Greenbrier County magistrate Brenda Smith dropped counterfeiting and obtaining goods under false pretenses charges against a former Pocahontas County deputy Tuesday morning.
Smith granted a defense motion to dismiss the charges against Ben Wilfong, who is suing the Pocahontas County Commission and the former sheriff.
The Pocahontas County Prosecuting Attorney’s office was recused from the case on June 17.
Prosecuting Attorney Donna Price said Tuesday afternoon that because of that, Smith ordered the assistant prosecuting attorney out of the courtroom before he could explain the state’s position.
Assistant prosecutor J. L. Clifton said he appeared in magistrate court only to diseminate information, not to try to represent the state.
Price said she had spoken with the director of the prosecuting attorney’s institute on June 22 and had relinquished further prosecution of the case.
However, she said, the director of the institute had a medical emergency and did not appoint a special prosecutor in a timely fashion.
“It is by no stretch of the imagination over,†Price said.
Price said that the State Police investigator who originally filed the charges would return to Pocahontas County to file identical charges and the case would be presented to the Pocahontas County Grand Jury in August or a subsequent grand jury.
The new special prosecutor should be appointed soon, she said.
Wilfong has been suspended from his duties without pay. His status has not changed, according to Sheriff David Jonese.
He was arrested in May on four counts of counterfeiting and one count of obtaining goods under false pretenses. The state alleges that in a civil trial, Wilfong presented checks as evidence that were written on Pendleton Community Bank, but dated before that bank existed in that name. The checks were also dated before the account on which they were written was opened, according to the arrest report.
Wilfong is suing the county commission and Robert Alkire for lost wages and compensatory damages because he claims Alkire did not reinstate him to his position as deputy sheriff because he filed a Worker’s Compensation claim after being injured while he was on duty.
Wilfong's lawsuit has no merit on many legal issues. It is wrong to insinuate that his claim has standing to use as leverage against the people when he should be adjudicated in a federal court and punished accordingly for his commission of five felony counts violating federal law.
