BREAKING NEWS: All EDA criminal charges dropped, could be brought back
April 17, 2020
FRONT ROYAL – Special Prosecutor Michael Parker announced Friday that all criminal charges handed up by the special grand jury investigating the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority will be dropped.
Parker stated via email that “these are dismissals without prejudice,” which “means the same charges, and more charges if appropriate, can be brought at any time in the future.”
Indictments handed up by the special grand jury include felony counts related to financial improprieties against former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald, former EDA Administrative Assistant Michelle Henry, former B&G Goods owner William Lambert and McDonald’s husband Samuel North.
“I assure you I am not pleased about this. I also assure you this is not the end. However, while it is my duty to bring justice to the guilty, it is also my duty to be just and ethical in my conduct at all times, to everybody,” Parker stated.
“That includes people who have been accused but have not yet been found guilty. At the current time, I am unable to satisfy certain basic obligations I have to the defendants, which have existed since before I was appointed on the case. I cannot ethically keep this status quo. In fact, if I tried to keep the cases active, I’d run the risk of a judge at some point dismissing them with prejudice, so that I could not bring them back.”