ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997             TAG: 9701230007
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: RADFORD

RADFORD MAN CHARGED IN VANDALISM

City police charged a 19-year-old Radford man with felony destruction of private property in connection with vandalism of an apartment in the Willow Woods complex on Allen Avenue late Saturday.

Capt. Gary Harmon of the Radford Police Department said officers arrested Perry Gene Cressel on charges of drunk in public, felony destruction of private property and obstruction of justice.

Police said a man broke into the apartment about 11:45 p.m. and used his bare hands and a butcher knife to rip up furniture and the home's refrigerator.

Once police arrived and tried to apprehend the intruder, he fled on foot, Harmon said . Officers caught Cressel a short time after their pursuit began in a nearby parking lot.

Cressel was charged after police discovered the following damages at the apartment: a refrigerator door ripped off its hinges, the contents of the refrigerator thrown around the apartment, chairs and a sofa cut by a butcher knife, a hole cut in a water bed, a phone that had been jerked out of the wall, a broken dresser mirror and a broken glass table top in the dining room. The cost of the damage is estimated to be about $1,375, Harmon said.

Cressel is scheduled to be arraigned today in Radford General District Court.

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