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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990                   TAG: 9005020705
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

APPEAL FAILS; KAREN DIEHL SENT BACK TO PRISON

Karen Diehl has been ordered back to prison to resume a 31-year sentence following the failed appeal of her conviction in the 1986 beating death of her son.

Circuit Judge Alan E. Rosenblatt issued the order Tuesday for Diehl, who served 24 months of her sentence before being released on $60,000 bond Sept. 21 while her attorneys took the case to the Virginia Court of Appeals.

Diehl's attorneys said Rosenblatt had erred at the trial by not removing a biased juror. On April 3, the court upheld Rosenblatt's ruling.

She was convicted in 1987 of involuntary manslaughter, abduction, assault and child neglect in the death of her 13-year-old adopted son Dominick J. "Andrew" Diehl. Her husband, Michael J. Diehl, 44, was convicted of similar charges in a separate trial and sentenced to 41 years.

by CNB