Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1992 TAG: 9202260157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE and DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BOY: DOCTOR THREATENED ME
A 17-year-old Roanoke County youth says child psychiatrist William G. Gray threatened him if he ever told about a fondling incident in September."He told me if I ever told anyone, I wouldn't live through it," said the teen-ager, who was 16 at the time of the incident.
"He came on to me and tried to get me to do things with him," the boy said of Gray. "He started grabbing me and stuff and pulling my pants off.'
The teen-ager said Gray also made sexual advances while they were in a house on Smith Mountain Lake. "That's where the serious stuff happened at," the boy said.
Gray's attorney, Richard Lawrence, said Tuesday that his client is not guilty.
"I don't know why he's making these allegations," Lawrence said of the 17-year-old. "He's a troubled kid."
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office has said it has Gray under investigation but has not charged him. Gray also is under investigation by the Virginia Department of Health Professions, which regulates and licenses doctors.
Gray was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Roanoke County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for arraignment on three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery involving the 17-year-old. However, in an agreement with prosecutors, Gray was not required to show up. He was allowed to remain free on bond pending trial April 23.
The 17-year-old boy Gray is accused of molesting said he was reluctant to tell authorities about the incidents. "I didn't want people to look at me and say, `You're a fag.' I was scared."
The youth said he met Gray at the wedding of a relative. That relative later moved into a house owned by Gray, and the youth moved in for a few months as well, he said. Before that, he added, he and the relative had visited Gray.
"He'd give us as much beer as we wanted," the teen-ager said. "Then he gave us pills."
Gray, 50, is a child and family psychiatrist with an office on Washington Avenue in the Old Southwest section of Roanoke. He has declined to comment about the allegations.
Staff writer Victoria Ratcliff contributed information for this story.