Credit card involved in Wayne County assessor embezzlement case remained active

WAYNE, W.Va. — Despite being free on bond facing embezzlement charges, Wayne County Assessor Eric Hodges still felt compelled to go shopping with his county issued credit card.  Hodges’ bond was revoked Monday after it was learned there was new activity on the credit card which was originally used to purchase guns, ammunition, and tools at a Webster County hardware store.

“It was $8,000 to $10,000 dollars at the Harley-Davidson store in Huntington,” said Special Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia. “When he was picked up he had a Harley and he was wearing Harley Davidson clothes.”

State Police arrested Hodges in Webster County on Monday and this time confiscated the credit card.

Sorsaia, who is the prosecuting attorney in Putnam County, said when he learned of the most recent activity he contacted the Wayne County Commission to inquire why the card was still active.

“The card was connected to a special account in the Assessor’s Office, that under the code the county commission had absolutely no authority over,” Sorsaia said. “So they felt under the code they couldn’t do anything about the card.”

Sorsia said he decided he would do something about it. He got the account number and called the credit card company and told them to freeze the card.

“I may not have had authority to do that, but I did it anyway,” he said. “It was just crazy. It didn’t make sense to me, so I contacted the credit card company and then when the State Police picked him up in Webster County they took the card from him.”

Hodges, for now, is sitting in the Western Regional Jail. His preliminary hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday. Sorsaia expected the bond issue to come back up during the hearing.  He said if Hodges is freed on bond a second time, he planned to file a new motion.

“If it comes back up, my second motion in play would be to prohibit him from having access to the Assessor’s Office or contacting employees of the office,” he said. “I can’t really tell you I’ve ever heard of that happening before.  That would be unprecedented, but I’m not aware of a situation like this before.”

Despite facing steep charges of misusing county funds and embezzlement, Hodges remains the active Assessor in Wayne County.

Currently, the only provision for removing an elected official from office is a petition and three-judge panel review.  There are no emergency procedures in state code to suspend a publicly elected official.  A three-judge panel is set to meet in October in Wayne on the removal petition for Hodges.





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