Federal prosecutors announced the grand jury indictment of David Elliott Pritt, a former West Virginia state legislator and teacher, with felony charges including child sexual exploitation, coercion of a minor and witness tampering occurring between 2024 and 2026.
“With West Virginia’s children returning to school this month, now is another opportunity for parents and caregivers to have those important conversations with their kids,” said U.S. Attorney Moore Capito.
“Our children need to know that they can safely report and talk about any situation that potentially involves grooming, inappropriate behavior or abuse.”
Pritt was arrested on July 22 following an investigation. The indictment indicates the grand jury concluded there’s probable cause to pursue charges.
At the time of the alleged offenses, Pritt was employed as a teacher with Fayette County Schools and represented a Fayette County district in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
Following his arrest, Pritt resigned from the West Virginia Legislature and withdrew from the coming election. The Fayette County Board of Education suspended and then terminated his employment.
Pritt, 36, has taught social studies and history. He is accused of enticing a 15-year-old girl to produce explicit images and to engage in sexual conduct.
An affidavit filed in the case indicates that Pritt and the girl exchanged explicit videos during 2025 and 2026. In late 2025, according to the affidavit, Pritt initiated physical encounters, asking her to meet him at his classroom at Oak Hill High School in Fayette County, where they would perform sex acts.
An affidavit filed by an investigator in the federal case indicates that the relationship began in 2024-25 when the girl was in the eighth grade and Pritt started communicating with her and at least one other female student outside of school.
The communication started on the online game Roblox and transitioned to Snapchat, according to the affidavit. It’s important to note that both operate over the internet or cellular networks, and the charge against Pritt is based on a law making it illegal to use any facility or means of interstate commerce like the internet or cellular networks to knowingly persuade, induce, entice or coerce a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The last physical sexual encounter with Pritt and the girl occurred about December 2025 or January 2026, according to the affidavit, but the investigator wrote that Pritt continued to communicate with the girl on Snapchat and continued to request that she send him sexually explicit photographs.
Earlier this summer, investigators allege, Pritt sent messages to the girl warning her to not tell anyone what had happened between them or else “the state police show up and take your phone and mine and open up hell in our lives. And because of me it would very much not be a low key. It would be in the news. It would be awful. For both of us. And I would lose my entire life.”