WDBJ 7 news at 6 for 02/18/00

[1-News-Head]

[TALENT=Keith]

A suspect is arrested in the murder of Tara Munsey.
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[VO-NAT]

On NEWS 7 at SIX tonight two reports: the arrest, reaction to it... some background on the Munsey family friend who's been charged with capital murder.
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[anchor=Keith]

And we've got specific details from the Vinton Police Report.

[Sports-Head]

[ANCHOR=Roy]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=rst]
[TAPE#=Sports-Head]
[GRAPHIC=None]

In sports, Liberty University names a new head football coach Mike Stevens continues his reports from Daytona.
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[VO-NAT]

And a fiery crash at Daytona today sends one driver to the hospital and injures several fans.
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[WX-Head]
[TALENT=Robin]
[SS=None]

The ice is moving out and the warmer weather is returning. More on the weekend forecast coming up.
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[ANCHOR=Keith]
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[VO-NAT]

A man who's no stranger to the law, is charged with killing Tara Munsey.
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[ANCHOR=Keith]
Good evening, I'm Keith Humphry.

[Thomas]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6]
[WRITER=chr]
[TAPE#=99-57 53:05]
[GRAPHIC=Munsey Murder Arrest]

Jeffrey Alan Thomas is in jail tonight, awaiting arraignment Tuesday, for the murder of Tara Munsey.
He was a friend of Tara and her family.
[Double Boxes=Keith & Marya/Microwave]

Marya Jones begins our coverage outside the Pulaski County Courthouse, with details on the suspect.
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[MARYA HANDS OFF TO JOE D.]

[Munsey-Murder]

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[OUT Q=would ever happen here.]
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[Vinton-Police]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6]
[WRITER=khu]
[TAPE#=00-08 1:17:28]
[GRAPHIC=Vinton PD Investigation]

Guns, drugs and money.
At the Vinton Police Department, the Chief and his Lieutenant had trouble keeping track of all three.
That's the conclusion of a special grand jury that spent three months investigating the Vinton P-D.
The report talks about money missing from an account intended to help needy families, stolen guns in the evidence room and drugs supposedly destroyed... without witnesses or proper authority.
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[IN Q=The investigation began]
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[OUT Q=or their families.]
(( The investigation began with allegations against Lieutenant Bill Brown. The 22-year veteran resigned under pressure last Fall, along with CHIEF of Police Ricky Foutz. The report concluded "Foutz and Brown are unsuitable and unqualified" to hold the positions they held.
The department maintains a fund to help needy families. The report says the money was held in seven different bank accounts, using a false tax I-D number in one instance. Brown also stashed 48-hundred dollars in cash from the Needy Families Fund in his locker.
More than three thousand dollars from the fund remains unaccounted for.
"The way the money was handled," say the grand jurors, "was an invitation to theft and abuse and clearly was a violation of public trust."
Some 500 hundred dollars is also missing from the "coffee fund," an account the jurors characterized as Foutz and Brown's "personal slush fund."
The Marines gave the fund some bicycles left over one year from the Bikes or Bust campaign. The investigation revealed that a number of the bikes were given to Vinton Police Department employees and/or their families.))
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[ANCHOR=Keith]
[graphic=hold]

Both Foutz and Brown concede that handling evidence at Vinton P-D was "a joke," .
On one occasion, Brown took 13 ounces of marijuana seized as evidence in a court case. After the trial Brown said he needed it to teach a class. When asked about it later, Lieutenant Brown said he'd destroyed it, but couldn't say when and where the class had been held.
As many as 90 guns in the evidence room bore no indication of what case they were associated with or why they were IN the evidence room. Among them were two STOLEN guns.
Both Foutz and Brown resigned under pressure right after the investigation began. Brown's lawyer issued a statement today extolling the officer's selfless devotion to duty.

[Tease#1]
[ANCHOR=Keith]
[SS=NONE]

It looks like a scheme, and sounds like a scheme. But it's apparently drawing in hundreds of participants in Danville.
We'll explain, coming up.
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[VO-NAT]

And... Ross Perot's Reform Party is fighting a battle in Lynchburg.
The specifics, when News 7 at 6 returns.
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[First-Wx]
[TALENT=Robin]
[SS=NONE]WEATHER CENTER
[WXPRO/FULL]WEATHER STORY TOMORROW FORECAST

[COMMERCIAL][Reform-Party]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=ssm]
[TAPE#=99-54 1:15:51]
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The battle for control of Ross Perot's national Reform Party apparently will be fought in Lynchburg.
That after a hearing today over two and a half million dollars that's missing from party coffers.
[Double Boxes=Keith/Steve/Microwave]

