Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991 TAG: 9104030390
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Dwight L. Dean and John R. Meteney were charged with one count each of embezzling from the Lynville-on-the-Lake Homeowners Association from March 1989 to May 1990.
The charges stem from checks written on association bank accounts to pay for maintenance of Lynville's community water system. Authorities allege the checks were unauthorized because the developers - not the lot owners - were responsible for maintaining the water system.
If convicted, Dean and Meteney could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Neither Dean nor Meteney could be reached for comment Tuesday. Both men left the state after their lake-development ventures went broke.
Dean did not return a message left on his answering machine at his home in Surfside Beach, S.C. Meteney last worked for a membership travel club in Knoxville, Tenn., but a company official said Tuesday that Meteney had left without leaving a forwarding address.
Cliff Hapgood, the Franklin County commonwealth's attorney, said he was confident that both men would surrender to the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.
Dean and Meteney were partners in a land-sales company that promised quick profits in property at Smith Mountain Lake.
They were able to sell hundreds of previously unmarketable off-water lots from 1986 to 1990. They traded under various names, including Developing World, Universal Resorts, Blue Ridge Land and Real-Vest Inc.
The company went out of business last spring after its sales practices were the subject of television and newspaper investigative reports. Six buyers later filed land-fraud lawsuits against Meteney and Dean.
Though Dean and Meteney also have been cited as targets of state and federal criminal investigations, the Franklin County indictments are the first criminal charges against them.
The charges stem from a nine-month investigation by Hapgood and State Police Special Agent J.W. Minter.
The investigation turned up more than a dozen checks drawn on Lynville homeowners association accounts for expenses related to the subdivision's water system.
The case is expected to turn on interpretations of a 1986 document in which Dean, Meteney and their partners spelled out how the water system would operate.
The document states that the developers would be responsible for "bringing water" to each house built in the subdivision. Lot owners would be required to pay a hookup fee and to provide a water meter.
Authorities say the document leaves no question who was responsible for maintaining the water system.
They allege that Dean and Meteney stuck homeowners with more than $20,000 in bills that the developers should have paid themselves.
In response to an unrelated civil lawsuit, Dean has denied any obligation for maintaining and repairing the water system.
by CNB