Daily Press, Friday, Oct. 9, 1987 B3 Judge refuses motion to dismiss false-arrest suit stealing from the company. Insley said he passed this information on to the regional manager and was subsequently told the local manager was fired. He assigned Bell to investigate after the new local manager reported he suspected his employees were stealing. Insley, who later was fired by Gatling, said he had no idea Atwell and Wagner were suspects until they were arrested.
Insley said Gatling had told him" he blamed the two for getting him fired when all three had been deputies under Gat-ling's predecessor, and Gatling wanted to get even. Bell denied that Gatling ever mentioned such feelings to him. The sheriff's only instructions in the Carter Lumber case, he said, were to handle the investigation properly. "He said to make sure we did strategy in which five co-defendants in the case had been told they wouldn't be prosecuted if they testified against Atwell. A similar charge against Wagner was later dropped.
Gloucester County Commonwealth's Attorney William H. Shaw HI testified that ultimately nobody was convicted of anything in the Carter Lumber investigation. Closely questioned by Doumar, Shaw explained that in criminal cases where there is more than one defendant, it is not unusual to deal with one or more defendants for their cooperation in prosecuting more important defendants. Sheriff's Deputy Tom G. Bell, a co-defendant with Gatling and former deputy David Bergeron in the civil case, testified that a local contractor who was the first person arrested in the Car justify letting the jury decide whether the defendants had violated Atwell's and Wagner's First Amendment right of free speech and Fourth Amendment right of protection against unreasonable seizure.
The plaintiffs claim they were arrested without probable cause on charges of embezzlement because Gatling was trying to discredit a State Police investigation of the Sheriff's Department that Atwell had instigated, and which later fizzled. Atwell and Wagner had been charged with stealing from Carter Lumber Gloucester County store while they were employees there in 1985. The charge against Atwell was dismissed by Circuit Court Judge G. Duane Holloway, who said he found testimony against Atwell to be unreliable. Holloway expressed severe criticism of the investigative ter investigation had indicated that Atwell and Wagner, who both had supervisory jobs, were "kingpins" in a theft ring at the lumber yard.
Bell said a regional manager with the national lumber store chain had said the company would not prosecute the contractor if he cooperated with investigators. He said he reported his findings to Gatling rather than to Lt. Gilbert Insley, who was chief investigator, because he believed Insley might have been too close to Atwell. Bell said he'd been told the two had been seen at lunch together. Later, after Bell decided to interview Insley in the case, Insley avoided him, Bell testified.
Insley had testified Wednesday that about nine months before Atwell was arrested, Atwell had told him he thought the local Carter manager might be KvJ v. m. 1 everything right." Bell also denied that he had misled Michael E. Stickler, a Gloucester magistrate at -the time, by identifying his informants as "reliable sources" when seeking arrest warrants for Atwell and Wagner. Stickler had testified Wednesday that Bell had not told him the names of the informants or that they had been arrested in the Carter investigation.
Had he known this, he said, he would not have issued the warrants. Bell said he not only named the informants, but explained fully their roles in the investigation. Gatling is running for re-election in November. Co-defendant Bergeron is one of his four challengers. Board asks 2nd opinion By MARK DI VINCENZO Staff Writer YORK Like a dissatisfied patient, the Board of Supervisors has instructed the county attorney to get a second opinion from the state attorney general, who wrote last week that the county could not legally repay a local church for work it did to get public sewer.
Supervisor H. Tabb Smith, who believes Bethel Baptist Church should be reimbursed, raised the possibility because the county staff discovered Oct. 2 that the church could not have tapped in where former county staffers said it could in 1982. "The attorney general, sitting in Richmond, doesn't understand the thing," Smith said during a special meeting Thursday. When one reads the opinion, it's clear the attorney general's office did not understand the situation, he said.
ts. ci A J. By MATHEW PAUST Staff Writer NEWPORT NEWS The federal judge hearing a false-arrest lawsuit against Gloucester County Sheriff William E. Gat-ling and two others refused defense motions to dismiss the action Thursday after the plaintiffs rested their case. U.S.
