HUNTINGTON – A former Hurricane High School teacher says a host of Putnam and Kanawha county officials conspired to prosecute her on what she calls baseless criminal charges.
Leslie May Greene filed her complaint in federal court September 10 against the Putnam County Commission, Putnam County Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia, Putnam County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Scragg Karr, Putnam County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Sunyog, Putnam County Victim Services Coordinator Marion Smith, Putnam County Deputy Tony Craigo, Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Jodi B. Tyler, Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Morgan Switzer, West Virginia State Police Trooper C.J. Eastridge, the City of Hurricane, Hurricane Police Officer Joshua Lucas and James Mark McCoy.
“The law enforcement members named in the complaint pursued knowingly fraudulent criminal charges against Ms. Greene for almost five years,” Greene’s attorney Russell A. Williams told The West Virginia Record. “Even after they knew the criminal charges against our client were baseless, they continued to relentlessly and maliciously prosecute her.
Sorsaia
“Now that she has been cleared of the vast majority of these false charges, we intend to hold the defendants accountable to the fullest extent of the law for the destruction they have caused to Ms. Greene's life.”
When contacted, Sorsaia said the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the matter.
According to the complaint, Greene and McCoy are the biological parents of a young girl identified only as B.G. She also says McCoy has a history of domestic violence against her and their daughter.
The 53-page complaint details many incident involving Greene and McCoy, starting with an incident in October 2016 when she obtained a Domestic Violence Protective Order against him in Putnam County Magistrate Court after she says McCoy had punched holes in a wall six inches from the daughter’s head and made threats of physical violence against her and the girl.
The complaint also says McCoy was arrested on two consecutive days by Hurricane Police Department officers in 2017 for making multiple harassing calls to Greene. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 12 months of probation and to take a domestic battery class. The DVPO was extended as well.
The complaint includes several instances in which McCoy allegedly violated the DVPO. She says Karr and Lucas refused to help her on several occasions.
She also details an incident on November 4, 2017, when McCoy allegedly entered her home forcibly and tried to intimidate Greene into giving him money. Because of his erratic behavior and potential for violence, Greene says she waited until McCoy was outside before locking him out. When she and her daughter tried to leave the premises in her car, McCoy rammed his vehicle into her car multiple times with Greene and their daughter inside.
Then, she says he tried to hide the vehicle at a relative’s home because the damage indicated he crashed his vehicle into hers, not the other way around. McCoy filed false charges against Greene for destruction of property, battery, false reporting and child endangerment with the Hurricane PD, and an arrest warrant was issued for Greene.
She was arrested two days later and was fired from her job as a high school teacher with the Putnam County Board of Education.
A few days later, she says McCoy filed an emergency protective order based on the charges filed against Greene. She claims Magistrate Linda Hunt didn’t check the court database to see if there were existing protective orders against McCoy that would prevent him from filing one against Greene.
When Craigo served Greene with the unlawful EPO, she told him of the existing DVPO and a family court order against McCoy. He verified the existence of those orders. A few days later, Greene filed a petition for Domestic Violence Civil Contempt against McCoy, but Family Court Judge Richard Witt denied the petition.
She also filed a Motion to Vacate Custody Terms of Emergency Protective Order against McCoy with evidence showing he violated the DVPO and family court order as well as his probation. It also showed he had lied to the court to allow the unlawful EPO to be filed against Greene. Again, Witt denied the motion.
A few weeks later, McCoy pleaded guilty for violating the DVPO in Magistrate Court. He was sentenced to unsupervised probation. State law says a third offense such as this one is punishable for up to a year in jail.
The next day, Craigo issued a criminal complaint against Greene for several charges, including felony concealment of a minor child. Hunt signed the warrant for Greene’s arrest.
“Magistrate Hunt, the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Sorsaia, Prosecutor Karr, Prosecutor Sunyog, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department and Sergeant Craigo all knew or should have known that the unlawful EPO was obtained by false and fraudulent means by Mr. McCoy and was thus invalid,” the complaint states. “There was no probably cause to arrest and charge plaintiff for felony child concealment.”
