U.S. Marshals arrest man on sex offender violations

A local man convicted in 2007 on federal charges of possession of video records of obscene and lewd materials was arrested by the West Virginia State Police on Thursday, March 1.

Adrian Van Leen, 88, of Valley Road, Berkeley Springs, was arrested by Trooper Peer for failure to register as a sex offender. Van Leen was then picked up by U.S. Marshals on Wednesday, March 7 for
violating his federal probation on the same charges.

Van Leen was charged
with failing to register with the State Police Sex Offender Registry and his federal
probation officer, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Jon LaLiberte.

LaLiberte said Van Leen
had multiple convictions for possession of child pornography several years ago, and was in violation of the terms of his probation for those offenses.

A spokesperson for the U. S. Attorney’s Office confirmed that Van Leen had been taken into custody at the Eastern Regional Jail last week.

Chris Parr said Van Leen was released from jail on Monday, March 12 pending a final revocation hearing before U.S. District Judge John Bailey in Martinsburg.

The probation hearing date has not been set, but at that hearing, Judge Bailey would determine if Van Leen’s probation should be revoked and he should be returned to jail.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Van Leen was sentenced in 2008 to 46 months in prison and three years supervised release under the terms of his 2007 plea agreement.

Van Leen is scheduled to appear in Morgan County’s Magistrate Court on April 5 to face his State Police registry violation charges.