HYLTON BOYS SOCCER WINS CARDINAL DISTRICT, OSBOURN LEADS CEDAR RUN, Page 10.
June 3, 2021 | Vol. 20, No. 22 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
Police mishandling of child porn case sparks review Manassas detective disciplined in case involving federal agent By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
Prince William County’s commonwealth’s attorney’s office is reviewing more than a dozen active cases and past convictions involving
the testimony of a Manassas City police detective after prosecutors learned she was disciplined for misconduct in connection with a case involving a federal border patrol officer facing charges of child pornography. Former City of Manassas detective Anna Higgs, 10-year veteran of the police force, resigned in May after a review of local police miscon-
duct initiated by Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth revealed she was disciplined in September 2020 because of her actions following the border patrol officer’s arrest, officials said. The border patrol officer was arrested on August 24, 2020, by the multi-jurisdictional Northern Virginia-D.C. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which inves-
tigates online child exploitation and pornography. Higgs served on the task force, which is made up of officers from more than 30 Northern Virginia, state and federal law-enforcement agencies. Higgs developed a personal relationship with the spouse of the border patrol officer and provided the See DETECTIVE, page 4
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/DANIEL BERTI
Del. Sam Rasoul, D-11th, greets voters outside the Ferlazzo building, an early voting site in Prince William County, on Saturday, May 29. Rasoul is one of six Democratic candidates vying for the nomination to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor.
PHOTO BY DOUG STROUD
Cindy Neal with some of her kindergarten students at The Nokesville School. Neal, has been a teaching assistant for 42 years and is retiring at the end of this school year.
‘Invite all the children into your heart’ By Cher Muzyk
After spending 42 years as a Nokesville kindergarten teaching assistant, Cindy Neal will retire at the end of the school year. But she says her heart will always be in the classroom.
By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
Neal spent 35 years teaching at the original Nokesville Elementary School and then for the last seven years at its successor, The Nokesville School. The latter opened in 2014 and has an enrollment of about 1,060 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
With the June 8 Virginia primaries for Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegates fast approaching, voters in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park have cast about 4,400 early ballots, either in person or by mail, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. That is already more than double the number of early votes cast in the last gubernatorial primary in 2017, when an excuse was required to vote with an absentee ballot, and nearly three times the number of votes cast in Prince William in the May 8 Republican unassembled convention.
See TEACHER’S AIDE, page 2
See PRIMARY, page 4
Kindergarten teacher’s aide Cindy Neal retires after 42 years Contributing Writer
More than 4,400 early votes cast locally in Democratic primary
County Fair returns this summer. See page 8
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