December 11, 2008
Trooper accused of rape resigns
State Police continue criminal investigation
Page 2 of 2
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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.

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

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