CLAY MAN TO PRESENT HIS OWN MALICIOUS WOUNDING CASE TO GRAND JURY

(02/06/2016)
WCHS-TV NEWS - In December, WCHS Eyewitness News told you about Roger King -- a victim in what West Virginia State Police said is a malicious wounding case.

Troopers said King was jogging last summer when he was attacked.

King had to be airlifted to a hospital where he spent three days in the intensive care unit.

Troopers charged the suspect with malicious wounding, a felony.

King, his family and State Police, are frustrated that Clay Prosecutor Jim Samples' office threw out the case. It was never heard by a grand jury, even though troopers had a confession from the suspect.

"They just threw the whole thing out like it never happened," King said. "That's the furthest thing from the truth. I died in the hospital."

Sample's office would not give an exact reason as to why they threw out the case.

In a statement to Eyewitness News he would only cite "a discrepancy" in King's medical records.

Harry Deitzler spent nine years as the prosecutor for Wood County. He has been the president of the State Bar and the West Virginia Prosecutors Association.

"It's not appropriate to only say there's a discrepancy in the medical records," Deitzler said. "What and why? The citizens have a right to know." Deitzler said if someone has a problem with a county prosecutor, there is not a whole lot victims, law enforcement, even criminals can do.

"There isn't anything the citizens can do until the next election," Deiztler said. "The governor cannot tell the prosecuting attorney what to do; the attorney general has nothing to do."

It took a three-judge panel appointed by the state Supreme Court to remove embattled Kanawha prosecutor Mark Plants back in 2014. It was a saga that played out for months.

If a victim has an issue with a prosecutor's decision not to move a case, it's rare, but Deitzler said a victim legally has the right to present his or her own case to a grand jury.

"West Virginia law provides that a victim in a case can go forward and present evidence to a grand jury without the prosecutor," Deitzler said.

The precedent for this was established in a state Supreme Court case in 1981 in which a Clay County citizen was unhappy with the prosecutor. The high court ruled an "individual citizen-complainant has a constitutional right to appear before a grand jury to present evidence of an alleged offense."