Prosecutor Doubted Chief's Honesty

Prosecutor Doubted Chief's Honesty
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By ROB SEAL
rseal@potomacnews.com
Saturday, April 22, 2006

A Haymarket prosecutor resigned last month because she doubts the town police chief's honesty, according to a copy of her resignation letter posted on a controversial Web site.

The public airing of the letter - which would normally be kept confidential - underscores bitter political divisions in Haymarket and has some town officials hinting at legal action against the Web site's operator.

The resignation letter appears to have been written by Cynthia A. Dupray, an attorney the town retained to prosecute some misdemeanors and traffic tickets issued by Haymarket's small police force.

The letter was posted Thursday on townofhaymarket.info, a privately owned Web site that isn't affiliated with the town's government.

In the March 29 letter, Dupray writes that she can no longer prosecute cases for Haymarket because she believes Police Chief James E. Roop misled a reporter for the Manassas Journal Messenger and Potomac News.

During an interview for a March 7 story, a reporter asked Roop about rumors that a town police officer left court early to attend a college class, causing several cases in which he was the arresting officer to be dropped.

Roop denied the allegations, the News and Messenger reported.

In her letter of resignation, Dupray wrote that a Haymarket officer indeed left court early to.....

Prosecutor Doubted Chief's Honesty
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