UPDATE: New Consolidation Plan is Same as Old Plan

The Commentator has confirmed this morning with a source close to the Webster County Board of Education that the new school consolidation plan that is on the Board's agenda for its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, February 14, 2013, is the same plan that was previously proposed, with the legal technicalities previously found objectionable apparently corrected.

Readers will recall that the old plan withdrawn on December 18, 2012 proposed the closure of the Diana Elementary School and the Glade Middle School, with all seventh and eighth grade students in the County (except for Hacker Valley) to be transferred to the Webster County High School. Students from Diana would be sent to Webster Springs or Hacker Valley. The new plan has the same proposals.

BREAKING NEWS: Superintendent Proposes New School Consolidation Plan to Close Diana, Glade Middle Schools

Webster County Superintendent of Schools Martha Dean is wasting no time in proposing a new school consolidation plan, and the proposal is listed on the Board of Education's agenda for its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Board's offices in Webster Springs.

LaCosta Westfall, head of the Diana Save Our School committee, is already rallying support against the closure of the Diana Elementary School. Westfall was instrumental in hiring Cowen attorney Dan Hardway to successfully challenge the prior school consolidation plan, which was withdrawn by Dean back on December 18, 2012. 

The Board's agenda for February 12, 2013 lists "Consider approving closure documents for Diana Elementary School and Glade Middle School" and "Further consider establishing hearing dates" among the many items the Board is scheduled to consider at this meeting. Westfall and a host of other concerned persons already plan to attend the meeting and some plan to be placed on the agenda to speak to Board members.

Westfall has once again engaged the services of attorney Hardway. Today, Hardway sent several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to Superintendent Dean, to the West Virginia State Board of Education, and to the West Virginia State School Building Authority. 

The Commentator will be contacting Hardway for further details about the FOIA requests. We also hope to shortly find out more details about the new consolidation plan if it proposes anything other than what was listed on the agenda (i.e., closing Diana and Glade Middle). Stay tuned for further breaking news on this story.

Judge Takes Guilty Plea Under Consideration

Peggy Sue Chambers

In court proceedings on Tuesday, a Cowen woman entered a guilty plea to delivering morphine to a confidential informant, but Judge Jack Alsop has not yet decided whether to accept the plea and instead ordered that the woman undergo a competency evaluation.

Peggy Sue Chambers, age 48, pleaded guilty to the felony crime of Delivery of a Controlled Substance. In exchange for her plea, the Prosecutor agreed to dismiss related charges of felony Conspiracy. Also, as part of her plea agreement with the State, Chambers must give a statement to law enforcement and testify in any court proceedings regarding any co-defendants and/or Daniel Williams who may have been present or assisting Chambers in the crime.

After questioning Chambers in open court, Judge Alsop was of the opinion to have Chambers evaluated for competency before deciding whether to accept or reject her plea. The case has been continued to a later date until the evaluation has been performed.

According to the original criminal complaint filed against Chambers by State Police Trooper S.C. Baier, Chambers sold a morphine pill to a confidential informant on May 13, 2012. The complaint states that Chambers sold the pill for $70.00 after obtaining the pill from a neighbor (Daniel Williams). Finally, the complaint said that Chambers confessed to the crime to Trooper Baier and Deputy Sheriff Jack Cutlip.

Because morphine is a Schedule II controlled narcotic substance, Chambers could face a prison sentence of not less than one but not more than 15 years. Chambers is currently out on bond awaiting further proceedings in her case.

Liberty Raiders Beat Back Highlanders 75 to 58

The Liberty-Raleigh Raiders beat back every comeback attempt by the Webster County Highlanders Wednesday evening at the Beckley Convention Center/Raleigh County Armory and ran away with a 75 to 58 win.

Opening tip off against the Liberty Raiders: Displaying his quick reflexes

and amazing leaping ability, Morris actually jumped higher than the 6 foot

10 inch tall Raider center Levi Cook. Brett missed the ball but the tip was

still controlled by Webster.

Webster dug themselves a hole in the first half, trailing the Raiders 19 to 11 at the end of the first quarter and by a 34 to 22 score at halftime. Some very questionable fouls called on seniors Hunter Given and Brett Morris hampered Webster's efforts in the first half. Both Given and Morris had three fouls each going into halftime.

A full court press and aggressive play on offense sparked a Highlander third quarter comeback. With 4:21 remaining in the third quarter, Webster trailed by only 4 at 38 to 34 and had possession of the ball looking to cut into the Raider lead even further. The teams traded baskets and Webster still trailed by 4 at 40 to 36 with 3:55 remaining in the quarter.

