CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Supreme Court has ordered the suspension of a Putnam County attorney who is facing a federal child pornography charge.
The Supreme Court ordered the suspension on Feb. 14 and appointed a trustee to protect the interests of Stephen C. Sluss’ clients.
On Dec. 13, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel presented a petition seeking the immediate suspension of Sluss and the appointment of a trustee.
Sluss, whose Putnam County practice was located just across the street from Hurricane Middle School, was charged with receipt of child pornography after an investigation that started in May. Sluss also is a former assistant prosecuting attorney in Kanawha County as well as a former Mineral County commissioner and House of Delegate member.
The criminal complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on Dec. 4.
Sgt. Talia Divita, a West Virginia State Police officer working in the Crimes Against Children Unit, authored the complaint.
On May 13, ChatStep, an online group chat site, alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user had uploaded an image of possible child pornography and identified Sluss’ user name.
On May 22, Divita reviewed the image, which was of a minor female between the ages of 12 and 15 years old. She then obtained an administrative subpoena in order to identify who the user name belonged to, according to court documents.
A forensic examination was done on Sluss’ computers and five video files were found that contained minor females between the ages of 5 and 7 performing sex acts.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number: 17-1080