MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The delegate elected to represent the 91st district out of South Berkeley County is being held in the Eastern Regional Jail this afternoon on $300,000 cash bond after allegedly threatening to kill fellow lawmakers.
Joseph deSoto, 61, of Gerrardstown was arrested just after midnight and on Thursday appeared before Berkeley County Magistrate Darrell Shull.
According to Magistrate Court records, he has been charged with one count of “threats of terrorist acts,” a felony.
That after House Speaker Roger Hanshaw alerted law enforcement that deSoto had “made several threatening/intimidating threats against government officials,” according to a press release from the West Virginia State Police.
99th District Delegate Wayne Clark was among those targeted. He told The Panhandle News Network he was informed “the individual said ‘God told me to kill’ and mentioned my name directly.”