When Greene surrendered to authorities and the daughter was turned over to McCoy, she says a local television news crew was there and published a false, misleading and defamatory story about the incident. She says the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department also issued a press release and held a news conference announcing the “knowingly false child concealment charges” against her.
Greene was released nine days later and prohibited from being in contact with her daughter. That same day, Greene says she found “damning evidence” on an old cell phone McCoy had left in her possession.
“Plaintiff discovered numerous emails between Mr. McCoy and Victims Services Coordinator Smith (in her official capacity with the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office” from November 2017 which unequivocally establish that during the period when the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office and Putnam County Sheriff’s Department claim plaintiff was ‘concealing’ B.G. from authorities, Mr. McCoy was monitoring plaintiff’s whereabouts and knew exactly where plaintiff and B.G. were, and was passing this information on to Victim Services Coordinator Smith,” the complaint states. “For instance, on November 22, 2017, when the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office and Putnam County Sheriff’s Department claim plaintiff was ‘concealing’ B.G. from authorities, Mr. McCoy sent Victim Services Coordinator Smith an email with a recent picture of plaintiff and B.G. posted by plaintiff on Facebook.
“In the November 22, 2017, email, Mr. McCoy states, ‘[t]his was today about an hour ago’ in reference to the picture.”
Smith responded by saying, “I’m sorry its [sic] frustrating to me as well and I work in this crap every day. I will forward it to Tony [Sergeant Craigo] again but he never responded to the last one.”
The complaint includes a similar exchange between McCoy and Smith the following day. Greene also claims McCoy and Smith were romantically involved with each other at this time.
Greene claims the prosecutor’s office never produced the emails proving she wasn’t concealing the daughter in criminal discovery.
On July 11, 2018, Greene was indicted by a Putnam County Grand Jury on seven felony counts of child concealment, felony conspiracy to commit child concealment and misdemeanor obstructing an officer.
“At no time did Sergeant Craigo (or any other law enforcement officer) come to plaintiff’s residence, try to call plaintiff on the phone or go to plaintiff’s place of employment (as a teacher at Hurricane High School) in order to ‘find’ plaintiff or B.G.,” the complaint states. “During the time that Sergeant Craigo claimed to be unable to ‘find’ plaintiff or B.G., a Hurricane PD officer was stationed at Hurricane High School where plaintiff worked on a daily basis and was present with B.G. on multiple occasions. …
“Sergeant Craigo falsely testified before the Grand Jury that plaintiff was ‘concealing’ B.G. from authorities. … Prosecutor Sorsaia and Prosecutor Karr allowed Sergeant Craigo to falsely testify before the Grand Jury that plaintiff was ‘concealing’ B.G. from authorities.”
Greene also says McCoy made a false allegation of her stalking him to the West Virginia State Police on September 22, 2018. She says he made the allegation in concert with Sorsaia, Karr, Eastridge and possibly others to obtain a search warrant for her cell phone.
On October 13, 2018, Eastridge obtained the search warrant for her phone. It was signed by Hunt. Greene says GPS data later showed her cell phone was nowhere near McCoy when he claims she was stalking him.
The day before, the misdemeanor trial against Greene was held in Putnam County Magistrate Court. She was found guilty of all charged, but she appealed to circuit court.
“At some point in 2018 during the court of plaintiff’s prosecution, then-criminal counsel for plaintiff asked Prosecutor Karr why the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office was relentlessly pursuing baseless criminal charges against plaintiff,” the complaint states. “In response, Prosecutor Karr stated that they believed that plaintiff would ‘either take a plea or kill herself.’”
In a February 2019 hearing on the stalking charges against Greene, she says both McCoy and Eastridge supplied false and misleading testimony claiming she followed McCoy home after meeting at a local McDonald’s to exchange their daughter.
