MOST DEMOCRATS CHEER ROBB; GOVERNOR, GOP TIGHT-LIPPED

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 13, 1993                   TAG: 9301130095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
MOST DEMOCRATS CHEER ROBB; GOVERNOR, GOP TIGHT-LIPPED
Most of his fellow Democrats quickly rallied around U.S. Sen. Charles Robb after Tuesday's triumph, some characterizing the long federal probe of him as politically inspired and others calling for those involved in the prosecution to resign.
But Gov. Douglas Wilder, Robb's bitter Democratic enemy and the self-styled "victim" in the case, was uncharacteristically silent. And Virginia Republican leaders, who in the past had called on Robb to step down, also were tight-lipped.
Wilder spokesman Glenn Davidson said the governor would not discuss the Robb case. The interception and subsequent leak to reporters of a tape of a 1988 Wilder phone call was at the heart of the investigation.
"I have to say I am delighted," said House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk. "It restores my faith in the judicial system. I never felt from the beginning that the senator was guilty of any indictable offense. I feel he's been vindicated."
"An extremely political Justice Department spent 18 months and God knows how much money trying to pin a political indictment on a political opponent and failed," said Kenneth V. Geroe of Virginia Beach, the Democratic Party's 2nd District chairman.
"I hope there are a whole lot of resignations out of the Justice Department on this. Anyone connected with the prosecution should resign," Geroe said. "A grand jury is typically a prosecutor's plaything. For the prosecutor not to get an indictment shows how pitiful this whole case is."
Vinton Democrat Richard Cranwell, majority leader of the House of Delegates, said the lesson in the case is that private citizens, chosen to be grand jurors, have a "calming, steeling and wholesome influence" on various layers of government.
"If one can be destroyed by allegations, then that's a sad commentary on our system," Cranwell said.
Former Gov. Gerald Baliles, a longtime Robb ally and his successor as governor, said in a prepared statement: "I am pleased for the senator and his family because this has been a long and painful ordeal for all of them."
"I think people have a lot of sympathy" for Robb, said Del. Alson Smith, D-Winchester, a longtime Robb confidant. "As I have traveled across the state, almost everybody I have come in contact with said they would vote for him if he was running tomorrow."
But Billy Franklin, the Virginia Beach private investigator hired by a Republican to investigate Robb's social life at Virginia Beach, called the grand jury's decision a "tragedy."
"But who am I to argue with the grand jury?" Franklin said.
Franklin said he wasn't surprised by the outcome, given the time the grand jury took on the case.
"I am disappointed they didn't find out who was involved with my phone records. I assume it's a dead issue on who stole my long-distance phone records. I'm very disappointed," Franklin said.
In addition to the Wilder tape, Robb's staff allegedly obtained Franklin's phone records and a tape of at least one Franklin phone call as part of an effort to keep tabs on his investigation.
Joe Elton, executive director of the Virginia Republican Party, had no comment. And Patrick McSweeney, chairman of the state GOP, did not return repeated phone calls.
Franklin was hired by Dr. Lewis H. Williams, a Richmond gynecologist and GOP activist, to investigate Robb. Williams said Tuesday he is "irked" that Robb "was given an opportunity . . . that the average person ordinarily is not given" to testify twice before the grand jury.
Robb, at his request, spent six hours with the grand jury on Dec. 17. He had testified 16 months earlier as well.
Williams called the tape "much ado about very little," arguing that Robb's "activities at the many, many beach parties with cocaine and women are far more important." Robb's alleged extramarital affairs and attendance at parties at which cocaine allegedly was used have dogged him for years; he has denied any infidelity and insists he was unaware of any drug use in his presence.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB