A West Virginia firefighter and part-time police officer used a dead paramedic’s name to groom an underage girl while at the man’s memorial service, according to new revelations included in an FBI search warrant obtained by The Daily Beast.
During the solemn ceremony, Christopher Lee Osborne, 25, sent a Snapchat message under the name “Richard Smith” to a 17-year-old junior firefighter who was also there, saying he wanted to “fuck” the 16-year-old girl next to her, states the newly unsealed warrant. The real Richard Smith, a retired lieutenant and 37-year veteran of the ambulance corps, was being laid to rest after dying from COVID-related complications.
Osborne allegedly operated almost like a mini Jeffrey Epstein, according to the warrant, which accuses the disgraced first responder of using his teenage subordinate, identified in the filing only as “M.H.,” to procure additional teen girls to allegedly assault at the firehouse.
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“M.H. stated that she gave in to Osborne’s demands in part because it was important to her to succeed as a junior firefighter and to be accepted by Osborne and other firefighters,” the warrant says.
Osborne was indicted by a grand jury in September on federal civil rights charges as well as one count of using fire to commit a felony, and one count of witness tampering. He stands accused of kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl inside a firehouse bunk room, lying to investigators about the alleged crime, and setting fire to a 49-year-old woman’s home. After the indictment was handed down, Osborne was dismissed from the Danville Volunteer Fire Department, where he had served for nine years, as well as the Charleston Fire Department, of which he was a probationary member. He was also suspended without pay from the Marmet, West Virginia Police Department.
M.H. met Osborne in June 2020 “through her work as a junior firefighter at the Danville Volunteer Fire Department,” according to the warrant. The two communicated through Snapchat, and Osborne had as many as five different accounts under various names, including “Firefighter” and “Blue Piggy,” a nod to his work in law enforcement, M.H. told investigators. Osborne had so many alts “because his girlfriend would catch him communicating with other girls using different accounts, which would lead to Osborne opening up a new account,” the warrant states.
“Osborne frequently messaged M.H. using Snapchat to ask her to connect him with her friends for sex,” it explains. “M.H. described Osborne as being very persistent and someone who is hard to tell no. M.H. said that Osborne pressured M.H. to bring three different teenage girls to him at the fire department, including the victim, so that he could have sex with them. M.H. did so on multiple occasions.”
On Jan. 19, 2021, Osborne asked M.H. to bring the 16-year-old he saw at the memorial service, identified as “K.B.,” to the Danville firehouse, according to the warrant. K.B. initially did not want to go, but eventually agreed, it says. When they got there, M.H., K.B., and Osborne sat together in the firehouse’s television room. Osborne then sent a Snapchat message to M.H., asking her to leave so he could be alone with K.B.
However, K.B. later told investigators, she had heard from others that Osborne “used the Danville Fire Department to have sex with females,” and asked M.H. not to leave her alone with him. Eventually, M.H. walked out, saying that she needed to use the restroom.
“After M.H. left the television room, Osborne grabbed the victim by the arm and walked her out of the television room and down the hall to the bunk room,” says the warrant. “Osborne walked the victim into the room and then pushed the victim onto one of the beds.”
Osborne then forced himself on K.B., who told him to stop, according to the warrant. At one point during the alleged assault, K.B. tried to reach for the pepper spray she had with her, it says, adding that when Osborne saw this, he grabbed the pepper spray and threw it across the room. Osborne then allegedly choked K.B. with her own shirt.
The next day, K.B. told a confidante at the firehouse that Osborne had raped her. The two were spotted on surveillance video entering the bunk room and coming back out 45 minutes later. K.B. provided the West Virginia State Police with the shorts she was wearing that night, which had Osborne’s DNA on them, according to a crime lab analysis cited in the warrant.
But when police questioned Osborne, he repeatedly denied assaulting K.B.
“Osborne advised it was [his] intention to have sex with the victim but that it did not happen,” states the warrant. “Osborne admitted to kissing the victim but stated that they spent the rest of their time together talking.”
His alleged victims told a much different story.
A second teen M.H. brought to the firehouse said she “did not want to have sex with Osborne,” according to the warrant. Still, M.H. told investigators that she saw Osborne “grab J.M. by the arm and lead her upstairs.” J.M. later told M.H. that she gave into Osborne’s demands “but…did not like the encounter.”
A third girl, described in the search warrant as a teenager, “told M.H. that she had consensual sex with Osborne at the fire department.” Although these instances are listed in the warrant Osborne is only charged for the alleged assault of K.B.
Another female associate of Osborne’s, identified in the search warrant as “C.A.,” said that Osborne had “attempted to get C.A. to set him up with her young female coworkers,” and asked for their Snapchat usernames.
“C.A. told Osborne the girls he was asking about were underage and still in high school,” says the warrant. “Osborne did not care and still wanted their information. C.A. did not tell the underage girls of Osborne’s interest and instead told Osborne that the girls were not interested in him.”
Even M.H. wasn’t spared from Osborne’s alleged come-ons. On one occasion, she told investigators, Osborne contacted her on Snapchat and asked her to come “hang out” at the firehouse. When she got there, Osborne brought M.H. to the television room and asked her to sit next to him. Osborne then “put his arm around M.H and told her that she needed to loosen up,” the warrant states. “Osborne then put his hand on M.H.’s thigh. At that time, M.H. told Osborne that she was not interested and left the room.”
No further details of the arson charge against Osborne have been revealed by authorities.
Osborne was arrested on Sept. 1. A Charleston, West Virginia jail official confirmed to The Daily Beast that he remains locked up on a federal detainer pending trial, which is set to begin Feb. 15. Osborne’s lawyer, Mark McMillian, told The Daily Beast that he expects to be replaced by substitute counsel “by the end of the week,” and declined to comment further.
If convicted, Osborne faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
