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Trooper supervision questionedWelch police detachment had ‘fraternity house’ atmosphereMARTHA BRYSON HODELAssociated Press WriterBLUEFIELD — West Virginia State Police focused more on the sex crimes of a small town police chief and the 20-year-old Rainbow Family murders than on cleaning up the “fraternity house” atmosphere at its Welch detachment a top officer has testified.Maj. John P Bragg, commander of State Police Troop 6, said he knew of “major problems with supervision at the Welchdetachment” when he took command of the southern West Virginia troop in August 1997.Bragg testified before the sentencing of a former Welch trooper, Gary Messenger II, to seven years and three months in prison for violating the civil rights of a man who complained about noise and gunshots from a nearby state police retirement party.The break-in and attack on Neal Rose,his pregnant fiancee and his 11-year-old niece was recorded when Rose called McDowell County 911 operators and left his telephone off the hook.In Messenger’s sentencing hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge David Faber said the attack on the Rose family by Messenger and other Welch troopers was just one of six that had been investigated by the FBI.Although none of the other cases was prosecuted, Faber said he was “disturbed by the frequency and similarity of these complaints.”“That is the compelling factor here,” Faber said.State police Superintendent Gary Edgell called the situation “unfortunate,” but said it is not representative of his police force.“The state police is a well-trained and well-respected institution throughout our state,” he said.Edgell conceded that the episode “has given the agency a black eye.“It will take some time to recuperate but we are in the healing process,” Edgell said.In his testimony Monday, Bragg said he was aware of the problems in Welch, and ascribed them to a detachment commander who “couldn’t handle dailysupervision.”To resolve the problem, Bragg assigned Sgt. Scott Vanmeter as commander at Welch, replacing Sgt. Steve Cox, who subsequently retired.But Vanmeter was reassigned by headquarters twice in that first year to work on other high-profile investigations, including the two decades-old Rainbow Family murders and the investigation of former Gauley Bridge Police Chief Lee Edward Jones, who was convicted in 1999 of 54 counts of sexual assault and abuse of young boys.The decision once again left young officers in Welch without leadership for months at a time, Bragg said.
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Times News
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Thu, Dec 07, 2000
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WV, USA 17 May 2020
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