District Judge Robert G. Doumar ordered the trial to proceed after hearing lengthy arguments over the motions with the jury out of the courtroom. Doumar told the panel he expected the trial to conclude this afternoon. He said he would reconsider, before the civil case is given to the seven-member jury, defense motions to dismiss claims that Fred Lee Atwell Jr. and Richard H.
Wagner were falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted. But the judge said sufficient evidence had been presented to Father guilty of death By RON SHAWGO Staff Writer NEWPORT NEWS After admitting that he struck his 6-week-old son during a fit of anger, Robert Lee Sand II was convicted of second-degree murder Thursday in the death of the infant. The baby, Robert L. King, died from a brain injury Feb. 9, according to an autopsy.
His skull was fractured and he had bruises on his face, chest and shoulder. Sand, 18, said the child's injuries were accidental. He admitted being frustrated that he could not get his son to stop crying, but he contended the boy must have bumped his head on a wall as he held him and made a downward motion to turn off a light switch. "I didn't hear him hit the wall or nothing, but if I did, that's the only time it would have happened," Sand testified. But after weighing previous testimony by physicians who said it would take a major blow to cause such an injury, Circuit Judge Douglas M.
Smith said he did not accept Sand's explanation. "He wants me to believe that caused the fractures on that baby's head," Smith said. "There's just no way in God's world that that happened." Sand said he and the baby's 16-year-old mother, Patricia A. King, had an argument the night the child died. Sand and King testified they stayed with Sand's parents the weekend before the death.
King said she had Sand take her and the baby to King's grandmother's house Feb. 8, but when they got there Sand wanted her and the baby to go back with him. King refused, and Sand left with the infant. King later had a friend drive her to Sand's parents' house to get the child, but Sand would not hand the baby over to the friend. Sand said he later went looking for King and became angry when he could not find her.
He returned home, where he found the baby crying in his stepfather's care. The baby eventually went to sleep but awoke crying again about two hours later, Sand said. He said he then hit the child on the face twice and apparently bumped him on the head when he turned the light off. Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Sand will be sentenced Nov.
20. i 1 VTl-n, w-V 5 2tmm Utii- Staff photo by JOE FUDGE Buckle up goes into effect Jan. 1. Bolton said the trip is designed to help Virginians make wearing a seat belt a habit. She said of the 874 auto fatalities in Virginia last year, only 71 were wearing seat belts.
promote use of seat belts. Virginia State Police, Auto Safety Alliance and Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles officials are in a three-day motorcade through the state to promote the state's seat belt law that Williamsburg Mayor John Hodges (left) greeted Virginia Auto Safety Alliance Executive Director Barbara N. Bolton and two "crash dummies' Vince and Larry, during their visit Thursday to Merchants Square to waivers for oversized classes ine supervisors also rescinded an earlier resolution ap? proving the claim made by the church, where Supervisor Rodg ers A. Smith is also a trustee. At issue is the $6,901 bill the church paid to bore under Route 171.
Rodgers Smith claims an unidentified county official promised to pay at least part of the cost. In September, the supervisors voted to repay the church for its expenses, but the formal resolution omitted the actual appropriation. By the time the board met again to consider appropriating the money, County Attorney Thomas W. Athey thought the reimbursem*nt might be illegal and consulted with the attorney general's office. Attorney General Mary Sue Terry issued the opinion Oct.
2 that the county may not legally reimburse the church. "If I had known this would have caused all this fuss, I never would have brought it up for the sake of the church," Rodgers Smith said. "It's been an embarrassment to the church." He said that if Terry rules again that the reimbursem*nt is illegal, church leaders will not sue the county, as they could do. "If it's a closed matter, then that's it," Smith said. CARRIERS For delivery of pcm their class sizes down." Hampton Roads school divisions often have received waivers allowing them to collect state money for special education for children in overcrowded classes.
