Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992 TAG: 9203140361
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE and LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Meanwhile, the so-called "stalker" declined to talk about the uproar he has created in the Raleigh Court neighborhood.
"I really don't have anything to say," the man said in a brief telephone interview.
The 37-year-old man, who lives in Roanoke County, is not being named because he has not been charged with a crime. Later Friday, he had a Roanoke lawyer who has represented him in the past call the newspaper and reiterate his desire not to talk.
The lawyer said she advised the man Friday to stay away from Raleigh Court. "I told him, `It's really clear to me that you're asking for trouble. So why don't you steer clear altogether?'
"That's the advice I gave him, and I think it's darn good advice," she said.
Police say they have found no connection between the stalker and the disappearance Thursday of a 5-year-old boy in the same general area.
Parents in Raleigh Court say their children have been traumatized by the man's actions, but state law apparently does not allow police to charge him for simply following children slowly in his car along city streets.
Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said he and other Roanoke Valley legislators asked Friday that Wilder put an emergency implementation clause on the so-called "stalking bill."
The law would make it a crime to follow someone on more than one occasion with intent to injure. Area legislators want Wilder to change the effective date from July 1 to April 15, the day the General Assembly holds a special veto session.
Spokesman Glenn Davidson said Wilder is considering the request.
State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, said the law would allow police to take action against the man "instead of sitting around waiting for something bad to happen."
Roanoke police say the man has been the subject of more than a dozen complaints recently.
Reports that the man has followed children to and from school in the Raleigh Court area drew a large crowd Thursday night to a civic group meeting, where parents expressed fear and helplessness.
The man moved here several years ago after he was arrested twice in Memphis, Tenn., on charges of abducting or attempting to abduct children, said Lt. Jerry Dean, head of the Roanoke Police Department's youth bureau.
Although details on the outcome of the cases remain unclear, a Memphis judge ordered the man to get out of town, Dean said.
After coming to Roanoke, the man was charged with making obscene telephone calls to a schoolgirl and in 1989 received a 30-day suspended jail sentence.
While on probation, the man was ordered back to court in October 1990, after Raleigh Court residents complained that he followed two young girls to their bus stop and drove around the block until the bus came.
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Philip Trompeter agreed to let the man remain free under strictly supervised probation - but he issued a severe warning:
"Stay out of Southwest. . . . You are not a normal person. You are a pedophile," Trompeter said.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB