MORGANTOWN — Anyone who has read legal statutes knows it’s not exactly written in plain English, which can be a problem when your job is to enforce the law.
“To the lay person they read clear as mud,” said Ed Preston, Morgantown’s chief of police.
Preston partnered with co-author Stephen Cogar, to produce a soon-to-be-published textbook, “West Virginia Crimes.”
“We took and broke it down so anyone could understand it from the standpoint of what does it actually mean,” Preston, said.
The book intends to help law enforcement officers determine if crimes they are investigating meet all the elements needed to charge a person.
“It’s like a checklist,” Preston said. “This was written for the person in the field.”
The book features a simple format augmented with case law to help explain each element of a crime, Cogar said.
When it comes to the law, a comma could change the meaning of an entire sentence, and each word has very specific meaning. The book helps clarify the definition of certain words.
As an example, Preston used the commonly heard phrase “I’ve been robbed.”
There is a difference between robbery and petit larceny. The latter is stealing something of value, while a robbery means something was taken from your person.
The book covers all chapters and subchapters of West Virginia Code 61, which lays out the state’s criminal laws.
It took about two years to finish the book, and Preston said finding time to write was the biggest challenge. A day job like chief of police takes “way more than 40 hours a week,” he said, and Preston also teaches.
“There were a lot of nights and weekends. It was a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race kind of project.”
Another reason for the lengthy writing process was that sometimes the Legislature would change the law after a section was written — requiring a re-write. Preston plans to update the book in some manner as laws change.
“We started with a blank page,” Cogar said. “It took an immense amount of legal research and writing.”
He said the inspiration for the book came from a similar one in North Carolina. Cogar first met Preston when Preston came to his class to become a certified police officer in West Virginia — something police chiefs aren’t required to do.
Both authors found some surprises tucked away as they went through the entire criminal code.
One thing that Preston found surprising is digging ginseng out of season has a higher penalty than some crimes involving a person.
Taking ginseng out of season can be punished with a fine of $100-$500 for a first offense and subsequent offenses are punishable by $500-$1,000 and/or up to six months in jail, according to the state code.
Cogar said he found it interesting that you don’t need a search warrant to search for and seize animals involved in fighting. Cockfighting, dog fighting, things like that.
Preston expects his text will be used in academia to help train officers, by agencies around the state and even by courts. It’s applicable to all 55 counties in the state, but crimes can vary too much from state-to-state for it to be used outside of West Virginia.
“I know what it was like when I started out and not necessarily understanding what I had in front of me and trying to learn it,” he said. “Hopefully this is one of those things that will help.”
