The Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed former Glen Dale City Clerk Jane Criswell’s felony charges of embezzlement and falsifying records without prejudice to allow the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office to complete further investigation into the case.

The prosecution came to the decision to drop the charges after a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 12, before Marshall County Magistrate Kevin Cecil. Criswell had pleaded not guilty to both counts.

According to the original criminal complaint, filed Jan. 9, Criswell allegedly made out $50,000 in checks for herself and her personal business, used city funds for trips and groceries and lied to city councilors about managing the city’s federal COVID stimulus funds.

Crisewll was fired from her position in September of 2022, and Glen Dale Mayor Janet Scott initiated an investigation into Criswell in December of the same year when Scott found suspicious activity and disarray in the city’s books upon taking office. Criswell had been allegedly mismanaging funds for over a decade, according to the complaint.

Marshall County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Canestraro said the prosecution needed “more time and further investigation” before filing charges against Criswell again. He said the new charges against Criswell would be based on the state auditor’s office’s investigation and differ from the initial embezzlement and falsifying records charges.

Canestraro said the prosecution would file charges against Criswell again once the investigation by the state auditor’s office was completed.

“We are waiting for them [the West Virginia Auditor’s Office] to complete their part of the investigation and will not move forward with anything until it’s been completed,” Canestraro said. “I was not comfortable going forward [with the case] without having a completed investigation.”

Canestraro said that if Criswell had gone to trial with the original charges in circuit court, the prosecution would have had to put witnesses on the stand before their full investigation into the case was completed. Canestraro said this could have resulted in witnesses giving testimonies that were “completely different” than what the prosecution “had left to do in the investigation.”

“Basically they [witnesses] would have testified and could have been impeached later,” Canestraro said. “It’s my feeling at that point it could’ve hurt the case.”

Canestraro said that Criswell “probably” would not be charged for falsifying records again but “could” be charged for embezzlement and “other charges as well.” Canestraro said the prosecution would either file the new charges in magistrate court or present the charges to a grand jury.

“From what I anticipate, it’ll probably be different charges,” Canestraro said. “It’ll be related [to the original charges], but we’ll be filing different things for different crimes other than what was originally filed.”