At this point in the game, the shooting by the Raiders began to heat back up and Webster began to cool down. The third quarter ended with Webster trailing 50 to 43 thanks to a last second three point shot by Morris.

In the fourth quarter, the Highlanders kept the game relatively close trailing by 10 points during most of the quarter until the final minute. With less than a minute to go in the game, the Raiders picked up three easy baskets to pull away by 17 for the final score of 75 to 58.

Morris led the Highlanders with 28 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 assists. Dalton Davis turned in a strong performance, as he scored 14 points, along with 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist. Other Highlanders on the stat sheet included: Hunter Given, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist; Stephen Cogar, 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists; Jake Thayer, 2 points, 1 rebound; Guy Cowger, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist; Logan Taylor, 2 rebounds; Rick Holcomb, 1 rebound; and Robbie Cogar, 3 steals.

As a team, Webster made a cold 24 of 64 shot attempts (37%), including only 4 of 14 from 3 point range (28%). The Highlanders visited the free throw line only 8 times, making 6 shots (75%), with all free throw shots coming from Morris. This free throw statistic is most telling about the fairness of the referees during the game (Brett was the only Highlander to be at the foul line throughout the entire game?--that is quite hard to believe).

With the loss, Webster drops to 11 wins, 3 losses on the season. Liberty-Raleigh is scheduled to travel to Upperglade Saturday for a rematch, with the Junior Varsity tip off at 1:00 p.m. followed by the varsity tip off at 2:30 p.m.

On a bright note, the Highlander JV team pulled away from the Raider JV's in the fourth quarter to win 36 to 22.

Webster Springs Man Sues Over Medical Record Fees

A Webster Springs man recently filed a lawsuit against West Virginia University Healthcare (WVUH) regarding a more than $500.00 medical records fee charged by WVUH for records that were delivered to his lawyer on a compact disc (CD) rather than actual photocopies.

Christopher Thomack of Webster Springs has been involved in a personal injury lawsuit when his lawyer, David Goddard of Clarksburg, requested copies of Thomack's medical records from WVUH as part of that lawsuit. The records were produced for a fee in excess of $500.00 for the 1,200 plus medical record pages electronically copied onto the CD.

Attorney David Goddard

According to attorney Goddard, WVUH stores all medical records electronically. "There is very little cost for them to produce records that way--just a couple clicks on a computer and a 25 cent CD," he said.

The complaint is not that the records were delivered on a CD; the complaint is the high fee for doing so. As technology has advanced, fewer medical providers actually have to hire folks to stand at a copy machine to copy volumes of records. Now, most providers do this electronically at a computer and at very little cost.

Goddard explained that under West Virginia law, all patients have a right of access to their medical records and that medical providers like WVUH are entitled to compensation for their actual expenses in producing medical records requested by patients. Under that law (see link below), providers can charge a copying fee of an absolute maximum of 75 cents per page, plus a $10.00 search fee.

In the lawsuit over the medical records fee that was filed in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, Goddard is seeking to have the lawsuit certified as a class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons who were charged these high fees for records placed on CD's over the past five years. The number of potential plaintiffs other than Thomack could number into the thousands. "Only WVUH knows the actual number, and we have filed discovery requests to find out how many there are," Goddard added.

Goddard also noted that medical provides outside of West Virginia as well as some in the State have adjusted their medical record fees to reflect the ease of putting electronically stored records onto a CD. "Other states charge a flat $25.00 for this service regardless of the number of records since it is done electronically, and some hospitals in West Virginia have adjusted their fee practice to take the same approach," Goddard said.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Thomack seeks two types of relief. First, the lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment whereby the Court would rule that WVUH can not bill these types of fees in the future. Second, the lawsuit seeks to get back all or some of the overcharges for the past five years for all members of the class action lawsuit.

"This has become a profit center for the [medical providers] and that was not the intent of the law [when providing compensation for producing medical records]," Goddard noted. WVUH has not yet filed any formal response to the lawsuit.

