CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former West Virginia State Police trooper accused of raping a woman will not be prosecuted, Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants said.

The reason, Plants said, is that the woman didn't tell the State Police officer doing the criminal investigation of her case the same story that she told the Gazette.

The woman told the Gazette that former trooper Patrick James Mooney told her on Feb. 9 that he was going to drive her to her job at a strip club in Jefferson. Instead, she said, he took her up a winding country road and raped her.

"He comes up and tells me to get out [of the car]," she said at the time. "And he rapes me."

The statement directly contradicts the statement she gave State Police investigators that she did not try to stop Mooney's sexual advances, Plants said.

"That is not the statement that is part of the evidence in this case," Plants said of the woman's statements to the Gazette.

The woman gave a statement to State Police on Feb. 15.

In March, the woman told the Gazette the officer raped her and that the State Police internal affairs unit told her not to tell anyone about it.

"They said if I wouldn't say anything, that the police barracks could punish him more if I kept my mouth shut," the woman said at the time.

However, Plants used the statement the woman gave the State Police to make his decision.

Plants' office made the decision not to prosecute in April. The prosecutor said he has to go by the evidence that is presented to him in an investigation.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former West Virginia State Police trooper accused of raping a woman will not be prosecuted, Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants said.

The reason, Plants said, is that the woman didn't tell the State Police officer doing the criminal investigation of her case the same story that she told the Gazette.

The woman told the Gazette that former trooper Patrick James Mooney told her on Feb. 9 that he was going to drive her to her job at a strip club in Jefferson. Instead, she said, he took her up a winding country road and raped her.

"He comes up and tells me to get out [of the car]," she said at the time. "And he rapes me."

The statement directly contradicts the statement she gave State Police investigators that she did not try to stop Mooney's sexual advances, Plants said.

"That is not the statement that is part of the evidence in this case," Plants said of the woman's statements to the Gazette.

The woman gave a statement to State Police on Feb. 15.

In March, the woman told the Gazette the officer raped her and that the State Police internal affairs unit told her not to tell anyone about it.

"They said if I wouldn't say anything, that the police barracks could punish him more if I kept my mouth shut," the woman said at the time.

However, Plants used the statement the woman gave the State Police to make his decision.

Plants' office made the decision not to prosecute in April. The prosecutor said he has to go by the evidence that is presented to him in an investigation.

"We couldn't prove forcible compulsion. That's the sticking point in all these cases," he said.

In December 2008, another former State Police trooper, Derek S. Snavely, resigned after a Charleston woman accused him of rape.

Kanawha County prosecutors declined to bring charges against Snavely after reviewing the evidence, assistant Kanawha County prosecutor Dan Holstein said previously. Two assistant prosecutors independently reviewed the case and agreed that there was no prosecutable offense, Holstein said.

Civil lawsuits are still open in both the Snavely and Mooney cases.

Neither is now an officer with the State Police, said State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous. Snavely is now police chief in Hinton.

Plants said he doesn't believe that police officers should be investigating other officers from their own department.

"That just makes sense," he said. "There shouldn't be any investigations of police officers by the same agency."

Plants said that anyone who has had what they believe is an improper conversation with a law enforcement officer needs to report it to either his office or to the head of the police agency.

"Being a police officer, you have a special authority and you have a lot of power over the citizens of this country," Plants said. "And if you abuse that power, you need to be prosecuted and fired."

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.