ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606170096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
Woman chased by pickup truck
SPOTSYLVANIA - A Stafford County woman reported that a man tried to get into her car as she sat at a stop sign late Tuesday night and then pursued her in his pickup truck when she drove away.
The description she gave of the man's truck matches those given by witnesses who saw Alicia Showalter Reynolds talking to a man on the side of U.S. 29 south of Culpeper on March 2. Reynolds disappeared that day, and her body was found a month later in a clearing.
Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Capt. Pat Sullins said Friday night that there were some similarities between the woman's encounter and Reynolds' disappearance., ``We wanted to get the report out, but it's not worth inciting a riot.''
The woman told deputies she was approaching a stop sign on Old Orange Plank Road at Virginia 3 near the Wilderness area just before midnight when she noticed a small pickup truck parked on the right side of the road, Sullins said.
When she brought her car to a stop, a man ran up to the driver's side door, tapped on the window and tried to open the door, which was locked. The woman then drove away, and the man pursed her in his truck. She did not get a license plate number, Sullins said.
She was able to elude him, and at 12:15 a.m., saw a county sheriff's deputy and reported the encounter to him.
The woman described the man as white, between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot tall, with a beard. She said his truck was a small, dark-colored pickup with stripes on the side.
- Associated Press
Former VEA chief joining Robb staff
WASHINGTON - Robley Jones, president of the 54,751-member Virginia Education Association, will start July 1 as state director for U.S. Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va.
Jones has been president of the teachers group for five years and his term is about to expire. He will replace Chris Bridge, who left Robb's staff May 31 to become director of intergovernmental and community relations for Newport News.
Jones will work in Robb's Richmond office.
- Associated Press
Pair held in use of `date rape pill'
WOODBRIDGE - Two men were charged with rape after Prince William County police said they used an illegal sedative known on the street as the ``date rape pill'' to sexually assault two 15-year-old girls.
Brandon Michael Kelley, 19, and Matthew James Morris, 18, are charged with rape and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Kelley also was charged with illegal possession of the drug Rohypnol. Kelley was held at the county jail on $26,000 bond. Morris was held on $25,000 bond.
The girls went to Kelley's apartment Sunday afternoon, police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said, and during the evening, Kelley and Morris put the drug into the girls' soft drinks.
Rohypnol is an anti-insomnia drug 10 times more powerful than Valium. The drug leaves some people semiconscious, defenseless to sexual assault and unable to remember much afterward, police say.
The pills, called ``roofies,'' were banned in the United States in March after authorities determined they were being used in date rapes.
- Associated Press
UVa budget contains more state funds
CHARLOTTESVILLE - The portion of the University of Virginia annual budget that is funded by the state will rise slightly next year, the first increase since the mid-1980s.
``It's a very positive sign,'' Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., the school's executive vice president, said following a budget presentation Thursday to a board of visitors committee.
The budget includes $130 million in state general funds, or 13.5 percent of the total budget. State taxpayers provided 12.9 percent.
- Associated Press
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