Photo Courtesy of W.Va. Legislative Photography With solicitation charges against him dropped, Sen. Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, said he is seeking answers and amends from those in Marshall County who prosecuted him.

GLEN DALE — For 19 months that coincided with his re-election campaign, Marshall County state Sen. Mike Maroney had a misdemeanor solicitation charge hanging over his head. His trial was delayed several times, and through it all he remained adamant that either the charges would be dropped or he would be found innocent at trial.

The trial never took place, but late last month Maroney was cleared of any wrongdoing when a special prosecutor from Wood County dismissed the case due to lack of evidence.

Now, Maroney’s seeking answers and amends from those he says unfairly targeted him.

Glen Dale police arrested Maroney and seven other men in August 2019 on charges of solicitation. The seven other men either had their charges dropped or they pleaded guilty in relatively short order. Maroney, however, faced delay after delay for the following year.

In November, following the election of Joe Canestraro as Marshall County’s prosecutor, a special prosecutor was appointed in Wood County to handle Maroney’s case.

Maroney alleged Rhonda Wade, who served as Marshall County’s prosecutor until retiring in November, and Canestraro allowed the case to languish in court without cause. He also said Canestraro campaigned on behalf of his political opponent, Josh Gary, in the 2020 general election for the 2nd District state Senate seat.

Maroney said the first trial delay was due to his attorney, Paul Harris, having a federal trial scheduled at the same time. After that, though, he believes prosecutors intentionally delayed bringing his case to trial.

“As soon as the Marshall County magistrate court spits out my trial date, it’s an automatic reschedule, because of this federal trial. We rescheduled the very first trial,” Maroney said Wednesday. “The following four or five, none of them came from us. Not one. I begged for my day in court. I have no idea why the magistrate let this drag out, but they were under the thumb of the prosecutor, and if the prosecutor had ulterior motives, this is what you get.”

Canestraro declined to comment Wednesday on Maroney’s allegations or just what led to the trial delays. Prior to his term as prosecutor, Canestraro, a Democrat, was a colleague of Maroney’s, serving in the House of Delegates while Maroney served in the state Senate.

Wade could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

“Marshall County would not recuse themselves, despite the fact that I knew those two prosecutors — Rhonda, who’s no longer there, and Joe Canestraro — despite the fact that I’ve known them almost my entire life, despite the fact that I served with Joe, him in the House, me in the Senate. Not only would they not recuse themselves, they wouldn’t give me my day in court.

“They were purposely drawing this out to (impact) the primary election, which they thought I would lose, and the general election, which they thought I would lose.”

Maroney also said the county refused to turn over a cell phone during discovery, the pre-trial process where each party obtains evidence from the other side.

“To this day, they never turned over the phone with all the stuff allegedly on it. My attorney sent emails, letters, called, saying, ‘You’re bound by the rules of discovery. You took an oath to uphold the office, there are laws,’ and they wouldn’t even return calls,” Maroney said.

Maroney went on to easily defeat Gary and retain his seat, which he said provided a sense of vindication in the court of public opinion.

“I’m happy, I’m glad it’s behind us. My family was greatly affected. It was a horrible time period for us, and we’ve already started healing,” he said. “The election was a huge step in the right direction for the healing process — that spoke volumes for what the people thought.”

Despite winning the election and seeing charges against him dropped, Maroney said he wants answers from the county prosecutor and from the city of Glen Dale, his hometown, where he initially was arrested. The mayor and police chief, Maroney said, had the power to drop the charges against him but failed to do so.

To remedy this, Maroney said he’s keeping his options open — either the city and county authorities can come forward and explain their positions, or he can look at compelling them to do so legally.

“There’s only two options: either they offer information, or you have to force them to give it, and forcing it is a legal avenue. Both options are on the table, without a doubt. … I think the city’s got a lot of issues here, and it’s my city. I hate it. I can’t even express how much I hate this. Glen Dale is a wonderful city,” he said.

“The chief of police (Edward Vogler) and the mayor (David Blazer) both had plenty of opportunities to rectify this during the last 19 months, and neither one of them was man enough to step up to the table and take care of it.”

Vogler on Wednesday defended the investigation, saying he was confident the city had a solid case. However, without the testimony of the woman charged at the center of the prostitution ring, Vogler said the Wood County prosecutor did not believe the case would succeed at trial.

Regardless, Vogler said the city was unable to drop the charges against Maroney, which were at the discretion of the prosecutor.

“We, as a police department, do not have the opportunity to drop the charges. That would have had to come from the prosecutor’s office,” he said. “I will stand by my investigators. We had a very strong case against Dr. Maroney. We treated him the same as we treated everyone else in that case, in which we got numerous convictions.

“We didn’t go after any one person more so than the others,” he added. “Per phone records, everyone who texted and met with her was charged. … We feel we had a very strong case. The special prosecutor told us that he felt without the direct testimony … he could not get a conviction.”

Blazer could not immediately be reached Wednesday for comment.