Ex-Mayor Released After Drug Sentence

PETERSBURG, Va. — The former mayor of Charleston, W. Va., walked out of federal prison Wednesday after serving five months for possession of cocaine.

Mike Roark, 42, a former prosecutor nicknamed “Mad Dog” because he wore camouflage and a side arm to drug raids, was whisked past news cameras as he left the Federal Correctional Institute here.

Warden J. J. Clark said Roark had refused to consent to being interviewed or to allow prison officials to talk about his incarceration.

Before he entered politics, Roark was an assistant U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Kanawha County, W. Va., prosecutor. He pleaded guilty to six counts of cocaine possession last Nov. 17. He resigned as mayor on Nov. 24, seven months after his reelection for a second four-year term.