Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 13, 1993 TAG: 9302130072
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
COUNTERFEITING CHARGES COULD BE DISMISSED
Virginia East, Radford's former assistant school superintendent, has been placed in a special federal court program that could result in dismissal of counterfeiting charges placed against her in Tennessee.A preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday did not take place, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Instead, East was placed in a "pretrial diversion" program, an alternative to prosecution.
East, 55, was charged last month with passing and attempting to pass fake $100 bills at a Pigeon Forge, Tenn., factory outlet mall. A week later, the Radford School Board accepted her resignation as assistant superintendent, a position she had held since 1988. Before that, East was principal of Shawsville Middle and High School in Montgomery County.
Pretrial diversion sidetracks certain offenders from traditional criminal justice processing into a program of supervision and services administered by federal probation officers.
People who complete the program have charges against them dismissed. Unsuccessful participants are returned for prosecution.
East, who earned $57,318 annually as assistant superintendent, resigned after she was charged a week earlier in Tennessee with passing five counterfeit $100 bills at Belz Factory Outlet World and attempting to pass a sixth bill.
Besides those six fake $100 bills, authorities said 43 other bills made on a color copying machine were found in East's possession.
People in Radford and Montgomery County who know East said they were shocked and saddened by her arrest. The charge was out of character for the woman they knew as a generous, caring person who had a sterling personal and professional reputation. East did not return phone calls made after her arrest and her attorney could not be reached Friday for comment.