Sheriff charged with illegal wiretapping

Erica Kearns
According to U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, Clay County Sheriff Miles J.  Slack was charged Monday with illegal wiretapping, a federal felony that can carry up to five years in prison. The criminal filings stated that Sheriff Slack installed a keystroke logger on a computer belonging to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.  The compromised computer was a government computer assigned to Slack’s ex-wife in her office of employment.
Sheriff Slack installed the hidden device in late April of this year, said Goodwin and Steven Ruby, the assistant federal prosecutor who signed today’s charge, and it remained in place for over two weeks, intercepting messages and data transmitted from  the Supreme Court computer.
Slack was charged in a court filing known as an information, which ordinarily indicates that a defendant is cooperating with prosecutors. No hearing date has been set.
Members of the County Commission were unavailable for comment Monday evening to answer the important question of who will be assigned the duties of running the Clay County Sheriff’s Department.