Steve Smallshaw joins us from Lynchburg to explain what's going on..
[Live=Steve/Full/Microwave]
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[SUPER=05-Lynchburg]

Keith, the 2- point- 5 million is money the Reform Party got from the Federal Election Commission.. but who actually REPRESENTS the Reform Party right now... is the question of the day.
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[IN Q=The answer]
[SUPER=03-Nashville, TN/Last Saturday; ]
[SUPER=03-Lynchburg;]
[SUPER=01-Pat Choate/Reform Party Chairman;]
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[OUT Q=the 2000 election.]

(( The answer to that question is in doubt because of this chaotic Reform Party meeting in Nashville last weekend.
Chairman John Gargan and treasurer Ronn Young were ousted.. they apparently took those federal funds with them.
The money WAS in a First Citizens Bank in Martinsville, but the Reform Party was told Monday the account had been closed and Gargan and Young refused to say where it was.
This afternoon party lawyers asked Lynchburg's federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order..
They claim the party stands to lose more funding and could fall apart if it can't pay for its nominating convention.
Judge Norman Moon agreed and ordered the money, which allegedly has been deposited in a Florida bank, to be turned over to the court.
Current party chairman Pat Choate calls the decision a victory.
[SOT 00:02:41]
((PAT CHOATE/REFORM PARTY CHAIRMAN: IF WE CAN GET THIS RESOLVED.. ..THE 2000 ELECTION.))
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[OUT Q=the 2000 election.]))
[Live=Steve/Full/Microwave]
[SUPER=05-Lynchburg]

The bottom line is the court will have to decide whether that Nashville meeting where John Gargan was removed as chairman was a legitimate, legal meeting.
[Double Boxes=Keith/Steve/Microwave]

That question will be decided in Lynchburg's federal court during a three- day trial in March. Keith?

[Gilmore-Bush]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=equ]
[TAPE#=99-58 54:35]
[GRAPHIC=Campaign 2000]

On the eve of the South Carolina Republican primary, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore's standing by his man.
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[VO-NAT]

But Gilmore now sounds a little less confident about how Bush will do in Virginia in a week and a half.
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[SOT 12:03:28]
[IN Q=The people ]
((THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA WILL MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS ABOUT THIS, BUT I'M CERTAINLY...SENSITIVE OF THAT.))
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[OUT Q=sensitive of that.]
[TALENT=Keith]
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The February 29th GOP primary in Virginia is open to all voters-- but they will be asked to sign a pledge saying the will NOT participate in any other party's nominating process.

[First-Union]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6p.m.]
[WRITER=kmc]
[TAPE#=99-51 1:23:43]
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Police have released the name of the man who shot and killed himself yesterday in a First Union parking lot.
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[VO-NAT]
[SUPER=03-Roanoke Co./Yesterday;]

Roanoke county authorities identify the victim as 32- year- old James Michael Greer.
Greer shot himself while sitting in his vehicle at the Customer Service Center on Plantation Road.
Greer was NOT a First Union employee, but apparently knew someone who worked there.
Police say, however, he did NOT enter the building before his took his own life.
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[Stocks]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6]
[WRITER=chr]
[TAPE#=None]
[GRAPHIC=NONE]

Interest rate worries provoked a sharp fall on Wall Street today. [TAKE DOW & NASDAQ PAGE ]
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The Dow fell 295 points.
Nasdaq took a 137-point tumble.
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[ AE/ATT/Bank of America/Bell/Columbia]
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[General Electric/Kroger/Norfolk Southern/Optical Cable/Philip Morris]
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[Roanoke Electric Steel/SunTrust/Trigon/Wachovia/Walmart]

[Martinsville-Jobs]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=Sch]
[TAPE#=99-49 1:36:54]
[GRAPHIC=New Jobs]

It's a slow process, but new job opportunities are coming to Southside.
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[VO-NAT]
[SUPER=03-Martinsville;]

This morning in Martinsville, Trans World Connections, announced its expanding.
The business, based in Lynchburg, will create about 50 new jobs and could expand to 250 new jobs.
The international company makes cable parts for computers and other technological devices.
The new manufacturing facility will be located in the old Sara Lee building in downtown Martinsville.
The company is planning to start recruiting new workers on Monday.
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[Pyramid-Scheme]

[ANCHOR=Keith]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=Sch]
[TAPE#=99-56 1:02:07]
[GRAPHIC=None]

Participants call it "The Winners Team." But Pittsylvania County authorities are calling it a "Pyramid Scheme."

