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ELKINS -- The case against an Upshur County woman accused of attempting to bring drugs into the Tygart Valley Regional Jail while being booked into the facility is headed for the Grand Jury after she waived her right to a preliminary hearing, and after her bond was modified.
Kelly Dawn Harvey, 40, of Buckhannon, appeared in Randolph County Magistrate Court on Thursday afternoon and waived her right to a preliminary hearing, clearing the way for her case to go to trial in Randolph County Circuit Court.
Harvey is charged with transport of controlled substances into a state correctional facility, and offenses by inmate. She is currently being held at Tygart Regional Jail.
Before she waived her right to a preliminary hearing, Harvey's attorney, Brian Bailey, asked Randolph County Magistrate Benjamin Shepler to release Harvey into the care of a rehab facility, as she was willing to go, and to modify her bond.
Bailey said officials still had to deal with the issues of bond and a motion to send Harvey to rehab for two felony charges in Upshur County. Harvey's bond for the felony charges in Upshur County is a $50,000 cash-only bond.
"I'd like for her to get the opportunity to get the help she needs for a long-standing substance abuse issue, and I think she's kind of hit, frankly, kind of rock bottom," Bailey told the court on Thursday. "That's why we're asking for the chance to go to rehab, and modifying the bond from cash-only to at least cash/surety."
Assistant Randolph County Prosecutor Leckta Poling argued that the state was opposed to giving Harvey the rehab option, saying the state did not have proper information on the few rehab facilities Bailey had listed, and that Harvey is facing felony drug charges. Poling said she would leave the idea of modifying Harvey's bond to the court's discretion.
Shepler agreed to modify Harvey's bond, but stopped short of releasing Harvey into the care of a rehab facility, stating that he would rather leave that decision to the Circuit Court.
Harvey's bond for the Randolph County charges was modified from a $50,000 cash-only bond to $25,000, "to include 10% to the court or property."
According to the criminal complaint, prepared by Corporal D.R. Wolford Jr. of the West Virginia State Police, on Feb. 26 he was notified that an inmate had allegedly transported a controlled substance into Tygart Valley Regional Jail.
When Harvey was booked into TVRJ on Feb. 23, she was in possession of blue wax paper which field-tested positive for fentanyl, the complaint states. Harvey was then held in a booking cell by herself for a "dry cell period."
On Feb. 26, after Harvey was moved to a general population cell, her booking cell was searched, with officers finding "additional blue in color wax paper matching those from her original arrest in Upshur County" which also field tested positive for fentanyl, according to the complaint.
Officers then found more blue wax paper among Harvey's personal belongings in the general population cell, the complaint states.
Harvey was arrested along with another woman, Rebecca D. Glover, 41, of Buckhannon, earlier that week by the Upshur County Sheriff's Office, assisted by the West Virginia State Police and the Buckhannon Police Department.
Harvey was charged with possession with intent to deliver fentanyl, and conspiracy to deliver fentanyl.
Glover was charged with transporting fentanyl into the state of West Virginia, delivery of fentanyl and conspiracy to deliver fentanyl.
According to an Upshur County Sheriff's Office press statement on Feb. 24, officers received a tip that a Buckhannon resident was "planning to transport suspected fentanyl into West Virginia from outside the state. Deputies worked to corroborate this tip and identified a suspect vehicle."
The suspect vehicle passed by law enforcement on U.S. 33 at approximately 9 p.m. Feb. 22, and "attempted to elude officers" and went behind the Wingate Hotel on Commerce Boulevard, the release states.
During a subsequent search, deputies found "approximately 200 individual packages of suspected fentanyl, with a street value of approximately $3,000," according to the release.