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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 3, 1992                   TAG: 9203030247
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BAD-LANGUAGE CHARGE DISMISSED POST OFFICE FEUD WENT ALL THE WAY TO U.S.

After listening to conflicting testimony from two factions at the post office, U.S. District Judge James Turk dismissed an abusive language charge against Deborah Kinsey.

The case - an unusual one for federal court - began when Lois Wise, a mail process clerk, went to a Roanoke magistrate and obtained a summons charging Kinsey with using abusive and violent language toward her on June 21.

When the case went to General District Court in Roanoke, Kinsey and the Postal Service asked that it be transferred to federal court.

Because the law permits a criminal case to be moved to federal court if the alleged act occurred while a federal employee was performing his or her job duties, the case was moved, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney John Corcoran, who successfully defended Kinsey.

Wise testified Monday that Kinsey had cursed her "hundreds of times" in the five years the two women have worked together. On June 21 as she sat at a table in the employee break room, Kinsey came in and referred to Wise as "that fat b---- sitting behind you in purple," to two other women in the room. Wise said she was the only other woman in the room and she was wearing a purple shirt.

Kinsey, who told Turk that it was "an understatement" to say she and Wise were not friends, denied using abusive language toward Wise on June 21. But, she said, she and Wise both had used abusive language toward each other in the past. She said she only cursed at Wise after being provoked.

Kinsey testified that she and Wise were good friends for about six months in 1987. But that friendship ended when Wise mistakenly thought Kinsey had gone to lunch with a group of people Wise considered enemies, Kinsey said. "She said, `Don't speak to me again - you went to lunch with them,' " Kinsey said.

She said she knew she did not speak the words on June 21 because "I have not spoken to Lois Wise since 1989."

Two co-workers testified that they had heard Kinsey curse at Wise without provocation in 1987 and 1988. They described Kinsey's reputation for truthfulness as bad and Wise's as good.

But other employees testified that they never heard Kinsey curse at Wise, adding that Kinsey had a good reputation for truthfulness and that Wise's was bad.

Wise had testified that she was sitting at a table talking with Larry Short, a shop steward for the American Postal Workers Union, when Kinsey confronted her in the break room.

But Short testified that he didn't hear Kinsey use abusive language toward Wise and didn't even remember her being present in the room.

In dismissing the case, Turk said it was clear "these two individuals, for some reason or another, can't get along. It would be best if they had little or no contact with each other and each went their own way."