Misdemeanors latest in brawl over Greenbrier airport

Dec. 1—As far as Greenbrier County Commissioner Mike McClung was concerned, he was helping an investigation in Fayette County in August 2019 when he allegedly removed the hard drive from a computer at Greenbrier Valley Airport and copied it.

But Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Parsons calls McClung's actions "misdemeanors."

During a Tuesday morning arraignment hearing before Raleigh Circuit Court Judge Andrew Dimlich, McClung pleaded not guilty to the three charges of unauthorized access to computer services, unauthorized possession of computer data or program, and unauthorized possession of computer information.

Dimlich has set his trial for March 1, 2022. The judge also set a pre-trial motions hearing for Feb. 15, 2022, at 10 a.m.

McClung, who posted a personal recognizance bond of $500, sits on Greenbrier Commission.

The Tuesday hearing is the latest in a series of battles regarding management of the airport and is not McClung's first go-round with the criminal justice system.

The three misdemeanor charges are linked to an investigation initiated by former Greenbrier Valley Airport director Stephen Snyder.

The Greenbrier County Airport Authority board in March 2019 ousted McClung from his long-time position on the authority and replaced him with Commissioner Tammy Tincher.

McClung had opposed the board's decision and charged during the meeting that the board had decided to give his position to Tincher, as part of a plan to fire Snyder.

"This action," McClung said at the March meeting, "is about removing me from that authority, (and thus) having the votes to remove the airport director.

"To get rid of me just so you can get rid of that man," McClung added, indicating Snyder, who was seated in the audience, "is reprehensible, not to mention illegal."

McClung was voted off the board, and, on June 18, 2019, the board dismissed Snyder.

While he said it was his "extreme pleasure" to serve as airport manager, Snyder blamed his firing on his refusal to "bow down to special interests" and added that an airport "should not be ran like a Krispy Kreme Donuts."

"This region will never reach its full potential until we get rid of the same old politics," Snyder said in July 2019. "If we're going to attract new businesses, we need to pull back the veil and get young people to run for office.

"It's the politics that's keeping us dead last; it's not the people. I still love West Virginia to my core. It's time for West Virginians to move forward."

In a written Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, copies of which he provided to the press, Snyder in July 2019 asked Greenbrier Commission for a wide range of documents, including minutes of airport authority public meetings and executive sessions, correspondence between Greenbrier commissioners and "any employee, owner or member of the Greenbrier Resort, the Greenbrier Sporting Club and Glade Spring (sic) Resort regarding Greenbrier County Airport operations," and contract documents and correspondence between commissioners and members of the Greenbrier County Convention and Visitors Bureau's board of directors regarding a marketing loan.

Commission President Lowell Rose issued a written response to the FOIA request three days after receipt, asserting that the commission is not the custodian of several of the documents Snyder requested and promising to produce the rest of the documents on a specified date and time.

Snyder, who had managed the airport for over four years, filed a complaint against the airport with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in May 2020, making 33 allegations against the Airport Authority, in almost a 20-year period.

He alleged the airport transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars without board approval and spent airport funds for personal use.

Snyder also alleged in the 23-page document that Rose paid well below fair market value for a piece of property he reportedly leased on airport industrial park, WVNS reported. The station published that reporters were shown paperwork indicating Rose paid $50 a month for that property, starting when the lease was signed in 1987.

Rose responded.

"The way they set their leases up: you lease the property very cheaply, whether it was inside of the fence on the airport grounds or outside of the fence," Rose said. "You leased a property at 50 dollars a month.

"But you had to do all the improvements, build the buildings, everything and at the end of your lease, that equity went to the airport."

In August 2019, while the FAA was investigating Snyder's complaints, McClung said he visited a person at the airport and entered an office there.

McClung readily admitted in 2019 that he took a computer hard drive and paper document from the office, saying he believed both were "potential evidence" in a legal matter that had earlier been placed in the hands of a special prosecutor. McClung said he found the items "unsecured" during a visit to the office.

McClung said after copying the electronic and paper items, he sealed the copies in an envelope and sent them to the special prosecutor, who was later identified as the former Fayette Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Mauzy.

"I copied (the potential evidence) and returned it," McClung insisted. "I did not tamper with it. I did not even view it."

McClung's actions came to light when a plane crashed into a structure at the airport shortly after his visit. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reviewed the crash. Video surveillance showed the commissioner entering and leaving the facility, which raised the suspicion of local authorities.

The Greenbrier County Aviation Authority barred him from the airport on Aug. 27, pending a review of the incident.

"For a sitting county commissioner to copy and return immediately — sending copies to a special prosecutor immediately — is not grounds for any charges," McClung maintained in August 2019.

Parsons, who is serving as special prosecutor in McClung's case, said that state code forbids unauthorized access to computers and computer data.

Current Fayette Prosecuting Attorney Anthony Ciliberti said Tuesday that no federal agency has brought charges against the airport authority, based on Snyder's allegations.

Following a West Virginia State Police and Greenbrier County Sheriff's Office investigation, grand jurors indicted McClung in June 2012 on charges of forgery of public record and conspiracy, both felonies, and three misdemeanor charges of false swearing.

The 2012 charges stemmed from a 2011 incident in which McClung, in a private transaction that was not related to the commission, allegedly sold a 1999 Ford Expedition to Charles Scott for $3,000 and recorded the sale at the Department of Motor Vehicles for $1,000. Scott faced the same charges, The Gazette-Mail reported.

Information on the outcome of the charges was not immediately available on Tuesday.

Betty Crookshanks, who was Greenbrier Commission president in June 2012, alleged that James Childers, who was then Greenbrier Sheriff, called her before the grand jury indictment and threatened to publish that McClung was being investigated.

Crookshanks said Childers was angry that he did not receive five new cars for the department and that an emergency budget meeting was not called by commissioners.

"He said if I didn't get him five new cars, he was going to put in the paper that Mike McClung was being investigated," Crookshanks told The Gazette-Mail in 2012.