CHARLESTON — Despite telling reporters last week they would no longer discuss the ongoing criminal case involving the family members of a dead Boone County child, the Department of Human Services continues to get itself in hot water with the county prosecutor.

During a weekly administration briefing Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Jim Justice and Chief of Staff Brian Abraham said they were not trying to interfere in an ongoing criminal case involving Julie Miller and Jerry and Donna Stone.

“I don’t think we’ve found anything where Jim Justice’s office and everything has been trying to hide anything from you,” Justice said. “I guess people make mistakes, but I’m not going to be somebody that’s going to contribute to doing anything that’s not fully transparent.”

Miller is the mother of 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller, while the Stone family are her grandparents. All three are charged with child neglect resulting in death after Boone County deputies found Kyneddi Miller dead in a skeletal and malnourished condition.

According to WCHS-TV, Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Holstein filed a motion Tuesday asking Circuit Court Judge Stacy Nowicki-Eldridge whether DoHS and the Governor’s Office should be held in contempt of court after DoHS emailed him several documents that possibly included statements made by Julie Miller to DoHS officials.

During a briefing last week regarding an internal investigation by the Governor’s Office into how DoHS, the West Virginia State Police, and county education officials handled past contact with Kyneddi Miller and her family, Abraham confirmed that a DoHS investigator had made contact with Julie Miller while in jail without informing Miller’s defense attorneys, something he said last week was “incredibly stupid.”

Those same attorneys sought a motion to stop last week’s press briefing by the Governor’s Office, though Nowicki-Eldridge ruled the briefing on the internal investigation could continue as long as no information from the DoHS interview with Miller was released. The judge later ordered the Governor’s Office to produce its internal investigation along with witness statements and interviews with the defendants to the defense attorneys. The state was also ordered not to send the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney any statements made by Miller without her attorneys present.

Despite reaching out to DoHS to inquire about the contents of the email attachments and ensure that the attachments did not include the prohibited information, attorneys for DoHS never got back to him. According to WCHS-TV, Holstein was made aware of conversations between Miller’s defense attorneys and the Governor’s Office where they said they could not comply with the court’s order despite having no objection in a previous hearing. A new hearing regarding the motion to hold the state in contempt of court is pending.

Speaking during Wednesday’s briefing, Abraham said the state is not a party in the Boone County criminal proceedings. He said he has since talked with both Judge Nowicki-Eldridge, Prosecuting Attorney Holstein, and Miller’s defense attorneys and agreed to turn over all materials to the court for the judge to decide how to distribute. He also said he was not aware that DoHS had not been responsive to Holstein.

“I’m advised that material was provided to the prosecutor. That’s normal protocol, but the prosecutor doing the right thing, wanted to make sure that he didn’t get information he shouldn’t have,” said Abraham, a former county prosecuting attorney himself. “I got on a phone call myself personally (Tuesday) with both attorneys and the judge, and it was agreed that all material would be turned over to the court, and the court would give each party what it was they were entitled to.”

In other news Wednesday, Justice announced that Jeffrey Pack, the commissioner of the Bureau for Social Services, will be leaving that position once his replacement is found to become the new cabinet-level commissioner of the Bureau of Senior Services. The previous commissioner, Denise Worley, left in May for a job in the private sector.

“I’m excited to announce that as soon as we have a replacement ready to go, Jeff Pack will be taking a new role as commissioner of the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services,” Justice said. “Jeff’s done all kinds of stuff and there’s no point in me going through all of it and everything…There’s so many things. This is a superstar in my book, and so Jeff, congratulations.”

Pack, a former pest control worker, was appointed by Justice in 2018 to the House of Delegates to replace Republican John O’Neal IV as one of Raleigh County’s representatives at the statehouse. He quickly rose to the chair of the House Health and Human Resources Committee before being appointed by former Department of Health and Human Resources Cabinet Secretary Bill Crouch of the newly created Bureau of Social Services in July 2021.

Now within the new Department of Human Services, the Bureau for Social Services oversees the state foster care system, adult residential services, and Child Protective Services. Pack’s transition is now the second high-profile person to leave the state child welfare system in recent weeks. Pamela Woodman-Kaehler, the state’s first foster care ombudsman, resigned last week to pursue a new work opportunity. Both Pack and Woodman-Kaehler were well respected among child welfare advocates and lawmakers.