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Greenbrier commissioners plead not guilty

LEWISBURG, W.Va. — A current and former Greenbrier County commissioner entered not guilty pleas during their arraignments Thursday in Greenbrier County Circuit Court.

Current Commission President Karen Lobban and former president Betty Crookshanks were indicted earlier this month on misdemeanor charges connected to the alleged misappropriation of the hotel-motel tax.

Both pleaded not guilty Thursday and had pretrial hearings scheduled for Sept. 15.

Commissioner Lobban told a reporter from WVVA-TV Thursday the charges were a witch hunt. Former commissioner Crookshanks previously told MetroNews she did not violate the law.

At question is a $1.3 million allocation of revenues from the hotel-motel tax for a swimming pool project in Lewisburg at the New River Community and Technical College.

“I’m rather surprised because we followed the advice of our prosecuting attorney who said, in a letter that we received in 2010 when we made the agreement with the college, that he saw no law that would prevent us from renovating the pool and the property of the college,” Crookshanks previously told MetroNews.





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