Ex-Middletown chief may serve time in jail

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Ashley arrested again on DUI charge

By Alex Bridges -- abridges@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- A former Middletown police chief who resigned his post after being charged with drunken driving 41/2 years ago could face jail time for a third DUI authorities say occurred in September.

A Virginia state trooper stopped Roger Lee Ashley, 46, of 103 Par Court, Cross Junction, on Sept. 20 in Frederick County for speeding, according to a criminal complaint filed in General District Court. The document does not identify where the trooper made the stop.

Trooper J.L. Thompson states in the complaint that he recorded Ashley traveling 70 mph in a 55 mph zone and "observed the vehicle run off the road" before he stopped the driver. Ashley's license was suspended, the trooper said.

"After further contact with the suspect I detected an odor of an alcohol beverage from his person," Thompson states. "He refused a breath test."

The trooper charged Ashley with refusing to take a test for alcohol and driving on a revoked or suspended license -- both class 1 misdemeanors -- and issued a summons for the traffic violation of driving 70 in a 55 mph zone.

Court documents show Ashley asked the judge to continue his scheduled appearance of Oct. 5 to a later date due to an illness in the family. The court set a preliminary hearing for Oct. 19 but that has been continued to Jan. 19. A handwritten note from a family member of the defendant states that Ashley "hit [his] head at work on Friday, October 2. He's in hospital in Pennsylvania."

Ashley has asked the court to appoint an attorney in his case.

Under Virginia law, a third DUI within five or 10 years is a class 6 felony. A conviction calls for a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 90 days if the offenses were committed within 10 years or a term of six months if the crimes occurred within five years of each other. A conviction also calls for a minimum fine of $1,000.

Ashley was serving as the chief of the Middletown Police Department when Strasburg police officers stopped him on March 12, 2005, for driving under the influence of alcohol. Officers pulled him over later that same day and charged him with a second DUI. Ashley pleaded guilty in Shenandoah County General District Court three months later to two counts of DUI, both first offenses, and received a 70-day jail sentence with 60 days suspended. The court dropped Ashley's charges of refusal to take an alcohol test and driving on a suspended license.

On Aug. 15, 2007, a state trooper responded to a motor vehicle crash in which Ashley suffered minor injuries when his vehicle ran off the road. The trooper investigating the crash also charged Ashley with driving under the influence, a third offense within five years.

Under a plea agreement reached by the commonwealth and his attorney, Judge John Prosser sentenced Ashley on June 13 in Frederick County Circuit Court to 12 months in jail with two months suspended for a second DUI in five years, a misdemeanor, for the August 2007 incident. The judge ordered Ashley to serve three years of unsupervised probation upon release from jail and to pay a $1,500 fine.

A show-cause order has been issued for Ashley to appear in Circuit Court on Dec. 9.