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Elkins man charged with sexual assault

Gopshes

Gopshes

ELKINS — A Randolph County man is in jail and accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping man at his residence.

Charles Jeremy Gopshes, 30, of Elkins, is charged with one felony count of sexual assault in the second degree. He is incarcerated at Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond, set by Randolph County Magistrate George M. “Mike” Riggleman.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Randolph County Magistrate Court, on April 30, Elkins Police Department Patrolman A.M. Wyshyvanuk received, via other officers, a handwritten statement from the alleged victim regarding the alleged sexual assault.

The alleged victim’s statement said he had been drinking with some friends at Gopshes’ apartment. He noted he was “extremely intoxicated” and everyone but he and Gopshes left the apartment. The alleged victim wrote that he woke up the next morning in a bed in the apartment, became alarmed and left. He said he was bruised and believed he had been sexually assaulted, the complaint states.

Wyshyvanuk then spoke to the alleged victim personally, who said he had been drinking “tallboys” of beer with Gopshes. He added they smoked marijuana as well, police said.

He said he “blacked out” later in the evening. He told police there were four additional individuals at the apartment but he could only identify one of them, the complaint states.

Wyshyvanuk and Patrolman D.T. Sayre, also of the EPD, went to Gopshes’ residence in search of any items that could be used as evidence in the alleged incident. Officers seized “nine Icehouse 24-ounce cans, one Icehouse Edge 24-ounce can, 21 Milwaukee’s Best 12-ounce cans, 13 Corona Extra 12-ounce bottles, one tinfoil pipe with residue and one mattress cover,” the complaint states.

On May 11, Wyshyvanuk picked up a completed sex crime kit from United Hospital Center in Bridgeport. The report indicated the presence of bruises on the alleged victim’s body, court documents state.

On June 1, Wyshyvanuk spoke with another individual who was at the residence. He said he, the alleged victim, Gopshes and two other people he didn’t know were drinking at the apartment that evening. He said the alleged victim was placed in the bed at the apartment when he “elected to stay there.” He added Gopshes had told him he would sleep in the other room, according to the complaint.

If convicted, Gopshes could be sentenced to not less than 10 nor more than 25 years in the state penitentiary, fined not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000, or both.

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