Former Fort Gay Mayor and Town Recorder receive early parole

By Roberta Cantrell
BSN Editor

Both former mayor and treasurer/recorder of Fort Gay, WV, who were convicted on embezzlement charges will be released Thursday, Aug. 13 from the Charleston Correctional Center.

Joetta R. Hatfield and Sheila K. Bowen have been granted accelerated parole during a hearing Monday, Aug. 10.

Both women were arrested in November of 2024.

In July of 2025, a Wayne County grand jury returned a nine-count indictment charging them with embezzlement, fraudulent schemes, conspiracy, falsifying accounts and computer fraud.

The Fort Gay Town Council approved a reply from the state regarding a parole hearing with relevance to the town during their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 4.

The letter came from the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation regarding Hatfield’s and Bowen’s parole hearings. Town officials did not provide further information during the meeting on the contents of the letter from the state nor how the town would reply to that letter.

On Sept. 26, 2025, both Hatfield and Bowen entered plea agreements in the case, waiving their rights to trials and pleaded guilty to one count of felony embezzlement.

During the sentencing hearings for their embezzlement cases on Nov. 13, 2025, before Circuit Judge James H. Young Jr. at the Wayne County Courthouse in Wayne, both were each denied an alternative sentence and were sentenced to 1-10 years incarceration held by the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and restitution with a set amount being $245,249.43 for Hatfield and $127,004.41 for Bowen.

Records show both have a total of $3,000 paid toward those amounts to date.