THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407080629
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A General District Court judge sentenced a 59-year-old retired Farmville school bus driver on Thursday to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine - the maximum sentence - for selling roses by the roadside without a license.
David Daugherty, 59, left the courthouse in a daze after his brother posted $5,000 bond. He said had never been in trouble before.
The same judge, Reid M. Spencer, minutes later sentenced Gerhardt Teemoeller, who also sold roses without a license, to a 90-day suspended sentence and a $500 fine.
``I'm angry and I'm frustrated. And I can't believe this is justice in Norfolk,'' Daugherty said in an interview after being released from jail. He said he plans to hire a lawyer to handle his appeal.
Daugherty said he thinks the decision was based on race. Daugherty is black and Teemoeller is white.
Teemoeller, 49, a commercial fisherman who was out of work, said Thursday he was selling flowers to earn money to feed his seven children.
Daugherty was arrested on May 22, the day he arrived in Norfolk from Farmville. He was visiting his brother Levi, who operates a Wards Corner florist shop, so they could attend a funeral later in the week. Levi asked David to set up a flower stand on Terminal Boulevard near the naval base.
David Daugherty set up about three dozen roses, 10 bunches of carnations and some balloons on a stick, then put out a sign reading ``Fresh Flowers.'' While he was still setting up, he said, a police officer asked Daugherty whether he had a peddler's license.
``I told him no. But my brother did and that this was his stand,'' Daugherty said, claiming he never sold a flower. ``I told him that I was not selling the flowers, just helping set up the stand.''
Daugherty was fingerprinted and given a court date. He never dreamed he would get such a stiff sentence, he said.
David Daugherty may be paying for his brother's sins.
Just before sentencing, Daugherty said, Judge Spencer remarked, ``It looks as if your brother hasn't learned his lesson yet.''
Several ``helpers'' of the brother, Levi Daugherty, have been convicted in General District Court of selling flowers without a license. Daugherty, 48, said the convictions were overturned on appeal. That information could not be verified Thursday. The officer who issued David Daugherty's summons could not be reached.
``They are trying to get to me through my brother,'' Levi Daugherty said. ``They are treating me like I'm a gangster, making these poor little people sell these flowers.'' MEMO: Staff writer Lynn Waltz contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
David Daugherty and Gerhardt Teemoeller were both arrested for
selling flowers on a Norfolk street without a license. Daugherty
was sentenced to a year in jail and fined $2,500. Teemoeller got a
90-day suspended sentence and a $500 fine
by CNB