ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990                   TAG: 9006200166
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                  LENGTH: Medium


MEMORIAL FUND FOUNDER ADMITS STEALING FROM IT

A man who helped set up a memorial scholarship in the name of a friend and former classmate admitted in court Tuesday to embezzling $6,757 from the fund and was sentenced to a year in jail.

Dale Allen Lytton, 33, of Radford, was one of the founders of the Bobby Hart Memorial Scholarship Fund. He was accused of taking money from the fund and using it to buy a car for his wife and to pay for a trip to Myrtle Beach.

Lytton pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement that would have put him on probation for five years, with no jail time.

But Montgomery County Circuit Judge Kenneth Devore rejected the agreement between Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith and Lytton's attorney, Dutton Olinger of Blacksburg.

Instead, Devore said, Lytton should be required to spend some time in jail.

Devore also ruled that Lytton will be allowed to leave the jail five days a week on work release to earn money to reimburse the scholarship fund.

Keith said that was the reason he didn't ask that Lytton be sent to jail.

"We wanted to get the money back as soon as possible. But now he can do both," Keith said after the hearing. "The judge came up with a better idea, and I was very happy with his better idea."

Lytton and Hart had been classmates at Auburn High School. They graduated in 1975.

Hart, a volunteer firefighter, died in March 1988 after he ran into his burning home in Riner in a vain attempt to save his 2-year-old son, Jesse.

A five-member committee established the memorial scholarship fund last year and Lytton was named president.

The fund gives $500 scholarships each year to two Auburn students, especially those with an interest in agriculture. Hart was a farmer.

Money for the fund was collected through the sale of "Favorite Foods from Favorite Friends," a cookbook with a collection of locally donated recipes.

About 2,200 cookbooks were printed, and the fund committee expected to make about $11,000.

After some money had been collected and deposited in a bank, committee members started noticing that checks were being cashed on the account by Lytton.

They asked Lytton to stop. When he didn't, they filed charges and he resigned.

Lytton was indicted in January. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison.



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