GREG JORDANBluefield Daily Telegraph
LEWISBURG — A former Princeton Police Department officer who
pleaded guilty in Mercer County to attempted sexual abuse of a minor was
recently arrested in Greenbrier County and charged with contributing to the
delinquency or neglect of a child.
Christopher Scott Winkler, 27, of Union was arrested after police
started searching for a 15-year-old girl in Lewisburg whose mother reported her
missing, according to an arrest report filed in Greenbrier Magistrate Court by
Patrolman A.L. Workman, Lewisburg Police Department.
Workman stated that during the search, he located a black SUV in
which the girl’s boyfriend had been seen. He approached the vehicle when it
stopped and saw Winkler, who was its driver. Workman asked Winkler if he had
seen the missing girl.
“Upon being asked the question, the defendant (Winkler) became
very nervous and stated he did not know where she was,” Workman wrote in his
report. Winkler said he had been at the girl’s apartment complex, Lewis
Terrace, earlier that day and had been asked to give her a ride to a friend’s
home in Caldwell.
The boyfriend was later questioned. He said he had asked Winkler
to give the girl a ride to Caldwell “because her mother was looking for her and
she needed to go to Caldwell to a friend’s house so her mother couldn’t find
her” and that “he had full knowledge that she was running away from her mother,”
Workman said in the report.
Winkler was charged Feb. 6 with a misdemeanor offense of
contributing to the delinquency or neglect of a child, according to the report.
The offense carries a fine of $50 to $500, up to a year in the county jail, or
both. The alleged incident was reported Feb. 1.
In October 2012, Winkler appeared in Mercer County Circuit Court
and entered into a plea agreement in which the state agreed to dismiss a charge
of attempted sexual abuse by a guardian or custodian. At that time, Circuit
Judge William Sadler told Winkler that if he violated the terms of his
probation, it would be revoked. He would then face an indeterminate term of one
to 10 year imprisonment.
A hearing would be held to determine whether the terms of
probation had been violated.
Winkler was charged in March 2011 with attempted sexual abuse of a
minor by a custodian or guardian and solicitation of bribery. The charges were
filed after an incident that occurred March 1, 2011 in a parking lot near the
intersection of Route 20 and Route 104 in the Princeton city limits. In a
criminal complaint filed by the West Virginia State Police, Winkler allegedly
“attempted to negotiate sexual favors” from a 17-year-old male subject.
Winkler was suspended from the Princeton Police Department the day
after the incident, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash said at the time of
Winkler’s arraignment. Winkler resigned from the department soon afterwards.
