Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The inquiry comes after a 9-year-old boy died when the car he was traveling in was hit by a vehicle driven by a 20-year-old man who told police he had been drinking at the weekly beach music concert.
The concerts are sponsored by and benefit the Easter Seal Society of Virginia.
They are held at the Valleypointe Corporate Center off Peters Creek Road.
Wallace Van, assistant ABC agent-in-charge in Roanoke, said the probe started Monday after his agency was contacted by concerned citizens and the Roanoke County Police Department.
Van said the ABC had no prior complaints about Valleypointe After Hours, which is in its fourth year.
He said ABC agents had attended the events and found no violations.
"They have made a concerted effort to operate in a law-abiding manner," he said.
According to police reports, John Walton Stover, who faces an involuntary-manslaughter charge in the death of Dustin Washburn, told investigators he had been drinking at Valleypointe before the accident on Peters Creek Road last Thursday.
Stover's car plowed into the back of a car driven by Robin Washburn, Dustin's mother, sending it airborne before it crashed on its front end and landed in the median.
Police said there was evidence that Stover had been drinking, although Stover was not charged with driving under the influence.
Bob Knight, president of Easter Seals Society of Virginia, said he doubted that Stover obtained alcohol at Valleypointe.
He said young people at the shows are required to provide double identification, are given an armband, and have their hands stamped before they can buy beer.
Knight said each customer is limited to four beers in two hours.
"There is no way he could have been given an armband," Knight said, noting that Virginia requires drivers younger than 21 to take a profile photograph for their license. "He certainly couldn't have gotten one legally."
He said the allegation has brought undue criticism to an event that has gone out of its way to prohibit drinking by minors and intoxicated people.
He said Valleypointe workers are trained to recognize phony IDs and to recognize when someone has been drinking too much.
"To besmirch Valleypointe because of this accident is unreasonable," Knight said.
"It has nothing to do with Valleypointe. It is a tragedy going apart from an event that has been conducted for four years with high marks. We're doing everything we conceivably can do."
by CNB