Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060114
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ID MIX-UP LEADS TO DROPPED CASE
Tony Lee Myers wavered between relief and anger Wednesday."I'm not sure how I feel," he said. "Try shock, just shock."
Myers was charged last month with robbing a Grandin Road video-store clerk, who said a man pointed a gun to her head and ordered her to remove her clothes.
Wednesday morning, Myers showed up in Roanoke General District Court for his arraignment. But before the case was called, John Varney, an assistant public defender, took Myers aside and told him the case had been nol prossed, or in simpler terms - dropped.
It apparently was a case of mistaken identity, Varney said.
"I don't know if the alleged victim ever identified him," Varney said.
On Jan. 15, Shelli Pearce was working at American Video outlet when shortly after 8:30 p.m. a man approached the counter. After he couldn't provide the necessary ID to join the video club, he started out of the store, whirled, came around the counter with a pistol and demanded money, she said.
Pearce, 22, said she at first wouldn't hand over the money but finally gave in. The man then grabbed her, led her to the store's office and ordered her to remove her clothes. She refused.
Her father, Scott, came up from the back of the store just in time to see the robber leave. The man ran down a side street. Police were unable to find him.
Myers' arrest two days later appeared in part to be the result of Scott Pearce's close but not positive identification from a photo lineup.
Wednesday, Shelli Pearce said that police showed photos to her father after the incident. She did not see the photos at that time because she was out of town.
Pearce said her father was not positive that Myers was the man but told authorities that Myers looked very much like him, she said.
Monday, a detective dropped by the video store and showed Shelli Pearce a photo lineup that included Myers' picture.
"It definitely wasn't him," she said of Myers. "I saw him face on. My father saw his side view.
"I was upset that police had the wrong man, but I don't want to charge an innocent person."
Varney said that an order dismissing the case was entered on Jan. 30. He did not say why Myers wasn't notified before Wednesday.
A Roanoke police officer said Wednesday that there was a positive identification "at a point," but that either Shelli Pearce or her father had a "change of mind."
The officer said Myers matched the suspect's description "very, very closely."
Cases of mistaken identity are not at all rare, the officer said.
Varney agrees. "In my opinion, this happens more frequently than anyone would like to admit," he said. "Eyewitness identifications are many times unreliable."
Myers - who for years has been a card-carrying member of American Video - has, he said, had to spend the last two weeks collecting alibis.
He even went to the video store the day after he was charged to rent a couple of movies - and to get some reaction from either Shelli or Scott Pearce.
"I went in there intentionally to clear myself," said Myers, who still carries the movie rental receipt. Myers didn't know if Shelli Pierce was the woman who waited on him because, he said, "I've never seen her before."