Ex-teacher pleads guilty to sex assault charges
SUTTON - A former sixth-grade teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday tocharges of having sex with three juveniles.
Toni Woods, 37, of Strange Creek was accused of having sexualintercourse with three juveniles a total of four times and oral sexwith one of those juveniles and a fourth juvenile a total of fourtimes, according to a criminal complaint.
She pleaded guilty to four counts of felony third-degree sexualassault and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquencyof a minor. Prosecutors dismissed one sexual assault count becausethe victim was 16 at the time.
In West Virginia, third-degree sexual assault is a crime in whichan adult has sex with someone who is under 16, if the adult is atleast four years older than the juvenile and is not married to thejuvenile.
Several juveniles told police they had sexual encounters withWoods between Jan. 1 and Feb. 26.
After she was charged, Woods resigned from her teaching post atBraxton County Middle School and surrendered her teachingcertificate.
She will now have to register as a sex offender.
Woods will be sentenced March 13.
Target cashier accused of embezzling gift card
GRANVILLE - A department store cashier has been accused of usingmore than her employee discount to save money on items she purchasedat the store.
Tammy Brezinski of Charleroi, Pa., was charged this week withembezzling a $500 gift card from a Target store in Granville and thenusing the card and her employee discount to buy several items,according to State Police Trooper T.W. Morris and a criminalcomplaint filed in Monongalia County Magistrate Court.
Brezinski allegedly activated the card but did not put money inher cash register after the transaction, the complaint said. Sheremains free on $1,000 bond. If convicted, she faces up to one yearin jail and up to $2,500 in fines.
Ex-organizer sentenced for taking festival funds
WHEELING - The former administrator for the Upper Ohio ValleyItalian Festival has been sentenced to two to 20 years in prison fortaking nearly $43,000 from the organization's scholarship fund.
Linda DeLelles, 51, of Tiltonsville, Ohio, was sentenced Tuesdayby Ohio County Circuit Judge Martin Gaughan and has until Monday toreport to the Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville to begin servingher term.
Gaughan also ordered DeLelles to make restitution to the ItalianFestival.
DeLelles pleaded guilty in November to two counts of forgery andtwo of uttering.
Another defendant, Kathryn Smith, 50, of Wheeling, pleaded guiltyto the same charges in July, admitting that she took more than$84,000 from the fund. Smith, who is a former festival volunteer andDeLelles' cousin, was also sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutor David B. Cross has said the women wrote about 20 checkseach, and that both were initially unaware of the other's actions.
All but $35,000 of the embezzled money has been recovered,according to Italian Festival Board Chairman Robert Gaudio.
The missing money was discovered in October of 2004 as festivalorganizers were cleaning up from flooding that destroyed the festivaloffice.
The money was from an account that funded scholarships forgraduating high school students from Ohio, Marshall, Brooke andHancock counties in West Virginia and Belmont and Jefferson countiesin Ohio.
No scholarships were affected.
State summit to be held to plan for flu pandemic
Local and state officials and private sector representatives fromacross West Virginia will gather in Charleston in January for a one-day summit on planning for a pandemic flu outbreak, Gov. Joe Manchinsaid Wednesday.
The goal of the West Virginia Flu Pandemic Summit, set for Jan.12, is to raise awareness about the need to plan for a pandemic fluor other health-related crisis, Manchin said.
U.S. Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, state Health andHuman Resources Secretary Martha Walker and state Military Affairsand Public Safety Secretary Jim Spears are scheduled to address thesummit.
A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic of a disease. About 20 percentof the global population came down with the Spanish flu near the endof World War I, according to global health records.
'This summit is part of our proactive efforts to be prepared forany type of health or homeland security concern that might come ourway,' the governor said. 'We want to make sure that we are doingeverything in our power to identify and secure all of the resourcesnecessary to protect our citizens from any potential harm.'
State and local agencies are developing plans to deal withpandemic flu. A Web site containing the state's flu preparations andsurveillance information will be launched soon, Manchin said.
N.C. to pay portion of fugitive's hospital bills
YADKINVILLE, N.C. - Yadkin County leaders have agreed to pay morethan $57,000 in hospital bills for a man wanted on a fugitive warrantfrom West Virginia until he became sick.
Law enforcement officials in Kanawha County, W.Va., then droppedtheir extradition request for William Joseph Spencer, who was chargedin that county with breaking and entering and failure to appear incourt.
Spencer had been arrested Aug. 27, 2003, during a traffic stop inYadkin County. While authorities arranged to return him to WestVirginia, the fugitive became ill and went into a coma.
'When the authorities from West Virginia found out he was in thehospital, West Virginia didn't want him anymore,' said James Graham,the Yadkin County attorney.
Spencer was a patient at Wake Forest University Baptist MedicalCenter for 60 days at a cost of $164,373.40, Graham said.
Negotiators from Yadkin County and the hospital agreed recentlythat Yadkin would pay only the costs associated with Spencer'semergency care - $57,404.31, Graham said.
Woman enters plea in raccoon possession
MARTINSBURG - A woman accused of illegally keeping about 60raccoons on her property has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanorwildlife charge.
Tests showed that at least one raccoon had parvovirus, which canbe fatal if untreated, and all had lesions on their paws from beingconfined to cages.
Patricia Hoffman-Butler, 47, who has said she is an animalrehabilitator, pleaded no contest to one count of illegal possessionof wildlife on Dec. 13 in Berkeley County Magistrate Court. She wasfined $20 and ordered to pay $153.50 in court costs.
Hoffman-Butler was originally charged Oct. 1 after a State Policetrooper responding to a report of shots fired in the area saw theraccoons. She does not have a state permit to possess wildlife, theDivision of Natural Resources has said.
None of the animals tested positive for rabies.
The DNR raided Hoffman-Butler's property in late October andseized and euthanized all the raccoons. Conservation officersbelieved the animals were a potential health threat to otherwildlife, said Curtis Taylor, DNR's wildlife resources chief.
Cat trips lock system, locking owner out of car
MORGANTOWN - Locking yourself out of your car is bad enough, butJeanna Stewart was even more embarrassed when the culprit was nother, but her cat.
The Morgantown resident said she was getting a spare house key outher car's trunk on Monday when her cat Mork, one of three in the car,stepped on the automatic door lock. She couldn't unlock the doorbecause she had left her car keys on the driver's seat.
'He wouldn't unlock the door for me,' Stewart said Tuesday. 'Hewas standing there, saying 'Why aren't you opening the door? I wantto go inside.''
Stewart went into her house and called the Morgantown FireDepartment for help. She said she was mainly concerned about freeingMork and the other cats, Minday and Alex.
Compiled from wire reports
