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WHEELING -- Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson will preside over the case of former police Lt. Phil Redford, who is charged with the felony sexual abuse of a Linsly School student while he worked there as head of security.
During a bond modification hearing scheduled for Jan. 3, Wilson will consider whether to allow contact and communication between Redford, 43, and his alleged victim who is now 18 years old and engaged to be married to Redford.
She was 17 years old when her alleged sexual relationship with Redford began, according to a criminal complaint.
The Jan. 3 hearing is based on a writ of prohibition issued Dec. 6 by Circuit Court Judge David Sims. The writ stopped special Magistrate Scott Hicks' Dec. 6 bond-conditions modification order lifting a previous no-contact order between Redford and the alleged victim. Hicks' decision also loosened travel restrictions against Redford.
Those aren't decisions that Hicks should make, Sims' writ -- which acknowledges Sims' own conflict of interest in the case -- states. Rather, the assigned circuit judge should later make those decisions.
Wilson is now assigned to Redford's case, said Heather Wood, Wilson's law clerk. Court records show Wilson was assigned last week.
During the hearing Jan. 3, he'll hear arguments for the bond modifications from the defense, represented by David Moye of Winfield, W.Va. Brooke County Prosecutor Joe Barki, who represents the state, is expected to argue against the modifications.
Wilson may or may not make a decision at that time, Wood said.
Redford, who worked 21 years as an officer in the Wheeling Police Department until Aug. 9, when he voluntarily retired, is charged with sexual abuse by a person of trust. If convicted, he faces 10 to 20 years in prison and a possible fine.
That case is set to be presented to an Ohio County grand jury next month.
After Redford's Dec. 6 preliminary hearing in Ohio County Magistrate Court, the alleged victim told Hicks she wants to visit and communicate with Redford, to whom she is engaged. She graduated from Linsly in May, and is a student at American University.
Hicks said he found probable cause for the criminal case against Redford to continue, but ordered that Redford and the alleged victim should be allowed contact.
Later that day, Sims issued his stay on Hicks' bond modifications, reverting Redford's bond conditions back to those imposed Nov. 16 by Ohio County Magistrate Patty Murphy, including a no-contact order with the alleged victim.
Redford's travel restriction is another bond condition that Wilson will consider. Hicks expanded Redford's travel to include all of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Travel outside those areas would have to be approved by the judge assigned to the case.
Sims' writ reverted that, as well. Now, under Murphy's original bond conditions, Redford may travel only within a 30-mile radius of Wheeling.