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[VO-NAT]
[SUPER=03-Danville; :00]
Danville Police Chief Neal Morris fears hundreds and maybe thousands of people are involved with the game where people put up two-thousand dollars and hope they'll get 16-thousand dollars in the end.
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[SOT 1:43:50 ]
[IN Q=It's a violation]
((NEAL MORRIS/DANVILLE POLICE CHIEF: IT'S A VIOLATION TO OPERATE A SCHEME.)) ((RICHARD PELLETIER/PARTICIPANT: DO YOU EXPECT ANYTHING IN RETURN...NO IT'S JUST A GIFT.))
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[OUT Q= a gift.]
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[VO-NAT]
Participating in a pyramid scheme is against the law. You could be fined 25-hundred dollars and spend up to a year in jail.
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[Sports Tease]

[ANCHOR=Roy]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=rst]
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And coming up, a crash during the truck race at Dayton Mike Stevens continues his report from the super speedway.

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[VO-NAT]

And Liberty University names a new head football coach.
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[S-Daytona]

[ANCHOR=Steve]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=mst]
[TAPE#=SP-57 (1:39:48)]
[GRAPHIC=Daytona Logo]

Tomorrow, the Dodge folks are scheduled to announce the members who will make up their two thousand and one Winston Cup effort.
Mike Stevens gives us a look at those who are expected to make the move.
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[S-Crash]

[ANCHOR=Roy]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=rst]
[TAPE#SP-58 (1:10:02)]
[GRAPHIC=Daytona Logo]

A 10 car pileup red flagged the first ever truck race at Daytona today.
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[VO-NAT]
[SUPER=03-Daytona Beach, FL/ESPN; :]

Geoffrey Bodine was right in the middle and suffered the most serious injuries in the crash.
His truck flipped 11 times burst into flames. He suffered broken bones in his cheek, right wrist and elbow and the big toe on his right foot.
Debris from the crash went into the stands and several spectators were treated at a local hospital and released.
The trucks were 56 laps into the race.
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[S-Flames]

[ANCHOR=Roy]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=rst]
[TAPE#=SP-52 (1:31:29)]
[GRAPHIC=Liberty U.]

Liberty University has a new head football coach.
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[VO-NAT]
[SUPER=03-Lynchburg; :]

Ken Karcher takes over the program replacing retired head coach Sam Rutigliano, the flames winningest coach.
Karcher brings a mixture of youth and experience. He comes to Liberty after serving as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach of the Rhein Fire of the N-F-L Europe league.
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[OUT Q=.....Liberty University.]
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[S-Express]

[ANCHOR=Roy]
[NEWSCAST=6pm]
[WRITER=sma]
[TAPE#=SP-61 44:15]
[GRAPHIC=Express/Trenton]

The Express begins a two game- in two night home stand this evening at 7:30 against the Trenton Titans.
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[VO-NAT]
[SUPER=03-Roanoke/Last Night; :00]

The Express beat Charlotte 5-1 Tuesday night. Paul Di Francesco is now Roanoke's second leading goal scorer with 17, 10 of those coming in the last 15 games.
(///// SOT /////)
[SOT]
[IN Q="the pucks]
[SUPER=01-Paul Di Francesco/17 Goals this Season; :00]
((PAUL DI FRANCESCO/17 GOALS THIS SEASON: THE PUCK IS BOUNCING IN BASICALLY. I'M GETTING SOME CHEMISTRY WITH SOME OF THE PLAYERS I'M PLAYING WITH AND A LOT OF THE TIME IT'S BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME"))
[RUNS=:07]
[OUT Q=right time"]
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[VO-NAT]

The Express is 3-2 and 1 against the Titans this year and must contend with their physical style of play.
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[SOT]
[IN Q="]
((ROB SCHWEYER/EXPRESS WING:I THINK IF WE PLAY OUR SYSTEMS, IF THEY WANT TO RUN AROUND AND TAKE OUR HEADS OFF, THEN IF WE DO THE LITTLE THINGS RIGHT, WE'LL GET BY THEM EVERY STEP OF THE WAY AND I THINK WITH OUR LITTLE GUYS, WE DO TRY AND USE OUR SPEED BECAUSE WE HAVE A SPEEDY TEAM AS WELL.))
[SUPER=01-Rob Schweyer/Express Right Wing; :00]
[RUNS=:10]
[OUT Q=....speedy team as well"]
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