West Virginia Mayor Faces Drug Counts

Mayor Mike Roark, dogged by allegations of drug use since his days as the county prosecutor, was indicted Friday on charges that he distributed cocaine and interfered with investigators.

The 30-count indictment alleges that Roark, 41, distributed the drug at a Charleston bar, a Fayetteville foot race and his home and possessed cocaine in his office, a city car and at a local high school.

The Republican mayor, who was reelected in April, said Friday that he would not resign.

The indictment includes 13 felony charges and 17 misdemeanors, U.S. Atty. Michael Carey said.

“I can only say that I am not guilty of the charges,” Roark said.

“Roark is charged with obstructing justice by causing a witness to provide false information to the FBI, inducing the witness to commit perjury and conspiring to obstruct justice and commit perjury,” Carey said.

The grand jury accused Roark of distributing cocaine eight times between June, 1980, and April, 1986, and possessing it twice with the intent to distribute.

He is also accused of possessing the drug 17 times without the intent to distribute, including three times at his home, once in the South Charleston High School parking lot, on a white-water rafting trip, in the men’s room of a Charleston bar, twice in another bar, in his office and in a city car.

Drug rumors first reached newspapers in 1983, as Roark waged a successful campaign to unseat Mayor Joe Smith, a Democrat.

Last Jan. 12, a real estate executive and convicted drug dealer testified in federal court that he had sold cocaine to the mayor four times and used it with him once.