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Press Release

Federal jury convicts physician's assistant for witness tampering

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia

P.A. Was Employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Beckley, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that defendant Scotty Rose was convicted yesterday after a two-day jury trial in federal court in Beckley, West Virginia.  Rose was convicted of tampering with a federal witness.  Rose, 41, from Beckley worked in the Federal Correctional Institution in Beckley as a physician’s assistant. On February 6, 2013, Rose disclosed to an inmate that another inmate was wearing a wire and working for the FBI as an informant. The informant identified by Rose was, in fact, working with the FBI on a large scale methamphetamine trafficking investigation, and was wearing a recording device to further the investigation.  News of the inmate informant spread quickly throughout the correctional facility, which placed the informant at risk.  As a result, the informant was moved from the from the facility for his own safety, and the FBI investigation of the methamphetamine trafficking ring was abruptly terminated.

Rose faces up to three years in prison for witness tampering when he is sentenced on August 13, 2015.  The Honorable Irene Berger presided over the trial.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, assisted by Bureau of Prison Investigators.  Assistant United States Attorneys Erik  S. Goes and Timothy Boggess were responsible for the prosecution.

Updated May 13, 2015