More charges filed in Harrison County against Buffey
More charges filed in Harrison County against Buffey
More charges filed in Harrison County against Buffey
"Not
only did Harrison County prosecutors decide not to drop the charges against a
man who served nearly 15 years for a sexual assault another man was later
convicted of, but, on Friday, they filed more charges against him. A
Harrison County grand jury on Friday indicted Joseph A. Buffey, 33, on charges
that prosecutors had agreed not to pursue as part of Buffey’s plea deal in
2002. Earlier
this year, though, Buffey withdrew from that deal, after the state Supreme
Court ruled that prosecutors had violated his due-process rights by withholding
evidence from him. In
addition to charges stemming from the assault and robbery of an 83-year-old
Clarksburg woman, on which Buffey is set to stand trial in October, he was
indicted Friday on charges of third-degree sexual assault, aiding and abetting
breaking and entering and conspiracy to commit breaking and entering, according
to a Harrison circuit clerk. “The
State apparently wasn’t satisfied taking 14 years of Joe Buffey’s life for
crimes he did not commit while withholding, in violation of his Constitutional
Rights, DNA results that exonerated him,” one of Buffey’s lawyers, Allan
Karlin, of Morgantown, said in a statement after finding out about the charges
in the indictment. “Now prosecutors are piling on new charges, from events
allegedly occurring over 15 years ago. This appears to be nothing more than
retaliation against Joe Buffey for successfully establishing that his rights
were violated, and punishment for the fact that he continues to maintain his
innocence of the original charges. Sadly, the State appears to have forgotten
that it is supposed to stand for justice.” In
February, the state Supreme Court found that Harrison County prosecutors
violated Buffey’s due-process rights by not disclosing the results of a DNA
test before Buffey pleaded guilty. Justices unanimously sent Buffey’s case back
before a Harrison County circuit judge, where he was allowed to withdraw from
the plea. It was up to prosecutors whether to take the case to trial or drop
the charges. Buffey’s
guilty plea in 2002, to the charges he will be tried on in October, came after
a nine-hour interrogation and after his court-appointed lawyer advised him that
his sentence would not be any greater than the sentence he would receive for
separate non-violent robbery charges. Buffey
soon asked to recant his plea and requested the results of the DNA test. The
test had been completed — and indicated Buffey was not the assailant — prior to
his plea being finalized, but neither he nor his lawyers had ever seen the
results, despite asking for them."
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