By Teresa McMinn
Cumberland Times-News, Md.
KEYSER, W.Va. — The latest and last plea deal in West Virginia’s largest known deer poaching case exchanged jail time for home incarceration, and will allow the defendant to work while he wears an ankle monitor.
In January, 223 charges involving at least 27 antlered bucks taken illegally in Mineral, Grant and Hampshire counties in West Virginia from mid-September to late December 2021 were filed against Christopher Biggs and seven other residents, all of Keyser.
Following the West Virginia charges, Biggs, who was appointed EMS chief of the Allegany County Department of Emergency Services in 2019, was suspended from his job, county officials said at the time.
In February, Natural Resources Police Capt. Robert Clark talked of the vastness of the deer poaching case.
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“I’ve worked for the department 33 years (and) it’s the biggest one that I can remember,” he said.
Two felony charges against Biggs — forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery — were dismissed April 8.
“I’m feeling like today is a small victory,” Biggs said outside the Keyser courtroom at the time. “I think the judicial system got it right.”
He was later charged with four misdemeanor counts.
Pretrial hearings scheduled for Biggs in April, May, July and October in Mineral County Magistrate Court were continued.
Plea deal
The recent plea deal, offered by Rebecca Miller, the Hampshire County prosecuting attorney who oversaw the case in Mineral and Hampshire counties, suspended a 20-day jail sentence for Biggs and allowed him to serve the time on house arrest.
He was ordered to wear an ankle monitor and permitted to work as long as he coordinates his schedule with local home confinement officials.
Biggs has worked as a paramedic with Keyser EMS.
Under the plea agreement, made official Dec. 2, Biggs must comply with the house arrest terms or he will be made to serve his sentence in jail.
Grant County Magistrate Willard Earle II presided over the recent hearing where Biggs pleaded no contest to spotlighting, conspiracy and hunting from a motor vehicle.
A charge for having a loaded gun in a vehicle was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Biggs was ordered to pay roughly $900 in fines and court costs.
County job
Nearly three months before the West Virginia charges were made public, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1715 in Cumberland, which represents paid full-time firefighters and emergency medical services personnel, asked Allegany County officials to remove Biggs from his position as EMS chief for reasons including questionable integrity.
According to an October 2021 letter from the union to the Allegany County Government Department of Human Resources, multiple allegations against Biggs resulted in “a majority vote of no confidence.”
When asked for comment following the county’s receipt of the letter, Biggs deferred to Allegany County Department of Emergency Services Director James Pyles, who provided a statement via email.
“The Department of Human Resources, based upon their investigation believes that these issues have been adequately investigated and addressed and that the concerns raised have been rectified,” Pyles said at the time.
During an Allegany County Board of Commissioners meeting in December 2021, T. Lee Beeman, the county’s attorney, said Biggs would not be disciplined.
“We consider it a closed matter,” he said at the time.
Now, more than a year later, IAFF Local 1715 President Ken McKenzie said the union never received from the county results of its investigation, and didn’t know whether Biggs was still employed by Allegany County.
Wednesday evening, Beeman provided the following via email:
“Chris Biggs no longer works for Allegany County and has not since our investigation was concluded on December 2, 2022. Allegany County chooses not to comment on the details of personnel matters.”
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