For more information about attorney Goddard, and for contact information should you wish to join the class action lawsuit, please click on this link:
http://www.goddardlawwv.com

To read the West Virginia law regarding costs which can be charged for medical records, please click this link:

http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/ChapterEntire.cfm?chap=16&art=29

Under the federal law known as HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), a medical provider can charge a reasonable fee for medical records. HIPPA provides that the fee must be "cost based," such as actual copying of records (supplies and labor for the copying) and postage. To read the HIPPA law on medical records, please click this link (on page 3 of the link under the heading fees are costs discusssed):

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title45-vol1/pdf/CFR-2011-title45-vol1-sec164-524.pdf

Drug Dealer Pleads Guilty

A Cowen man accused of selling morphine to a confidential informant has pleaded guilty to the crime in Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Donald E. Chaffin

Donald E. Chaffin, age 27, of Dennison Run Road in Cowen, pleaded guilty to the felony crime of Delivery of a Controlled Substance in connection with his sale of morphine to an informant working for the State Police on May 14, 2012. Chaffin remains incarcerated pending a pre-sentence report and sentencing hearing. He has been in jail since his arrest on June 29, 2012. 

Chaffin pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with the crime. Ordinarily, an accused can not be convicted of a felony crime unless his case has been presented to a Grand Jury and the Grand Jury returns an indictment. However, an accused can waive presentation of the case to the Grand Jury, and agree to plead guilty to a charge drawn up by the Prosecutor, which is known as an Information. Chaffin waived presentment to the Grand Jury.

According to the original criminal complaint filed against Chaffin by State Police Trooper S.C. Baier, Chaffin sold half a morphine pill to a confidential informant on May 14, 2012. Chaffin sold the pill to the informant for $30.00, and the sale occurred at the bottom of the stairs leading to the residence of Tim Malcomb on Park Street in Cowen, which is within 1,000 feet of the Glade Elementary School.

The informant was provided with one $20 bill and one $10 bill. Both of those bills were later located in Chaffin's possession as Chaffin was attempting to hide the currency. According to the complaint, Chaffin said that "we should never have sent someone to buy drugs from him" and further "to tell him hi."

Because morphine is a Schedule II narcotic substance, the prison penalty for this crime is not less than one year but not more than 15 years. In addition, since the sale occurred within 1,000 feet of a school, and because the drug is a narcotic, the minimum prison term could be tripled; however, the State as part of the plea agreement is not seeking to enhance Chaffin's sentence. As such, he will face not less than one but not more than 15 years.

Yet Another Meth Lab Defendant Pleads Guilty

The number of people operating or conspiring to operate methamphetamine (meth) labs in Webster County continues to grow, and so do the arrests and guilty pleas.

Connie J. Hosey

On Tuesday, before Webster County Circuit Court Judge Jack Alsop, Connie J. Hosey, age 38, of Mills Mountain Road near Cowen, pleaded guilty to the felony crime of Conspiracy to Operate or Attempt to Operate a Clandestine Drug Lab. In exchange for her guilty plea to the Conspiracy charge, the State dropped the related felony charge of Operating or Attempting to Operate a Clandestine Drug  Lab. As part of the plea agreement reached between Hosey and the State, Hosey agreed to give to law enforcement a statement about other individuals involved in the conspiracy and operation of the meth lab, and to testify in Court if required. 

Hosey has been incarcerated since her arrest on September 16, 2012. She had not yet been indicted by a Grand Jury, but waived presentation of her case to a Grand Jury, and agreed to plead guilty in Circuit Court. After her plea hearing, Hosey was sent back to jail pending a pre-sentence report by the Court's probation office and pending the sentencing hearing. 

According to the original criminal complaint filed against Hosey, police went to 792 Mills Mountain Road in Webster County on September 15, 2012 to investigate a report of possible stolen property. Officers secured consent from Hosey to search the residence and they discovered several items related to a possible meth lab, including dismantled cold packs, coffee filters with white residue, dismantled lithium batteries, and pipes. Officers also noted a strong chemical smell coming from the rear of the home. 

Mark Wayne Linkous (left) and Brier Jon Cutlip have also
been charged with Conspiracy and Operating or Attempting
to Operate a Meth Lab, but both are awaiting trial.

About 25 feet behind the rear door of the house, one officer found a green two liter pop bottle with a white substance and what appeared to be lithium battery strips. Mark Wayne Linkous and Brier Jon Cutlip were also present and were directly associated with the active meth lab. Hosey gave a statement to the officers that she had made a deal with Linkous that she would allow him to cook meth at her house in exchange for a portion of the finished product. Hosey also said that Linkous and Cutlip had exited the rear of her house about 20 minutes before the officers arrived, with the intent to cook meth.

Linkous and Cutlip have also been charged with similar crimes in this matter and are awaiting trial. Both Linkous and Cutlip have also been incarcerated at the Central Regional Jail since September 16, 2012.