Investigators for the Boone County Sheriff’s Department have been working on the case of David Daniels, 60, of Bob White for nearly 10 years, struggling to forge a case against a man they allege assaulted members of his own family.

In the past three years, the Boone County Grand Jury has returned indictments against the Pond Fork area resident, the second time while Daniels was out on bond awaiting a trial date on his first case.

In charges last year by sexual assault investigators, court documents charged him with unlawful sexual conduct with one of his younger children.

Last Summer, Daniels’ attorney, Jim Cagle, successfully persuaded Boone County Circuit Judge Will Thompson, to release Daniels from home confinement on humanitarian grounds. Cagle told Judge Thompson that Daniels’ home had a leaking, "possibly dangerous roof" which needed repair and could only be done by allowing the man to leave the confines of his home.

He also informed Thompson that the man needed to perform maintenance on his yard and other areas around his residence.

The judge, citing humanitarian grounds, granted the request. At the same time, Daniels’ trial, scheduled for earlier this summer, was put on hold due to a legal disagreement between the judge and Prosecuting Attorney Sam Hall’s office.

Prosecutors informed the court that they planned to use information about an investigation into Daniels’ conduct back in the early 1990s by the West Virginia State Police.

Both Daniels and prosecutors believe the investigation took place, however, no investigative files regarding Daniels could be found nor could anyone apparently even remember the name of the trooper conducting the investigation.

After Thompson ruled out the use or discussion of any evidence from the WVSP investigation, prosecutors announced their intention to appeal the Judge’s ruling to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Late last week, prosecutors were busy filing an appeal to be presented to the justices.

It is unclear at press time whether the court will even hear the case, nor if they do agree to do so, whether they will agree to hear the case this year.

On October 10, Daniels was re-arrested by investigators who contended he violated the terms of his bond by having a personal computer in his residence.

Daniels’ wife told deputies that the computer was kept in a nearby apartment which she used only "once monthly to pay bills on-line." This week, Cagle is scheduled to argue before the court that the location of the home computer did not violate the letter of the judge’s instructions.

"The defendant did not break the conditions of his bond," Cagle’s court response stated. "The condition asserted states ‘no computers in the home.’ Cagle asserted that the computer was located in a structure with a totally different street address than the one in which Daniels and his wife reside.

"The computers were only accessed by his wife Wanda and occasionally by their tenant. The computers were not used by the defendant at any time subsequent to the entry of the order and in fact the defendant was only at the apartment premises on a single occasion when he checked a leak at the request of the tenant. That occurred only after the court gave the defendant permission to make repairs to the roof of his properties."

Cagle also provided photos of the two residences and contends they "are not connected, have separate entrances and the apartment and the computer were not being used by the defendant as a home or as his computer at any time subsequent to the order of this court."

Daniels’ wife said in court documents that the last time she used the computer was to print digital photos to deliver to a representative of the county home confinement office to show that repairs had been made to the residence. Investigators have recently served a warrant to search the contents of the hard drive of the computer.

The computer will be sent to federal investigators who are often called upon to search for sexually explicit material downloaded onto these electronic devices.