Elgine McArdle
FAIRMONT – The former head of the state Republican Party and recent state Supreme Court applicant has been charged with 13 counts of violating the confidentiality of recorded interviews of a child.
Elgine McArdle of Wheeling was charged October 28 in Marion County Magistrate Court. Her investigator Lowell “L.J.” Maxey also was accused of working as a private investigator without a license. According to court records, a warrant for McArdle was filed on October 24, and a personal recognizance bond of $2,000 was set October 27. McArdle posted the bond October 28.
The criminal complaint was filed by the Marion County detachment of the West Virginia State Police after troopers were given information October 23 by the Marion County prosecutor’s office about the possible violations. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
In a case last year, McArdle represented a member of the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club accused of being involved in the 2022 murder of Henry Silver. The Marion County Prosecuting Attorney’s office didn’t secure the conviction of Lane when the trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial.
Marion Circuit Court Judge David Janes entered a protective order November 13, 2024, that sealed Child Advocacy Center recordings and information, and Judge Patrick Wilson entered a similar order in July 2025.
The complaint against McArdle says identified the name of a child witness in court filings and unencrypted emails, making the child’s identity available to third parties against those judicial orders.
The criminal complaint says McArdle filed a supplemental pretrial motion to dismiss on December 31, 2024, in which she identified a child witness by name. It also says she filed a motion for competency evaluation of the child witness February 18 and also identified the witness by name in a filing available to the public.
The complaint goes on to say McArdle emailed a copy of a video interview of the child witness July 15 to Tessa Veltri in an unencrypted email. It says she also emailed a copy of the video interview to Maxey in an unencrypted email that same day.
According to the complaint, McArdle filed a motion July 17 seeking production of white sheet from the interview. In the filing, she said the child was interviewed September 23, 2022, by Sara Corbin, who made note of the interview on the white sheet. On the same day, McArdle filed a response to a motion of the state in which she duplicated portions of the interview and published them in a filing available to the public.
It also says McArdle filed copies of exhibits August 1 intended to be used at trial and are available to the public. In the filing, she filed copies of the white board used by the interviewer that contained notes taken as well as copies of a referral form that included the name and address of the child witness, the identity of the child’s parents and a summary of the interview.
McArdle was at the Marion County Courthouse on October 28 for a hearing to dismiss the charges against Lane, alleging the Marion County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office had presented false testimony, suppressed evidence and introduced irrelevant and prejudicial evidence. She also claims Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Sean Murphy created a prejudicial environment for Lane, depriving him of a fair trial. She also alleged juror misconduct.
She was given the criminal complaint against her before that hearing, but the hearing went on as scheduled.
McArdle was chairwoman of the state Republican Party from 2022 to 2024. She also ran unsuccessfully for the state Intermediate Court of Appeals in 2024, and she applied for the state Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Tim Armstead. She was not among the short list of names submitted to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office earlier this month for consideration. And in 2018, she was a candidate for a circuit court judgeship.
This isn’t the first time McArdle has been in legal trouble.
In 2019, McArdle was sued for legal malpractice after allegedly mishandling a woman’s defense in a lawsuit filed by the father of the defendant’s child.
And in 2011, her daughter filed a domestic violence petition against McArdle that later was rescinded, according to published reports.
The incident apparently occurred at a Republican Party meeting, according to a BigLeaguePolitics.com report. The story also says McArdle and the daughter both confirmed the incident. McArdle said she “smacked (her) daughter in the mouth” for being a “smartass.”
The story also claims there were witnesses and that the assault “was widely known by leaders in the Republican Party in West Virginia.”
Marion County Magistrate Court case number 25-M24M-02681
