Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993 TAG: 9303260345
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON and MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
RAPE CHARGE REDUCED
FRANK EUGENE BEVERLY has been charged with rape three times in the past decade. Each time he has been acquitted or has pleaded to a reduced charge. Thursday he was sentenced to six months in jail.\ In 1984, an ex-girlfriend accused Frank Eugene Beverly of dragging her into a thicket in Clifton Forge and raping her. She testified that he told her: "You better not scream, or I will stomp you to death."
Beverly escaped trial on a rape charge by pleading guilty to assault and battery. He served eight months in jail.
In 1990, a woman he met at a party said he had driven her to Botetourt County, parked on the side of U.S. 220 and raped her seven or eight times.
A judge acquitted him after he testified she had consented to sex.
In 1992, a female acquaintance accused him of beating and raping her after they had smoked crack cocaine together in an abandoned trailer outside the town of Iron Gate.
Thursday, Beverly pleaded guilty in Botetourt County Circuit Court to a reduced charge of sexual battery - a misdemeanor - and was sentenced to six months in jail.
The victim, 49, said she was not pleased with the sentence.
"I think he should get more time than he's getting," she said.
She said, though, that she understood that some of Beverly's friends were prepared to testify against her.
Rob Hagan, Botetourt County commonwealth's attorney, said Beverly "has a history that concerns me very much."
But Hagan said a witness who saw part of last year's attack was prepared to contradict the victim's story. That and other conflicts in testimony would have made it hard to get a felony conviction, he said.
"The closer you get to a date-rape scenario, the harder it is to convict," Hagan said. Because she went to an isolated location and smoked crack with him, Hagan said, it's likely a jury would decide "she voluntarily entered into a compromising situation."
Hagan decided it was better to make sure Beverly pleaded guilty and served some jail time - instead of taking a chance he would go free.
Under a plea agreement, Circuit Judge George Honts III sentenced Beverly to one year in jail, with six months suspended. He also placed him on probation for a year.
Hagan said that having the suspended part of the sentence hanging over Beverly will help keep him from repeating his crime.
Beverly declined to comment after the hearing.
Beverly, who lives in Iron Gate, is a short, muscular man of 38. Court records say he goes by the name "Ice Man."
Court records and statements in court by Hagan sketch out the details of the three rape charges against Beverly:
\ October 1984
Beverly had been dating a Clifton Forge woman until they split up in March 1984.
The following October, she was out for a walk when she stopped in at a Clifton Forge pool hall. Beverly was there. She said they did not talk and she left to walk home after about 15 minutes.
A block from her house, she testified, Beverly jumped her and started choking her. He told her to walk with him.
The woman said he forced her into a thicket and raped her for about an hour. Afterwards, she testified, he kicked her in the stomach and legs and hit her in the head.
Beverly was charged with forcible rape. But the victim hesitated pushing the felony rape charge because she didn't want to see him go to prison for a long time. Rape carries a maximum life sentence.
"She didn't want to see it go that far," said Clifton Forge Commonwealth's Attorney Jeff Crackel. Under a plea agreement, Beverly was convicted of assault and battery and sentenced to a year in jail, suspended after the eight months he had already served awaiting trial.
\ May 1990
Beverly met a Roanoke woman at a party at a Roanoke public housing complex and offered her a ride. He and his brother drove her to Botetourt County and parked the car along U.S. 220 near Eagle Rock. His brother got out of the car. Then, the woman testified, Beverly beat her and raped her seven or eight times.
A judge found Beverly not guilty after both he and his brother said the woman had consented to sex.
\ July 1992
The victim was an acquaintance of Beverly's.
On the night of July 15, she and Beverly arranged to meet another man, Norman Lee Robinson, 43, in downtown Clifton Forge. They wanted to get some crack cocaine, Hagan said.
The three drove to an abandoned house trailer sitting on a weedy lot outside Iron Gate.
They smoked crack and drank beer. Then Robinson left.
The woman said Beverly jumped her and forced her to have sex. During the struggle, she took out a pocket knife and stabbed him.
She was bruised on her shoulders, back, legs and arms.
During the attack, Robinson returned.
"I asked him to help me - and Frankie told him to get the hell out, he'd tell him when to come back," the victim said in an interview Thursday. "He just turned and went back to the car and sat down."
The woman, who lives with her parents, said now they worry about her all the time. They want her to telephone anytime she stays out late. "And I'm 49 years old."
"I'm glad it's over with," she said, "because my parents don't have to go through this no more."