The West Virginia State Police officer accused of rape by a Charleston woman has resigned.
Trooper Derek S. Snavely resigned from the department Friday, said Lt. Col. Steve Tucker.
Col. David Lemmon confirmed that the personnel investigation into Snavely was complete but that the criminal investigation is ongoing.
The woman alleges she was drunk and was forced to have sex with Snavely last month after he followed her to a friend's house where she was staying.
She and her lawyer, Mike Clifford, showed a Gazette reporter part of a videotape that apparently shows the woman and a man wearing a State Police uniform inside the woman's residence.
"I think it's appropriate," Clifford said of Snavely's resignation. "I also surmise that the officer was given the choice between resigning and being fired."
Snavely had been on restrictive duty pending the outcome of the investigations.
Clifford said he has been in contact with the State Police about civil remedies to the case and is waiting to see the result of the criminal investigation.
The woman, who is not being identified because she is an alleged rape victim, said she left The Vault, a bar in downtown Charleston, about 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16. She and a bar employee were driving to a restaurant when she was stopped by Snavely near the parking lot of Smiley's Restaurant and Lounge in Jefferson.
The woman said Snavely told her she was driving in the middle of the road, then performed a field sobriety test on her. She asked him if she was going to get a DUI, and he told her he didn't think she was that drunk.
Eventually they drove in separate cars to another spot, where Snavely, who is in his early 20s, began kissing and fondling her, she said. Then they drove in separate cars to her house, she said. "I went in survival mode," she said last week. "I couldn't call anybody because he was the police."
The surveillance video allegedly shows the scene inside the house where the woman was staying with a friend and her friend's husband. It was not clear why the surveillance video was set up.
The video segment begins at about 5:30 a.m. A man is lying on a couch smoking a cigarette when a woman and another man, apparently in a State Police uniform, enter the picture. The woman and trooper greet the man, then go off-screen.
The woman said she and Snavely went into the guest bedroom of the house, where she was forced to perform oral sex on him, then have sex with him.
More Information: http://www.wvmetronews.com/index.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=27876
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