CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The attorney for the Clarksburg man involved in a high-profile case says Harrison County prosecutors are “piling on” with reviving old charges against his client.
Morgantown attorney Al Karlin released a statement Friday after learning the Harrison County grand jury indicted Joseph Buffey for alleged crimes committed in 2001.
“The State apparently wasn’t satisfied taking 14 years of Joe Buffey’s life for crimes he did not commit while withholding, in violation of his Constitutional Rights, DNA results that exonerated him,” Karlin said, according to a report Saturday in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The grand jury indicted Buffey for allegedly assaulting a girl when he was 19 and being part of an alleged break-in at an animal clinic. Years ago prosecutors agreed not to pursue the charges when Buffey pleaded guilty to the rape of an 83-year-old Clarksburg woman. But a ruling from the state Supreme Court earlier this year allowed him to withdraw that plea because prosecutors didn’t share DNR evidence with him before his plea that showed someone else may have committed the crime.
Prosecutors said Friday since the former plea deal is gone the old charges are fair game. Karlin sees it differently.
“This appears to be nothing more than retaliation against Joe Buffey for successfully establishing that his rights were violated, and punishment for the fact that he continues to maintain his innocence of the original charges. Sadly, the State appears to have forgotten that it is supposed to stand for justice,” Karlin’s statement said.
Buffey is scheduled to face a bench trial on the rape case in October. Prosecutors refused to drop the charges after Buffey withdrew his guilty plea.
The alleged victim, now 98, originally told police that the assault was committed by only one perpetrator, but police have argued that based on her statements it is more plausible that two people were involved in the assault.