MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A Monongalia County jury has convicted a former chief of the Bunners Ridge Volunteer Fire Department in a sexual assault case from the 1990s.
Court documents said Roger Channell had sexual contact with a female juvenile during the time she was between 9 and 11 years old. At the time, Channell was 20.
“The state was happy for a just verdict today and happy to provide this childhood victim of sexual abuse the justice she’s been waiting for for decades,” Monongalia County Prosecutor Gabe Mucciola said.
Mucciola said the state charged Channell using sex assault statutes from the 1990s, and those will be the guidelines at sentencing.
The jury found him guilty of one count of sex abuse by a parent or custodian, one count of sex abuse, one count of sex assault in the first degree and one count of sex abuse in the first degree.
Channell has been ordered to be held until sentencing.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Channell was arrested in July 2023.
Story by Mike Nolting, MetroNews