By Mike Tony, Charleston-Gazette Mail
BECKLEY, W.Va. — In a remarkable order late Monday, a federal judge found current and former West Virginia corrections officials intentionally destroyed evidence in a case alleging inhumane conditions at a Raleigh County jail.
Southern District of West Virginia District Court Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn found the officials’ efforts constituted “a dereliction of duty” and asked that a copy of his order be distributed to the U.S. Attorney to consider whether an investigation of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation is warranted.
“[T]o say the Court found the testimony elicited from these Defendants shocking is a gross understatement,” Aboulhosn wrote in the 39-page order issued four weeks after an evidentiary hearing that Aboulhosn found revealed “egregious discovery abuses.”
Following that hearing, the eight plaintiffs, who have been Southern Regional inmates, asked the court to sanction four defendants: DCR Commissioner William Marshall III, DCR Executive Officer Brad Douglas, former state Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy and former DCR Commissioner Betsy Jividen.
