Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990 TAG: 9004230030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"When you get a call saying there's been an accident, you think it's a car accident," Farmer said.
But when Farmer and her husband, Bill, arrived at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, they learned that their 21-year-old son, David, had been shot eight times with a semi-automatic pistol - and that it was no accident.
Nearly a year later, the Farmers' lives are almost back to normal. Their son is recovering, the trial of a 17-year-old Roanoke youth charged in the shooting is over, and the incident no longer dominates their thoughts.
Throughout it all, the Farmers have relied on the services of the Roanoke Victim-Witness Assistance Program.
This week is National Victim's Rights Week, a tribute to the thousands of people affected by violent crimes each year and the programs designed to assist them.
Roanoke's Victim-Witness Assistance Program tries to take the pain out of the court process, which often requires victims to relive painful memories in a courtroom full of strangers, said coordinator Mary Ann Myers.
The office leads victims and witnesses through each legal step, explaining the mechanics of preliminary hearings, grand jury sessions, trials and sentencing hearings.
"People really get hung up on the process; they're not sure of what is going on," Myers said.
With lawyers and other court officials often preoccupied with other matters, the victim-witness coordinators attend court hearings and are available to address questions and concerns raised by victims or witnesses.
Myers and her assistant, Alison Sledd, review arrest warrants each day and contact every victim of a felony that happens in Roanoke. After making victims aware of the program, Myers and Sledd often follow up with letters that outline opportunities for counseling and compensation for medical bills and other expenses.
Although a victim may at first deny the need for help, the office sends follow-up letters in case there is a change of heart, and there often is.
"Most of the time, people's immediate reaction is to forget about it," Myers said. "But down the road they find out that they can't forget about it."
The office offers more than just advice. When a woman raped in her apartment expressed concern that one of two suspects was still at large, the office arranged for state funding that paid the woman's expenses to move to a new apartment.
And in major cases such as the wounding of Farmer and the slaying of his best friend, Bobby Allen Watson of Roanoke County, Myers often continues a relationship with the victims. Four months after the trial, Myers and the Farmers still keep in touch occasionally with cards and telephone calls.
David Farmer was shot eight times after Watson was gunned down in the parking lot of a Roanoke shopping center in an argument that began over music blaring from a car stereo.
Warren Edward Lemons, 17, of Northwest Roanoke, is serving a 24-year prison term for the second-degree murder of Watson and the malicious wounding of Farmer.
David Farmer declined to talk about the shooting. "I think he still has some bitterness," his mother said.
After spending more than eight weeks in the hospital and undergoing surgery three times, Farmer still has four bullets lodged in his body. He has lost part of his liver and gall bladder in operations that have cost $100,000, much of which has been paid by a state victim compensation fund.
Like their son, Bill and Bonnie Farmer had trouble dealing with what they considered to be a lenient sentence for Lemons.
"What burns me up the most is not that he was shot, but that [Lemons] unloaded the gun on him after he had fallen down and was not a threat to anyone," Bill Farmer said. "He shot him until he ran out of bullets."
Myers said the Farmers' concern about punishment is the most often-cited complaint by crime victims.
Even though they were not entirely satisfied with the outcome of the trial, the Farmers are grateful for the help they received from the victim-witness program.
"I don't know what we would have done without it," Bonnie Farmer said.
The Roanoke Victim-Witness Assistance Program is accepting volunteers to help with the program. For more information, call 981-2683. Similar programs are available in Lexington, Lynchburg, the New River Valley and Tazewell, Franklin, Patrick, Henry and Roanoke counties.
by CNB