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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992                   TAG: 9203310355
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAN TURNS UP IN TEXAS

William Karl Alley - arrested Sunday evening in McKinney, Texas, after a resident tipped police - was transferred to a justice center in Dallas on charges of failing to support his wife and five children.

Dallas County grand jurors on Monday indicted Alley on one count of criminal non-support, officials said.

A state district judge rejected a prosecution motion to dismiss the charge against Alley after his wife, Pam, submitted an affidavit of nonprosecution with the Dallas County district attorney's office.

Judge Harold Entz said he would not dismiss charges until a mental evaluation of Alley had been made, according to Norm Kinne, first assistant district attorney.

Alley, 41, arrived in Dallas shortly before noon Monday in the custody of a sheriff's officer, and was held on the indictment and a warrant for criminal non-support, said a Dallas sheriff's spokesman.

Bond was set at $25,000.

Authorities have been seeking Alley since he vanished in February 1991 from a New York City hotel.

A resident of McKinney, which is about 30 miles north of Dallas, recognized the businessman from media reports and called authorities with the license plate number on his vehicle, said McKinney police Sgt. Steve Riley.

Officers ran a check and traced the vehicle to Alley. He was taken into custody about 7:30 p.m. outside a motel, Riley said.

"He probably knew he would have some upcoming legal problems in Dallas . . . and McKinney is far enough away so that he could hide out for a couple of days," Riley said.

An arrest warrant had been issued by a Texas magistrate for the businessman after his wife, Pam Alley, said she wanted him detained for abandoning their family. She did not immediately return a telephone call Monday from The Associated Press.

Alley, who was the owner and president of Hartland Plastics, a sports figurine company in Dallas, vanished Feb. 28, 1991, after telling a doorman at the New York Hilton, "I'm going for a walk."

Authorities said Alley later established a new identity in Lynchburg.

Virginia authorities told University Park officers last week that Alley was found living in a rented room in a Lynchburg home under the name William Hart Allen.

But a Lynchburg officer said Alley again fled. The owner of the house where the businessman had rented the room found it empty of Alley's belongings, with no evidence of a new destination.