CABLE 6 OWNER GUILTY CHARGE REDUCED TO A MISDEMEANOR

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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993                   TAG: 9303070064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
CABLE 6 OWNER GUILTY CHARGE REDUCED TO A MISDEMEANOR
Cable 6 owner Charles Roark was found guilty of petty larceny Friday, but avoided the possibility of going to prison when the charge was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, his attorney said.
Roark was charged with petty larceny and resisting arrest in October. An undercover Martinsville police officer said he saw Roark put two coins in a Martinsville Bulletin newspaper box and remove three newspapers.
Though the charge was for stealing 70 cents worth of property, the misdemeanor of petty larceny was bumped up to a felony when Martinsville's assistant prosecutor Michelle Penn learned Roark had twice been convicted of similar offenses.
If convicted of the felony, Roark could have received up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine. Gil Davis, the Fairfax attorney who represented Roark, still maintains his client is innocent.
"We're innocent, but we like the sentence, too," he said. For his conviction, Roark received a 90-day suspended jail sentence and a $300 fine.
Roark, 27, was convicted of grand larceny in 1988 for stealing $100,000 in video and television equipment from an Asheville, N.C., television station.
When he was summoned to the police department in October, Roark walked in with a video camera on his shoulder. He taped his own arrest. The blurred footage showed Sgt. Clyde Hundley and Roark arguing about whether Roark could take the camera into the back of the station to film his own fingerprinting.
But the video apparently helped Roark's case Friday. The court, Davis said, watched the tape and decided Roark wasn't given enough chance to peacefully put the camera down. As a result, the resisting arrest charge was dropped.
"He was just trying to protect his camera," Davis said.
Based in Collinsville, Cable 6 is a cable-access channel that provides local news to 19,000 households in Henry County and Martinsville.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB