Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994                   TAG: 9405110128
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INMATE FILES SUIT, SAYS WDBJ-TV CALLED HIM RAPIST

Carlos Andre Smith alleged in the suit that WDBJ (Channel 7) broadcast the information during a Feb. 2 report about a civil trial in which he brought allegations of excessive force against several deputies from the Roanoke Sheriff's Office.

In his lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Smith asked for $5.5 million in damages.

WDBJ's news director disputed the allegations, calling it a "nuisance suit."

Smith is serving an 11-year sentence at the Bland Correctional Center for convictions that include cocaine distribution, escape and assault. He claimed in the lawsuit, filed without the assistance of a lawyer, that WDBJ defamed his character by incorrectly reporting he had been convicted of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.

Jim Kent, WDBJ news director, said Tuesday that he reviewed the station's newscast and found no basis for Smith's claims. "We did not say what he said we said," Kent said.

The report has caused Smith "to be in constant fear ... as a result of the way sex offenders and rapists are treated and harassed in the Virginia penal system," the lawsuit states.

During the Feb. 2 trial in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Smith alleged that he was beaten by sheriff's deputies in a holding cell at the city courthouse. A jury ruled that no excessive force was used.