Shannon Taylor, Henrico County’s top prosecutor, has dropped her plan to hire the first deputy prosecutor in Virginia who would specialize in investigating police misconduct after Henrico County pulled its share of the funding.

The Henrico commonwealth’s attorney told the Free Press in an email that although “I continue to strongly believe that there needs to be a deputy whose full-time responsibility” would be to probe complaints, review footage from body-worn cameras and seek charges against officers when appropriate, the county funds are crucial.

Ms. Taylor noted the state, which is the primary source of funding for her office, “does not allocate resources such that I can hire for this position or for a consultant at a significantly reduced salary.”

Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas initially agreed the county would cover a portion of the salary, but withdrew that support after deeming the person Ms. Taylor selected too biased against police based on social media posts.

At this point, she stated that her only option is to lobby the five members of the Henrico Board of Supervisors “to try to convince them to persuade them that Mr. Vithoulkas that his action is unjust and that this position will help make Henrico a safer and more just community.”

But a majority of the board members has signaled that is an unlikely prospect. Only one member, the Rev. Tyrone Nelson of Varina, has publicly offered support for filling the position.

Ms. Taylor announced plans for the position July 1 amid the protests over the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. She did so after first securing Mr. Vithoulkas’ agreement authorizing creation of the position in her office.

The Virginia Mercury broke the story Oct. 1 that Mr. Vithoulkas had pulled back the county funding in mid-September after reading social media posts from the selected candidate for the job, Misty Whitehead of Henrico, a Filipino native and Army veteran who has specialized in criminal defense and family law for 13 years.

Ms. Taylor offered Ms. Whitehead the position on Sept. 1. Ms. Whitehead accepted, but then received notice from the county two weeks before she was to start on Sept. 28 that the position that would have paid $121,000 a year had been frozen and would not be filled. The county was to provide at least half of the funding for her salary and benefits.

According to Mr. Vithoulkas, he pulled the funding after looking at her social media posts and found them to be anti-police. One post included a photo of her posing with family in front of the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond after the pedestal was covered with graffiti that included slurs against police.

In Mr. Vithoulkas’ view, hiring someone who brings a bias as well as a focus on aggressively prosecuting officers could impact the department’s ability to recruit new officers and retain those on the force.

He told the Mercury, “In this case, I will absolutely not do it under any circumstance.”