Virginia State Police Clear Haymarket Police Chief of Criminal Charges

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Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 5.42.57 PMA letter circulating on the internet shows that Haymarket Police Chief James Roop has been cleared of all criminal charges.

However, the letter from the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations does not exonerate Roop of the misconduct that resulted in his two-month suspension along with Deputy Gregory Breeden and Haymarket Police Officer Jacob Davis.

Corrine Geller, spokesperson for the Virginia State Police, verified the authenticity of the letter. She said her agency did conduct a criminal investigation against Roop, but it only looked into criminal allegations against him.

“When the VA State Police investigate as a criminal investigation, it is to see if it is a criminal offense,” Geller said.

The document perhaps raises more questions than it does answers. For one, the Virginia Police said they could not reveal who gave them a tip that led to the police investigation.

“It is our policy not to release or identify individuals that provide us with tips and information, so we are not able to identify who reached out to us,” Geller said.

Mayor David Leake said he did not call for the state police investigation. He said he never even received the letter that was addressed to him.

“I was first made of it by Councilmember (Jay) Tobias. He got an unsigned copy of the letter. That was the first I had seen it,” Leake said.

Leake asked the Town Clerk to request a copy of the letter from the Virginia State Police, which she did. He also confirmed his copy of the letter had not been returned to their address.

Leake explained this police investigation is not the external investigation he was calling for to look into Roop.

photo-25Leake said he contracted the Alexandria firm Manuel, Daniels, Burke International (MDB Int’l) to conduct the outside investigation.

Tony Daniels, CEO of MDB, confirmed that Leake and the Town Attorney contacted him about Roop. They were about to begin an investigation when it was halted by the Town Council. Due to that, Daniels said the investigation never happened.

“There was no investigation whatsoever,” Daniels said.

According to Jennifer Preli, the Town Clerk, the town paid MDB $1,726.20. Daniels said that was the fee for the initial consultations he had with the Mayor and Town Attorney

Daniels confirmed should the investigation have progressed, it would have differed from the police investigation. It would have looked for more than just criminality. As such, Leake explains that the letter from the Virginia State Police does not mean that the Police Chief is innocent of all misconduct; it only means that he did not commit any infraction against a minor.

Leake is also concerned that only one of five accusations against Roop* has been investigated once the investigation was taken in house. Leake said that is because the Town Council would only investigate matters in which Leake provided the name of the accuser or accusers.

Leake refused to offer that information, saying he was strongly advised against it by both the Town Attorney and MDB Int’l.

Leake believes that serious allegations have been alleged against the Police Chief, which have not been correctly investigated due to the decision of the council.

Meanwhile, others have defended Roop, believing he had been caught up in town politics and this has been a character assassination against him.

The allegations against the Police Chief and his officers leading to their to suspensions has not been released to the press.

The Washington Post previously reported on the fact that the Virginia Police were investigating the incident.

According to Leake, the police investigation did not have a bearing on the decision of the Town Council.

*Leake clarified there were no other accusations against the other officers. Previously, we published "officers" in regards to the five allegations, we should have specified the Police Chief.

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