THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504260461
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Virginia Parole Board Chairman John B. Metzger III defended in court on Tuesday his decision to re-arrest a convicted murderer after finding out the man had been paroled without input from his victim's family.
``Our . . . concern was that we had not followed the (law) in that we had not allowed the victims to have input regarding the impact of the crime,'' Metzger testified Tuesday during a hearing to decide whether to release James Michael Wear.
Wear had been hooked up to an electronic monitoring system at his mother's house for less than 32 hours when Metzger faxed a warrant for his arrest to the Virginia Beach police on March 2. Wear had been sentenced to 27 years for his role in the 1990 murder and robbery of motel night clerk Julie Benica, but was paroled on the first date he was eligible.
According to Metzger, Wear was locked up again because the board mistakenly released him before getting feedback from Benica's husband. Such feedback, said Metzger, would have called into question Wear's suitability for parole.
At Tuesday's hearing before Circuit Judge Frederick B. Lowe, Wear's attorney, James Broccoletti, argued that the parole board did not make a mistake because Benica's husband had not submitted a written request to be consulted about Wear's parole decision, as the law requires.
In addition, Broccoletti argued, the parole board lacked the authority to re-incarcerate Wear because he had not violated the conditions of his parole and because parole cannot be revoked without new evidence.
Between them, Broccoletti and Assistant Attorney General Mary Shea called nine witnesses, including Benica; Wear; Deputy Parole Board Director Richard Crossen; the board's victim services director, Rebecca W. Sirles; and several other parole board employees.
Witnesses' disparate accounts of the procedures followed by the parole board in the case eventually became so contradictory and confused that both lawyers conceded they might ``never find out'' what really happened.
``Let's just assume they just flat messed up,'' Lowe finally said of the board. ``Which is the bottom line, really. They messed up.''
The judge will announce his decision next week. Wear remains in the Virginia Beach city jail.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST PAROLEE by CNB