WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Daily Mail
by Tyler Bell, Police Reporter
The West Virginia Supreme Court concurred unanimously last Tuesday to support a writ of prohibition submitted by the counsel of children being required to foot half the bill for their rapist’s legal expenses in Berkeley County.
The 13-page decision filed by the state’s highest court suggests Judge Gray Silver III, of the Berkeley County Circuit Court, was entirely erroneous in his decision to force the 12 children and 11 parents to foot the legal bills for convicted rapist Christopher Michael Jensen, 23.
“The majority’s conclusion that the circuit court ‘inequitably’ required the plaintiffs to pay the guardian ad litem fees incurred in defense of their accused molester may be one of the more remarkable understatements offered by this Court,” Justice Allen Loughry II and Chief Justice Margaret Workman wrote in a concurring opinion.
“I cannot fathom how the circuit court justified requiring the plaintiffs to contribute to their alleged, and for some, convicted, molester’s defense,” the justices continued. “There is no question that the apportionment of fees was error. Moreover, this error was heavily exacerbated by the circuit court’s abject failure to define the proper scope of the guardian ad litem’s duties.”
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