valgene McLaughlin was the alleged perpetrator.
Morton the next day told McLaughlin about the call. McLaughlin replied the case had been investigated and handed to Webster County.
The girl's father in February 2016 called Gregory and inquired about the case, the complaint states. She said she remembered there had been a conflict but wasn't sure what. The father of the girl told her the conflict was because the allegations had been made against McLaughlin's father-in-law.
When asked about the case by Gregory, McLaughlin also told her that the case had been passed to Webster prosecutors. When Gregory and others called that county for an update, though, they learned the prosecutors there had no knowledge of the case.
Webster prosecutor Wayne Vandevender contacted Braxton Circuit Judge Richard Facemire to see if there were any documents requesting a special prosecutor for the case. Facemire reported there weren't any.
The judge forwarded the information to the lawyer disciplinary counsel.
A special prosecutor was appointed March 14, 2016, by Facemire.
In response to the disciplinary allegations, McLaughlin admitted she said the matter against her father-in-law could be closed, but only because Propst reported that it had been investigated and could be.
She also admitted that she never revealed why her office couldn't handle the case.
Valgene McLaughlin has not been charged in the matter.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.