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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990                   TAG: 9005180874
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Short

JURY FINDS RACIAL BIAS AT SKATING RINK

A federal jury has found that a skating rink in Fauquier County acted out of racial prejudice when its owner called the county sheriff's department and had a black Fairfax man ejected from the rink.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Alexandria awarded James Ferebee $200,000 in damages on Thursday.

The plantiff said that on the night of Feb. 17, 1989, he picked up some friends, all of whom were white, and drove them to a roller rink in Bealeton off Virginia 28.

Ferebee told the jury he skated as he always did, but he was surprised when the rink manager and later a sheriff's deputy called him to the edge of the floor and asked him to step into a back room.

He said he refused at first and later was confronted by the deputy in a rink locker room.

When he didn't immediately hand over his identification, the deputy "threw me down on the ground," Ferebee said.

by CNB