Tucker County commissioners all facing misdemeanor charges
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PARSONS -- All three Tucker County Commissioners have been charged with misusing county funds for personal purchases.
Commission President Michael William Rosenau, Commissioner Frederick J. Davis Jr. and Commissioner Timothy Paul Knotts were cited Thursday with one count of unauthorized expenditure by a local official, a misdemeanor.
According to the Tucker County Circuit Court documents provided to The Inter-Mountain in Elkins by Special Prosecutor James Shay Jr., prosecuting attorney of Preston County, the Tucker County Commission unanimously approved on May 8, 2019, a new program called the Sheriff’s Incentive Program that allows “Sheriff’s deputies to purchase items that are consistent with law enforcement.”
On Oct. 15, 2020, March 30, 2022, Oct. 30, 2023, Nov. 14, 2024 and Aug. 12, 2025, Davis allegedly used this initiative program to purchase “personal property items, mostly firearms, ammunition and other weapons, such as most recently a crossbow for his own personal use,” the documents state.
Davis’ payroll records allegedly show the periods of time when his wages were attached to cover the expenses. Davis reportedly paid the amounts he “borrowed” back to the Tucker County Budget through wage attachment, but the payments were allegedly made over at least a year later, with no interest paid.
On Aug. 12, 2025, a check in the amount of $3,990.75 was written from the Tucker County General Fund, the documents state. The check was written to Backbone Mountain Sports Center & Pawn LLC in Oakland, Md., for the purchase of a crossbow and ammunition. The purchase was allegedly made for Davis’ personal benefit and the check was signed by Rosenau, Tucker County Sheriff Jacob Kopec and the former Tucker County Clerk Sherry Simmons.
On Aug. 13, 2025, the County Commission held a meeting and unanimously voted to approve expenses, including the check for $3,990.75, the documents state. Knotts moved for the vote. The check was funded through Line Item 402-459, which is said to be the County Commission’s personal “capital outlay.”
“…the evidence present here definitively proves the Tucker County Commission unanimously approved expenditures that were not only on their face unauthorized but were not even for the stated purpose of the Sheriff’s Incentive Program, thus there can be no doubt that the expenditures were unlawful and unauthorized and not made in good faith despite the fact that bad faith is not an element of this offense,” Shay wrote in the complaints he filed against the commissioners to the Tucker County Circuit Court.
Also according to circuit court records, Judge H. Charles Carl III from the 26th Judicial Circuit has been assigned the case by the state Supreme Court. Judges Hilary M. Bright and Steven L. Shaffer voluntarily recused themselves.