This year, however, the state did not grant any waivers for overloaded classrooms. "The board clamped down on that pretty tight. Year after year the same divisions were coming in for the same waivers. The board felt that enough was enough," said Margaret Roberts, director of the department's office of community relations. Divisions that got waivers were abusing the system by spending state funds earmarked for special education in other Wayne Lett, the division's director of planning.
"We may wait two months and the class could go down to seven students, and meanwhile you've hired an extra teacher and split the class. Then you have one class with three children and one with four, and the limit is 10." Wrhen officials know enrollment will be steady they can hire additional teachers. But in Newport News, and particularly around Fort Eustis, the number of special education students in a school can change quickly, Lett said. MOTOR ROUTE morning maw areas, Tuning said. "It's an educational quality issue.
Many of the pupils in those classes are highly active," he said. "If research tells you that the best situation is to have one teacher with six or eight children, and if you begin overloading that teacher, then you certainly begin reducing the amount of attention the teacher can give to each child." Officials from divisions like Newport News, however, argue that the state should allow two months before additional teachers or teacher aides have to be hired. "For example, let's say you have a special education class where the maximum enrollment is 10 students. All the sudden another student moves in and you're over the limit," said (P to 50 Off On Custom Draperies, Mini Blinds, Pleated Shades, Verticle Blinds Wallpaper! See Our Showroom For Your Home Needs State cuts By DONALD LOEPP Staff Writer Some Hampton Roads school divisions are feeling the bite of the state's decision to stop routinely granting waivers for overcrowded special education classes. Because so many people move in and out of the area, particularly military families, some school officials say they have trouble keeping special education classes below state-required size limits.
"It has been extremely difficult for some school divisions, at least they say it has been difficult," said Austin Tuning, director of special education for the state Department of Education. "School divisions like Hampton and Newport News, because they are such transient areas, have trouble planning to keep oysters at Burwell's Bay when Batten fell off. A Coast Guard boat found his body an hour later just east of Surry County in water about 10 feet deep, Brown said. The owner of the Trudy George W. Terwilliger of York-town, tried to help Batten by throwing him a rope, but the waterman was not able to grab the cord, the deputy said.
While drownings off the coast of Isle of Wight are not everyday occurrences, Brown said it is not unusual for a fisherman to fall overboard. "You'd be surprised how many watermen are out there on the river everyday and don't even know how to swim," Brown said. Man drowns in river PRE-H0LIDAY SPRUCE-UP TIME IS HERE! Applications being accepted for motor route carriers. Must be Bondable and have good transportation and willing to work 2'j to 3'i hours per morning. Excellent earnings for part time work, Routes available in The Following Locations.
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SUFFOLK, CHUCKATUCK, DRIVER AND BENNETSS CREEK AREAS. i OWENS ESTATES, BACONS CASTLE, RT. 10 AND CHIPPOKES AREAS RT. 620 AT TYNES CORNER, BETHEL HEIGHTS, on furniture by: Century Pearson Dixie Gordon Lane others ISLE OF WIGHT A Car-rollton area man pulling oysters from the James River Thursday morning fell off the boat and drowned. Michael J.
Batten, 44, of Route 1, Carrollton, couldn't swim and wasn't able to reach a rope that was thrown out to him, said Sheriff's Deputy James Brown. Batten was aboard the Trudy an oyster boat stationed in Rescue, when he lost his footing about 9 a.m. while raking oysters off the bottom of the river, Brown said. The deputy didn't know what caused Batten to fall. "He just went overboard," said Brown, who ruled the drowning accidental.
The boat had been pulling up CUSTOMS HOUSli CENTRAL HILL, SPORTSMAN CAMPGROUND, ZUNI WINDSOR AREAS Apply in Person To. Daily Press Bureau a 936 South Church Smithffield, Va. Phone 357-4137 I U.S. Rt. 17 2 mile N.
of Bridge Next to Gloucester Point Veterinary Clinic GLOUCESTER POINT, VA 23062 (804).
