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Alleged Victim Says She’s Engaged To Former Wheeling Cop Phil Redford

REDFORD

WHEELING — A 2016 graduate of The Linsly School told a magistrate Monday she will marry Phil Redford, the former Wheeling police officer and Linsly head of security who is accused of having a sexual relationship with her while she was still a student.

Hancock County Magistrate Scott Hicks, who presided during Redford’s preliminary hearing in Wheeling after all Ohio County magistrates recused themselves, said there is enough evidence to continue the case in which the former Wheeling Police Department lieutenant is charged with sexual abuse by a person in a position of trust. The case now moves to circuit court for consideration by a grand jury.

The alleged victim, who’s now 18, took the stand as a witness for both the defense and state during Redford’s hearing.

“He’s my fiance,” she said of Redford, 43, in response to questions by Brooke County Prosecutor Joe Barki, filling in for the Ohio County Prosecutor’s Office, which recused itself from the case. “We met my sophomore year at a Good Samaritan dinner, and my father introduced us.”

The alleged victim said she contacted Redford during her senior year, asking him “where his daughter was going to school in Washington, D.C.,” because she was interested in going there, too.

Her friendship with Redford didn’t become sexual until two weeks after she graduated in May, she testified. Her 18th birthday passed in June before Redford hired her to work in his “Squeeze Shack” lemonade stand.

One week after being hired, she drove to his house without his expecting her, and the sexual relationship began, she said.

“I may have thought I had feelings for him (while still a student), but Mr. Redford never had those feelings for me. … I definitely came on to him,” she said.

Redford did not testify during Monday’s hearing.

The state’s criminal complaint contradicts the alleged victim’s testimony. It alleges the sexual relationship was ongoing and occurred before the girl graduated — from January to May, when she was 17 years old.

West Virginia State Police Sgt. Scott Adams of the Crimes Against Children Unit, who charged Redford, said during the month of April, Redford and the teen had 12 phone calls and more than 400 text messages between them.

But those communications were between friends only, the alleged victim said. The messages were not of a sexual nature, she testified, and she initiated all of those contacts with Redford.

Adams, however, testified that not all of their communications were initiated by the alleged victim. He also said the teen refused to discuss the case with him.

In charging Redford with the alleged crime, Adams cited evidence provided by Paul Harris of Wheeling, the attorney of the alleged victim’s father.

That evidence includes: a recording of a conversation between the teen and her father in which she admits to the sexual relationship while she was a Linsly student; and an Aug. 8 recording between Harris and Redford in which Redford says, “I’ll take care of it,” after Harris lists four demands of Redford.

That conversation took place on Harris’ office phone, Harris said, noting he recorded it with his cellphone.

If Redford didn’t comply, Harris planned to send a letter to Redford’s employers and to the state police describing his relationship with the alleged victim, Adams said, citing the recording. The demands were that Redford retire from the police department, resign from Linsly, not contact the alleged victim again and move away from the Wheeling area, Adams said.

Harris, who also testified Monday, said that conversation offers proof of Redford’s alleged admission to the crime.

“It’s a confession by his conduct. He resigned those positions” and agreed to the terms, Harris told Redford’s attorney, David Moye of Winfield, W.Va.

Redford ended his employment with both Linsly and the police department on Aug. 9. He retired after 21 years with Wheeling police and resigned from Linsly.

Harris said he considers the demands as a “proposal” to Redford, and an “agreement.”

“It was giving the defendant a pass,” he said.

Moye, however, said making such demands was “threatening” to Redford. Regarding her admission recorded by her father, the alleged victim said it was made “under a lot of duress.”

“I was a mess whenever he confronted me. … I was scared for Phil’s life,” she said, noting her father was “screaming at me, yelling at me, basically telling me I had to tell him what he wanted to hear.”

The alleged victim said she is “scared of (her father) all of the time.”

She said she thought admitting a sexual relationship occurred while she was a student “would defuse the situation, and that this wouldn’t happen,” she said of his arrest and the court proceedings.

Moye pointed out the teen was not under oath when she made the admission, but that she was under oath during her testimony in court.

Barki asked the teen if she recalled that her father was consoling her during her conversation with him.

“He was “telling you (that) you don’t need to cry, and that it’s not your fault,” he said. She said she recalls that, but said that’s not all that was discussed.

Moye told Adams Redford was not technically an employee of the school. Rather, he said Redford worked part-time at Linsly in exchange for reduced tuition for his daughter.

Adams said he first heard of Redford and the alleged victim’s engagement last month.

“According to Mr. Redford, the day of his arrest, he and (the victim) were to be married” within a few days, Adams said. Redford was arrested Nov. 16.

Adams said the alleged victim’s father learned from a third party in August about his daughter’s relationship with Redford.

“I believe it was an acquaintance of (her father),” who told him, Adams said. “A doctor — someone who (the alleged victim) babysat for.”

Moye asked Adams to name any specific time that Redford was in charge of the girl while at the school.

Adams responded that, as head of security for the school, Redford was “a person of trust with everyone in there.”

During closing statements, Barki said he believes the alleged victim changed her story.

“She does not want her fiance to be charged … ,” he said. “She revamped her story.”

Redford remains at his Wheeling home on $100,000 bond. Also during the hearing Monday, Hicks changed two conditions of that bond.

First, after questioning the alleged victim again to ensure she was not coerced, Hicks lifted the no-contact order with her. That’s because she’s now “of age,” and is engaged to the defendant, he said.

Also, he extended Redford’s limited travel to include West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. However, when Redford plans to leave those states, he must get permission from a circuit court judge, Hicks said.

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