
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990                   TAG: 9004260272
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

ONE CHARGE DROPPED IN JUDGE'S FORGERY TRIAL

Circuit Judge William W. Sweeney dismissed one charge of forgery Wednesday in the records-tampering trial of General District Judge Joseph H. Campbell.

Sweeney said special prosecutors did not present sufficient proof that Campbell had ordered the alteration of a 1989 traffic summons given to Paul A. Sciortino, then commonwealth's attorney in Virginia Beach.

Campbell, 61, who has been on the General District Court bench for five years after serving as Norfolk commonwealth's attorney for 15 years, remains accused of changing the computerized docket information concerning the same ticket on March 24, 1989.

On Tuesday, two clerks testified that Campbell ordered them to alter a computer record of the traffic case by changing the spelling of Sciortino's name. But they acknowledged there was no order by Campbell to change the actual summons.

- Landmark News Service

by CNB