Michael Cline pleads guilty to three felony sex crimes with minors

Michael Cline ( center ) exits the Logan County Courthouse following a hearing a year ago on March 28th, 2024. Cline pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of Distribution and Exhibition of Material Depicting Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct and one count of Distribution and Display of Obscene Matter to a Minor.

LOGAN The long-anticipated trial of a coffee shop owner accused of numerous crimes involving minors is officially off after a plea hearing Wednesday in a Logan County courtroom.

Michael Cline was scheduled to stand trial next week on charges that originated from allegations that first appeared on social media in January 2023. On Wednesday, the 49-year-old operator of the now closed Hot Cup Coffee Shop put pen to paper on an agreement to plead guilty to two counts of Distribution and Exhibition of Material Depicting Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct and one count of Distribution and Display of Obscene Matter to a Minor.

The terms of the plea have been in the making for some time. In fact, a finalized agreement was still being hammered out as the final pre-trial hearing was to beginning Wednesday afternoon. The first two charges are to run concurrently in sentencing according to the plea and the count of display of obscene matter will be served consecutively.

Logan County Prosecuting Attorney David Wandling listed off the other provisions of the agreement to the court.

Logan County Prosecuting Attorney David Wandling said Wednesday that his office has prosecuted Cline and now it's up to the Court to pass sentencing. Wandling did not make a recommendation on sentencing in the agreement Cline agreed to.

“Victims are going to be free to give victim impact statements,” Wandling told the court. “The defendant will be required to register as a sex offender for life. He will be subject to up to fifty years of supervised release and the state will recommend a supervised release period of up to fifteen years. The parties are agreeable to Mr. Cline remaining on post-conviction bond and home confinement pending sentencing.”

A trial date has been set several times to just be pushed back time after time over the last two years. Wandling said the case has taken on a life of its own.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been a part of something that has garnered so much public attention.” Wandling said while pointing out there are far more cases with much more egregious facts. “My job is to prosecute him and that’s what we’ve done. We reached what I believe and what I’m confident our two young victims believe is a fair and reasonable plea.”

Cline was first arrested in February 2023 and has since been indicted by two separate grand juries. Most recently, Cline was formally charged under a superseding indictment from the Grand Jury in January of 2024. Moreover, Cline spent a year behind bars at the Southwestern Regional Jail at Holden on a $500,000 cash only bond. The high bond was based on two separate sexual assaults that were eventually dismissed with the superseding indictment and lowered the bond to $100,000 cash or surety. Cline has been free ever since.

Judge Joshua Butcher accepted the plea agreement.

The two counts of Distribution and Exhibition of Material Depicting Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct carry a maximum prison sentence of not more than two years and fines of $2,000 each. Both counts will run concurrently. The count of Distribution and Display of Obscene Matter to a Minor carries a maximum sentence of no more than five years and $25,000 in fines. Third count must be served consecutively to the other two charges.

The three charges Cline pleaded guilty to are felonies.

Wandling said the facts of the case are far from perception that has seemingly prevailed on social media.

"All things considered," Wandling told WVOW News, "getting three felons out of a case that ultimately doesn't involve a sexual assault. It doesn't involve any crimes of violence of any kind. Maybe as few as two photographs. One of each of these young women. I think that is a good result for the State of West Virginia and for these two young girls."

Wandling continued, "The public's view of what the facts of this case are and what the case was actually about couldn't be more different."

The charges came about from allegations made in a Facebook group called "Expose him, sis." The group contained posts, many of them potentially libelous, of individuals venting perceived crimes of assault and grooming young girls. Cline almost immediately became the exclusive subject of the group overnight. That was the weekend of January 21st. The Hot Cup shop, in the White and Browning Building in downtown Logan, has not opened since. Cline rechristened the building "Stark Tower" after he purchased it in 2021. State Police served a search warrant on the building a week later on January 27th.

Wandling said Cline pleaded guilty to the charges that most likely would have returned a guilty verdict if the trial went on as planned this Monday.

Cline's lawyer, Matthew Hatfield told the court Cline did not have an advantage in contesting the charges at trial.

"There is one photograph in particular that I have been able to review with the prosecutor that causes me concern," Hatfield told the court, "In my opinion, there is a particular photograph in question that would be more than sufficient to convict him."

One of the accusers, identified in court documents as A.K., told police she and Cline developed a consensual relationship while she still attend Man High School. The two were a couple between 2015 and 2019. In West Virginia, the age of sexual consent is sixteen years of age. However, individuals under the age of eighteen are considered minors in pictures of sexual conduct.

"Getting a conviction under all of the facts was going to be virtually impossible. I think the Grand Jury, when they heard those facts, said, 'Wait a minute. You have a text message that says she fantasizes about the exact thing that you want us to believe was a sexual assault and then she stayed in a relationship with him for four-plus years after that?' They said no way. If I can't get through to the Grand Jury with the lowest standard under the law, how am I ever going to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of Mr. Cline's peers that this was a sexual assault."

The other victim, listed as K.L. in court documents, was part of an Internet Crimes Against Children case in August 2020. A cyber tip alleged a seventeen year old victim was sending nude photos to Cline through social media platform Facebook. That case did not gain traction until the victim came forward following the initial allegations on social media two years ago.

The state has opted to not recommend a sentence in the case and now that decision rests with the Judge Butcher. Sentencing is set for June eighteenth at 1:30 p.m.

PHOTO | A M Stone