MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monday standoff at the Cranston & Edwards Law office standoff will get additional scrutiny, according to U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia Bill Ihlenfeld.
On Monday, Jeremy Harp went to the law office to make a statement regarding a recent case handled by the firm in which his brother, Christopher Harp, was convicted of receiving child porn. A statement released by the law firm suggested Jeremy provided a confession to the crimes committed by his brother; that possibility is now being called into question.
On MetroNews “Talkline,” Ihlenfeld did not specify but said they are looking at evidence that shows Jeremy Harp did not go to the Cranston & Edwards Law office on his own. Ihlenfeld did not say if it was a family member, a friend, or possibly his brother Christopher that was involved in motivating Jeremy Harp on Monday.
“The evidence we gathered indicates he was manipulated into going into that law office and making a false statement,” Ihlenfeld said. “In other words, he didn’t go in there on his own; he didn’t just wake up and decide he wanted to go in and admit to something he didn’t do—he was encouraged, he was pressured, and he was perhaps incentivized.”
Ihlenfeld said the 60-second statement did not appear to be an admission of guilt or a confession.
“I’ve seen the video, and it is not a confession,” Ihlenfeld said. “Jeremy Harp had a lot on his mind, and it looked like he was under duress in making the statement he did—it was about one minute long and the response to leading questions.”
Christopher Harp, 39, of Morgantown, was convicted in April of this year by a jury who heard the same argument: his brother Jeremy was responsible for the pornography. Ihlenfeld said both the jury and judge refuted that claim during the trial.
“Christopher Harp, who was convicted, pointed the finger at his brother throughout the trial, who was not present at the trial and who was not a witness, and the jury rejected that,” Ihlenfeld said. “The judge also rejected that in a 33-page order.”
An IP address in Morgantown traced to the laptop Christopher Harp owned was linked to the active distribution of illegal images and videos via a peer-to-peer network. Agents recovered computers, tablets, phones, and thumb drives they said contained hundreds of downloads; many contained images of children under the age of 12.
“We linked his email address, his work website, and other logins and business that was being done on that laptop straight back to Christopher Harp,” Ihlenfeld said. “Ultimately, the jury found it was Christopher Harp who, over many years, downloaded and accessed child pornography on that laptop.”
During the nearly six-hour standoff, Monday negotiators from multiple agencies spent hours attempting to get Jeremy Harp to leave the building. During that period, Ihlenfeld said there is evidence Jeremy Harp told negotiators things that directly contradicted the statement he provided immediately before the standoff began.
“There was work done by the negotiators to talk to him and to talk him down,” Ihlenfeld said. “During those lengthy conversations that were recorded, he did not stand behind the statements he made in the law office.”