MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia State Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision not to grant a new trial to a former Monongalia County delegate convicted of third-degree sexual assault.
Clyde Richey was convicted in 1979 of third degree sexual assault of a 14-year-old legislative page. Richey is requesting a new trial due to the discovery of what Richey’s defense calls new evidence that went unused by the prosecution during the trial.
That evidence in question is a slide (known as R1) from a hospital that Richey claims he did not know about until 10 years after the initial trial. In 2005, Richey sued in Monongalia County seeking to compel West Virginia University Hospital to produce the slide.
When Magistrate Court ruled in Richey’s favor and provided him custody of the slide, he used that to obtain independent genetic testing from a Nevada-based laboratory. The testing reportedly said Richey “could not be excluded as a contributor” to genetic material contained in the slide created following the assault. A second test eight years later from the same laboratory suggests Richey was “excluded as a contributor to any genetic material contained on slide R1, though slide R1 suggests other genetic contributors.”
Kanawha County Circuit Court ruled in this case that the evidence was not exculpatory and denied Richey’s motion to vacate his conviction. The slide was ruled as inadmissible due to Rule 412 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence, which prohibits evidence suggesting other sexual activity by a victim in cases of sexual assault.
The Court’s decision was unanimous.