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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995                   TAG: 9504040085
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

RAPE CHARGE DISMISSED

A rape charge against a Virginia Tech student was dismissed Monday after a probation officer reported the man had met all the conditions of his one-year probation.

Richard Todd Raines, 21, had been convicted in January 1994. But three months later, Judge R. William Arthur vacated his decision and took the rape charge under advisement for a year.

Raines, from Harrisonburg, was 19 when he was charged two years ago after a Radford University student told Blacksburg police she was raped as she slept in a friend's room during a party at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house on Ramble Road.

The woman testified last year that she was shocked to wake up to find her clothes pulled down and a man whom she identified as Raines on top of her. She said she did not know Raines, a fraternity pledge, and was not aware he had climbed into a loft bed with her.

But Raines, who graduates in December, testified last year that he believed the woman knew he was with her and voluntarily had sex with him. When the woman told him, after several minutes of intercourse, to get off her, Raines said he complied.

Raines testified he had consumed about 10 beers the night of the party. The woman testified she also had been drinking but was unsure how much.

Monday, Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs dismissed the case after Probation Officer Mike York reported Raines had completed the 200 hours of community service Arthur had ordered and had no further arrests.

by CNB