‘warlock’ Trial Begins

By Greg Jordan
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 1, 2014

http://www.bdtonline.com/news/article_e471c236-48f5-11e4-b5e9-0ba527202fd3.html


A circuit court jury heard opening statements and witnesses’ testimony Tuesday in the trial of a Mercer County man who allegedly used claims of magical power to get close to children and sexually abuse them.

James Rolan “Jim” Irvin, 57, of Bluefield is being tried before Circuit Court Judge William Sadler multiple charges of sexual assault first degree, sexual abuse first degree, and sexual abuse by a parent or guardian.

Irvin was arrested in April after an investigation by the Bluefield Police Department indicated that Irvin told children he had magical power so he could sexually abuse them. Detectives said Irvin told his victims that he was a “warlock” that practiced paganism and Wicca.

The court spent most of Tuesday morning and the early afternoon selecting a 12-member jury and two alternate jurors. After the jury was seated, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney George Sitler showed the jury a chart that described how Irvin knew the three alleged victims in the case. The girls were approximately 3, 9 and 13 years old when the abuse occurred.

Irvin was living in a “ramshackle” home on Giles Street in Bluefield when the mother of two of the younger girls moved in with him; the seuxal abuse allegedly occurred later. Sitler said a third witness, who is now 25 years old, was approximately 11 when she became acquainted with Irvin, who was one of her old brother’s friends. Irvin started sexually abusing her in 2000, Sitler said. Years later, the mother of the other two girls placed them in Irvin’s care while she was living out of state.

Claiming to have magical powers, Irvin told the oldest girl that he could bring her father, who passed away in 2005, back to life if she cooperated with him, Sitler said.

In the defense’s opening statement, attorney Natalie Hager, who is representing Irvin with attorney William Huffman, said that the case was the result “of an ugly custody battle” between the parents of the two younger girls. They divorced in 2006, and the custody battle continued until 2013. The father tried to portray Irvin as a wiccan and pagan, but Irvin does not practice those belief systems, she said.

Instead, Irvin is a Christian who has studied the Seventh Day Adventist and Southern Baptist faiths, and has tried to become a pastor, Hager said, addin the girls’ mother was a wiccan and pagan at the time of the custody battle.

Irvin became part of the custody dispute when the father tried to “paint the mother as a atrocious person who offered her daughters in a wiccan/pagan ritual,” Hager stated. “In custody battles, parents will try to influence the children.”

Hager urged the jurors to pay attention to the evidence and to the witnesses’ testimony. There was no physical evidence that Irvin sexually abused the children, she said. Social workers and workers with state Child Protective Services checked the two younger girls twice and found nothing.

The first witness, who is now 25, said when questioned by Sitler that she met Irvin, who was her mother’s friend, she was approximately 10 years old. She would go with her elder brother to Irvin’s home, and added that her parents knew and trusted him.

Sitler asked if there was any time Irvin made her feel uncomfortable. She replied the first time was in 2000 before her father passed away. Irvin showed her a book and chart outlining “energy spots” on the human body; these included the breasts and other areas. She said Irvin touched her breasts with circular motions for 15 to 20 minutes, and stated he could make her father feel better.

The witness said Irvin and his wife later moved into a house across the street from her home, and sometimes had custody of her. She said Irvin touched her breasts and private areas again when she was 12 years old, and told her that he could use her energy to bring her dead father back to life.

While being questioned by Sitler and then by Hager, the witness said she never told anybody about the abuse until she spoke with Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department.

The trial continues today.