“During his testimony, Trooper Eastridge intimated that he knew the stalking charges against plaintiff were baseless, but that they ‘just wanted to see what was on’ plaintiff’s cellular phone,” the complaint states. “Smith … assisted Mr. McCoy in perjuring himself by ‘nodding along’ while he lied on the stand abut allegedly calling her when plaintiff was purportedly following him after visitations with B.G. – visitations that Mr. McCoy, Trooper Eastridge, Prosecutor Sorsaia, Prosecutor Karr and Victim Services Coordinator Smith knew never occurred.”
She also claims Karr and Eastridge used information from attorney-client privileged emails obtained from her cell phone.
Greene was denied bond and returned to jail. On March 7, 2019, she was indicted on 15 counts of felony stalking, felony interception of electronic communications and various misdemeanor offenses.
Four days later, Greene was released on bond after 42 days in jail and placed on home confinement.
On April 8, 2019, a bench trial was held on the misdemeanor charges against Greene. Because she had contacted Karr in early 2017 asking for help with McCoy for violating the DVPO, the court found Karr was a material witness and disqualified her from the matter. A mistrial was declared.
On August 16, 2019, Greene was released from home confinement after 138 days. The next month, the misdemeanor charges against her were dismissed. Following that dismissal, Sorsaia dismissed all of the charges against Greene.
Then, on November 14, 2019, Greene was indicted against by a Putnam County Grand Jury on three felony counts of concealment of a minor child, stalking and interception of electronic communications. Again, she says Craigo and Eastridge provided false and misleading testimony to the grand jury. She also says Sorsaia didn’t present evidence about McCoy’s three prior convictions for violating the DVPO and family court order and other facts about the case.
On January 14, 2020, Greene asked to have the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office disqualified from the case because of the conflict with Karr. Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutors Tyler and Switzer were appointed as special prosecutors in the case.
On June 28, 2021, the trial was held. Tyler and Switzer dismissed with prejudice the felony stalking charge due to a “complete lack of credible evidence.”
On July 1, 2021, a jury returned a not guilty verdict on the felony child concealment charge.
“During trial … Smith was forced to admit that in November 2017, Mr. McCoy informed her of the whereabouts of plaintiff and B.G.,” the complaint states. “Smith was also forced to admit that she was mandated and duty bound to report (the emails between her and McCoy) to the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office. …
“Craigo was forced to admit that in November 2017 … Smith informed him of the whereabouts of plaintiff and B.G. … Craigo was also forced to admit … he never called plaintiff in an attempt to locate B.G. and never went to plaintiff’s home or work to look for plaintiff or B.G.”
Greene was convicted of felony interception of electronic communications. But she has filed a motion for a new trial and says she will appeal to the state Supreme Court of that motion is denied.
“Defendants’ selective, unjustified and malicious prosecutions of plaintiff – based on false, fraudulent, fabricated and illegally obtained evidence – were unconscionable, unethical and establish a systematic and concerted pattern of law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial misconduct,” the complaint states.
Greene says the alleged misconduct suffered injuries including the loss of custodial rights of her daughter, unnecessary child support payments to McCoy, loss of employment, medical bills because of lost medical insurance, about $100,000 in legal fees, payment of $165 a week for supervised visitation with B.G., $56 a week for home confinement, psychological medical care payments after having been diagnosed with PTSD, emotional pain, stigma and embarrassment of being publicly labels a criminal, being subjected to 51 days in jail and more than 216 days of home confinement as well as “general damages beyond measure.”
She says her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by being falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, subjected to unlawful searches and seizures, and had the custody of her minor child unlawfully taken away. She also says she was a victim of negligence, gross negligence, prime facie negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, defamation of character libel and slander, civil conspiracy, negligent supervision and negligent retention.
Greene seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as pre- and post-judgment interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
She is being represented by Williams and Steve New of New Taylor & Associates in Beckley.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:21-cv-00520