Chapman fraud charge dropped (Virginia Local Politics)

A former House of Delegates candidate who was indicted in the middle of a heated election is no longer charged with felony voter fraud.

Steve Chapman, 27, was scheduled to go to trial today for allegedly lying about his address on a voting registration form.

On Monday, a special prosecutor dropped that charge, which carried the threat of a 10-year prison sentence.

When he was indicted in May, Chapman was embroiled in a contentious struggle to unseat Delegate Harry Parrish, R-Manassas, in the 50th District's Republican primary.

Chapman lost the June 14 primary 55 percent to 45 percent -- a margin of about 342 votes -- and has said repeatedly that the indictment was political sabotage cooked up by a good-old-boy network that includes Parrish and Commonwealth's Attorney Paul D. Ebert.

This spring, both Ebert and Parrish vehemently denied any allegations of collusion.

After a grand jury decided there was enough evidence against Chapman to merit a trial, Ebert and all the Circuit Court judges in Prince William County removed themselves from the case because of the political overtones.

Chapman's camp said the charges were a result of misinformation being fed to the Commonwealth's Attorneys office by Parrish's campaign.

However, Parrish said at the time that the first he'd heard of his opponent's indictment was from reporters.

Parrish, a 12-term incumbent and local political legend, will face Democrat Donald Shuemaker in the November election.

The felony indictment stemmed from allegations that Chapman didn't live in Manassas Park when he registered to vote there in October.

Chapman, who said he'd moved to the 50th District -- comprised of Manassas, Manassas Park and parts of Prince William County -- specifically to run against Parrish, said he'd rented a room in Manassas Park for $125 per month prior to registering to vote.

Chapman also faces a misdemeanor charge of voting in a district where he wasn't a resident.

That charge has been continued to March 22, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney John Childrey, a Chesterfield County prosecutor who is handling the case.

This is a followup. Steve Chapman ran as a republican challenger to a republican incumbent in the Virginia 50th delegate race. The incumbent (Harry Parrish) was a well-loved politician who had supported the 2004 tax increase, and was one of 6 republicans targeted in primaries.

In early May (before the June 14 primary) the democrat Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert, a friend of Harry Parrish's, brought an indictment from a grand jury for fraud.

Chapman has been involved for many years in the republican party in Prince William county, but he lived outside the district (he ran a business out of the basement of a house he owned in Dale City).

He wanted to run in the 50th, so he rented a room at a house in Manassas Park. This also gave him a chance to campaign against an off-track betting facility they were trying to put in Manassas Park.

Months later, opposition research got the owner of the house to claim he had never seen Steve there. That oppoistion research was turned over to Ebert.

Chapman asked for expidited hearing of the case, but instead it was moved to the virginia beach area and put off until september. We always expected the charges would be dropped, dismissed, or he would be found not guilty.

So now, just before the trial, the felony charge was dropped. There is still a misdeameanor for VOTING in the election in november, but that was put off until March, and I'm guessing it will go away as well (it might come back up here for trial now that there is no conflict).

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