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PARSONS -- All three Tucker County Commissioners have been charged with misdemeanors after allegedly misusing county funds for personal purchases.
Tucker County Commission President Michael William Rosenau, Commissioner Frederick J. Davis Jr., and Commissioner Timothy Paul Knotts were each charged 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 by Preston County Prosecutor James Shay Jr., who has been assigned the special prosecutor for all three cases, on May 8, 2019, the Tucker County Commission unanimously approved a new program called the Sheriff’s Incentive Program, which 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 out of the Tucker County General Fund, the documents state. The check was made out to Backbone Mountain Sports Center & Pawn LLC in Oakland, Maryland 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 all three members voted unanimously to approve expenses, including the check for $3,990.75, the documents state. Knotts made the motion 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.
According to Circuit Court records, attorney Brent Easton will be representing Davis. As of press time, no other attorneys have been listed for Rosenau or Knotts.
Also according to Circuit Court records, Judge H. Charles Carl III, who is appointed to the Twenty-Sixth Judicial Circuit of Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton Counties, has been assigned by a West Virginia Supreme Court Administrative Order to preside over the cases. 22nd Judicial Circuit judges Hilary M. Bright and Steven L. Shaffer voluntarily recused themselves.