A former Bridgeport, West Virginia, councilman working for a Wheeling attorney as a private investigator in a Marion County murder case was charged with one misdemeanor count of working as a private investigator without a license, according to multiple published reports.

Lowell Maxey, a former Bridgeport councilman and current member of the city’s Fire Civil Service Commission, was assessed and posted a $2,500 personal recognizance bond on Oct. 28. He was working for Wheeling attorney Elgine McArdle as she defended murder suspect Ryan Lane in Marion County in a trial conducted in August and September. That ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury.

Maxey is accused of completing investigations and interviews regarding criminal proceedings at the McArdle Law Office. Authorities also claim he collected photographs and video that were placed into discovery evidence. All of this came, authorities claim, with Maxey not owning a valid private investigator’s license.

According to reports, there has been no official word on how this could affect Lane’s court proceedings.

Morgantown attorney Michael Benninger, representing McArdle in regards to this case, said that, based on what he has seen, neither McArdle nor Maxey did anything illegal.

“To my knowledge, neither Ms. McArdle on behalf of her client Mr. Lane nor Mr. Maxey — engaged by Ms. McArdle in this particular matter to perform whatever services he performed — did anything unlawful,” Benninger said. “All that will shake out through the processes that have begun by the State of West Virginia through its county prosecutor’s office.”