A West Virginia police chief paid $100 to rape a teen — and tried to cover it up

C.H. had reported that her stepmother sold her to be raped for $100 when she was 17 years old. The buyer, she told the sheriff’s department, wasn’t just anyone — it was Police Chief Larry Clay. While he was in uniform and on duty. The first time, against his department-issued vehicle. The second, inside a police office.

Clay, 55, and the stepmother, 27, were both charged with sex trafficking of a minor.

It was the second time in Gauley Bridge’s history that a police chief had been charged with child sexual abuse. The first time, in the late 1990s, nearly 100 people had protested the arrest, declaring their loyalty to the chief.

This time, too, the chief was adamant about his innocence. Clay, who declined to comment to The Washington Post, hired an attorney and pleaded not guilty. C.H.’s furious stepfather told his neighbors that C.H. was just an angry teen, lying to get her stepmother in trouble.

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