The former state legislator and school teacher charged with sexually exploiting a student is asking to be released on bond to participate in a 45-to-60-day inpatient mental health residential program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg.
Federal prosecutors are against the proposal, arguing that no combination of conditions can assure the safety of the community and that he should remain detained pending trial.
Prosecutors also entered a hand-typed letter from Elliott Pritt to his student as evidence of an “all-consuming fixation” on a minor.
Pritt has been held at the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Ky., and had previously waived a detention hearing.
Last week, Pritt’s defense entered a motion requesting his release from the Carter County facility into the custody of his brother to be transported to a residential mental health program at the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg.
His defense entered an acceptance letter from the VA, saying his admission date is Nov. 17. Pritt served in the United States Air Force from 2008 to 2014.
“Due to the timing, Mr. Pritt would request to be permitted to release from the Carter County Detention Center in the afternoon or evening of November 16, 2026, and to be permitted to spend the night at a hotel near Martinsburg before arriving at the facility no later than 9:30 a.m. on November 17, 2026,” his lawyer wrote.
“At the very least, Mr. Pritt will be required to be released no later than 1:30 a.m. on November 17, 2026, at which point he will make the approximately 6-hour drive directly to the Martinsburg VAMC, arriving no later than 9:30 a.m., and stopping only briefly, and no longer than necessary, for food, fuel, and restroom breaks.”
Pritt faces felony charges of child sexual exploitation, coercion of a minor and witness tampering.
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.
Prosecutors have entered a filing to oppose Pritt’s motion to be released from jail into the inpatient mental health treatment.
Lawyers for the government argued that Pritt had already been receiving outpatient mental health care and medication for two years prior to his arrest, and only sought inpatient admission after being jailed as a way to get out of detention
The federal prosecutors maintained that there is no reassurance that the facility is a locked-down unit, equipped to handle electronic home incarceration or capable of assigning a third-party custodian to monitor and report violations. The residential program lasts only 45 to 60 days, they noted, and Pritt offered no plan for where he would go upon completion
Using the Martinsburg VA campus map, prosecutors pointed out that the treatment location is near both the facility’s Internet Cafe and the main hospital building, where minor visitors are regularly present.
Prosecutors entered the letter from Pritt to the juvenile to show his repeated emphasis that he would forever have strong feelings for her.
“The hand-typed letter that he wrote to her demonstrates his utter obsession with her. No adult man — much less a teacher — should have such an all-consuming fixation on a 14-year-old child,” prosecutors wrote.
“Consistent with Minor 1’s description of defendant attempting to make her feel guilt over allegedly leaving him for someone else, defendant’s letter conveys the sense that Minor 1 will never be free from defendant’s attentions, which is a particularly intimidating message to be received from a teacher at her school.”
The prosecutors continued, “Any defendant so acutely obsessed with a child should be considered a danger and detained pending trial.”