Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992 TAG: 9203130419
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As a sixth-grader, she remembers being raped about the time of her birthday party in April 1981; a grand jury indictment charges Bannister Dale Neal of Roanoke with rape sometime that month.
As a member of a middle-school basketball team in 1983, she remembers worrying about becoming pregnant; another grand jury indictment charges Neal with sexual abuse sometime between September and December of that year - from the first day of basketball practice to the final game of the season.
And as a 10-year-old, she remembers only that she was raped sometime in 1979; a third indictment charges Neal with rape sometime between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of that year.
Neal, 36, was indicted last month after the woman took her recollections to Salem authorities.
At a pretrial hearing Thursday in Salem Circuit Court, his attorney argued that the highly unusual case should be dismissed because the woman waited so long to bring charges.
"It's so old that I don't think we're in a position to be able to go back, reconstruct, and adequately defend on such a charge," Bill Cleaveland said.
Not only have the 12-year-old accusations and sweeping indictments damaged his client's right to a fair trial, Cleaveland said, but they also have damaged his reputation as a hard-working, church-going family man.
"All of a sudden a young girl decides to come forward and say that this happened 12 years ago, and he's got a real mess to deal with," Cleaveland said.
However, Judge G.O. Clemens delayed a decision on Cleaveland's motion to have the indictment dismissed.
Commonwealth's Attorney Fred King hinted during the hearing that authorities have other evidence to back the charges, including a statement Neal recently made to police after he was asked about the case.
But one question that was left unanswered after Thursday's hearing was why the woman waited for 12 years before coming forward with her allegations.
King would not talk outside the courtroom, but he has said earlier that the woman's reasons likely will be explained when the case goes to trial, now scheduled for May 28.
Clemens noted that there is no statute of limitations on rape charges. And a jury could convict someone even when an offense is alleged to have happened not on a specific day, but sometime during an entire year.
"The jury could accept that extended time frame, if they were inclined to do so," Clemens said.
J.C. Lowe, a detective with the Salem Police Department, testified that he began an investigation after the woman approached police earlier this year.
From the beginning, Lowe testified, authorities were concerned about how old the allegations were and the "extremely difficult" task of putting dates on the charges.
Although the woman claimed the abuse began when she was 8 years old and continued until she was an adult, authorities needed more precise dates, times and places.
"We sat down and took some type of occasion, or event, that stood out in her mind," Lowe testified. "These are the best times that I could come up with," he said of time frames that coincided with a birthday party or basketball season.
The woman told police that the abuse started shortly after Neal - who would have been in his 20s at the time - moved with his family into a Roanoke apartment complex where she lived.
Many of the encounters happened in his apartment, she told police.
However, Cleaveland questioned why authorities did not bring charges in other incidents that were alleged to have happened. The reason, he suggested, was that authorities found some of the allegations baseless.
"We have reason to believe that this woman has made false statements that have been proven to be so," he said.
Cleaveland also sought to have Neal's statement to police thrown out, on the grounds that it was tape-recorded without his knowledge. Clemens also delayed a ruling on that matter.
In response to another defense motion, Clemens instructed King to provide to the defense any information that led authorities to forming the time frames cited in the indictments.
"We need to know as much as they know, now, in order to meet these charges," Cleaveland said.
by CNB