Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991 TAG: 9104020416
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK and DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
James G. Beasley, a former engineer at General Electric Co. in Salem, received the sentence in Prince George County Circuit Court.
Beasley, 49, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of abduction, malicious wounding, use of a firearm and brandishing a pistol at a passing police officer who arrested him last Nov. 19 in a secluded spot in Prince George County.
Judge Robert G. O'Hara sentenced Beasley to the maximum of 33 years on the four charges, but suspended all but 12 years.
Although Prince George authorities say they believe the 27-old-woman's story that Beasley handcuffed, raped and videotaped her during a four-hour ordeal, he was never charged with rape.
That's because no one could determine exactly where the rape occured within a three-jurisdiction area, Prince George Commonwealth's Attorney H. Martin Robertson had said earlier.
Still, items used in the offense - handcuffs, duct tape, a video camera and bondage materials - led state police to describe Beasley's behavior as "not inconsistent with that of a sexual sadist."
In testimony Monday, Beasley sought to contradict that image.
He testified that he and the woman had consensual sex after he picked her up in Petersburg on his way to pick up his mother in Norfolk for Thanksgiving. It was only after they had an argument over how much he would pay the woman for sexthat he accidentally cut her on the arm, he testified.
Forty witnesses had agreed to testify to Beasley's good character, although only eight were called to the stand.
They all said that while Beasley should serve time for what he did, he has been a model citizen and engineer, according to defense attorney Pat Doherty of Salem.
Beasley's wife and children were in court Monday. His wife testified that she never had any indication of what led her husband to pick up the woman. She said she married Beasley for better or worse and planned to stand by him.
Doherty gave the following account of his client's testimony:
When he left Roanoke for Norfolk the day of the attack, Beasley had made his mind up ahead of time to pick up a prostitute. When he got to Petersburg, he took a detour down Wythe Street and picked up the woman and asked her if she wanted to party.
He doesn't drink, he said, but the woman wanted some beer, so he stopped at a convenience store and gave her some money, and she got a few cans of beer. They drove to a spot near an interstate highway construction site where they had voluntary sex and he took pictures of her, Beasley said.
She then asked for money and he refused to pay what she was asking, Beasley testified. They argued and she threatened to reveal what he had done, he said.
Beasley then panicked and tied her up and decided to take more pictures of her. He said he didn't realize he had driven to a dead-end road, and while he was taking the pictures a police officer drove up. The woman broke free and he accidentally cut her in the struggle, Beasley said.
Beasley was arrested after the passing police officer saw the woman, bleeding from her arm and with duct tape around her ankles and wrists, running from Beasley's four-wheel-drive vehicle. Beasley was arrested after a confrontation in which he pointed a pistol at the police officer.
Beasley maintained that he didn't realize that he had cut the woman, and that he did not aim his gun at the police officer.
He testified that he still can't believe what he did.
by CNB