SENTENCED — Former Wellsburg police officer Jonathan Griffin, right, was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years of supervised release, including two years of house arrest, after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. He is seated with is attorney, Donald Tennant. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — A former police officer was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years of supervised release, including two years of house arrest, and will be required to register as a sex offender for life. 

The sentence came following a plea agreement entered into by Jonathan Griffin, 28, of Follansbee, who had served the Wellsburg Police Department for several months before his arrest in August 2021. 

First Judicial Circuit Court Judge Ronald Wilson said while on house arrest, Griffin will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device and his activity outside his home will be limited to going to and from work and court-required mental health treatment, no more than an hour for grocery shopping and no more than 15 minutes to get gas for his vehicle.  

Griffin’s attorney, Donald Tennant, noted conditions of the supervised release prohibit him from entering a school, something he may ask the court to revisit if he should have a child in the future. 

Wilson said Griffin’s past service as a Marine and law enforcement officer had some bearing on his decision to approve an alternate sentence for him. 

“Of course, that cuts both ways,” said the judge, who added being a police officer, Griffin “should have known better.” 

“The lesson still needs to go out you can’t do what you did without paying a penalty,” said Wilson. 

Tennant told the court Griffin had wanted very much to serve in law enforcement and now “understands he’ll no longer be eligible to fill his dream job of a police officer anywhere in the United States.” 

An indictment against Griffin returned by a Brooke County grand jury alleged he was found in possession of an electronic cloud file storage containing16 digital photos and six digital videos of minors engaged in sexual acts or exhibition. 

But his plea agreement referred to just one pornographic photo found on his phone. 

Special Prosecutor Gale Kahle declined to comment on the case Wednesday but earlier had filed a motion to temporarily dismiss the indictment on the grounds “certain information presented to the Brooke County Grand Jury on March 7 may not have been factually accurate.”  

The motion was accepted by the court and the charge against Griffin was refiled. 

West Virginia State Police Sgt. J.E. Dean, who investigated the case, said the origin of the image in question hasn’t been determined, noting it could be from the U.S. or another country. 

But he said the image has been submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a not-for-profit organization whose database might help to determine the minor’s identity. 

Also appearing before the court on Wednesday was Michael T. Malson, 29, of Wellsburg who pleaded guilty to unlawful assault and was sentenced to one to five years in prison and two years of supervised probation, conditions of which include having no firearms in his possession and no contact with the victim. 

Brooke County Assistant Prosecutor David F. Cross said charges against Malson stem from a Dec. 19, 2021, incident in which he punched a woman known to him and held her in a headlock. 

An allegation that Malson also attempted to strangle the woman was dropped as part of a plea agreement reached by his attorney, Pete Kurelac, and Cross.