Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993 TAG: 9304120008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
`ALL I WANT IS A CHANCE TO PROVE MYSELF'
DID DRUGS drive Frank D. Spieth to commit a series of frauds? Spieth says yes, but the prosecutor on his latest case doesn't buy it. He says Spieth's a con man, pure and simple.Frank D. Spieth Jr. appeared to have everything a parent would want in a son - intelligence, ambition and good looks.
But Spieth tumbled out of his privileged orbit a few years after graduating from Cave Spring High School in 1980.
He has spent the past decade concocting a variety of fraud schemes - from passing counterfeit $100 bills to winning a college scholarship under a fictitious name.
Spieth, 31, now is in the Roanoke County Jail, serving a five-year sentence.
A county grand jury indicted him on two charges of credit-card fraud this month. He also is awaiting sentencing for an unrelated fraud conviction in Roanoke Circuit Court.
His sometimes bizarre behavior baffled his parents, who sought help from psychiatrists, doctors and clergy.
"We could never get an answer," said Frank Spieth Sr., a retired Norfolk Southern Corp. executive.
Frank Jr. says there is a simple explanation for his legal problems - drugs.
"Most things I have done have been when I was high," he said.
Drugs, he says, were his escape from reality. He went from casual use of marijuana in junior high to a strong addiction to cocaine and heroin. He says he was so high he doesn't remember much about the thefts and frauds he committed.
In his white jail uniform, Spieth is a picture of repentance. He talks of his renewed faith in God and his desire to make good his wrongs with a life of service, perhaps as a drug counselor.
He almost seems out of place behind bars.
"To tell you the truth, you certainly never would suspect he was someone involved in illegal activity," said Lee Phillips, a lawyer who represented Spieth on charges of selling a stolen motorcycle in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Spieth says prosecutors and judges may not buy his story about drugs. Some may think it is nothing more than his latest con - an effort to cover a deep-seated compulsion to outsmart and deceive.
Spieth expects the question, but he is unprepared when it comes during a jailhouse interview.
Are you a con?
He looks away.
Long pause.
He smacks his lips.
Another pause.
"I'd say no," he says, "but I certainly have done things that have been unethical."
He returns to the question later in the interview.
"You asked if I was a con. I was the worst kind - I conned myself. I looked in the mirror and wouldn't see a drug addict or someone who had stepped on the other side of the law."
One person who isn't buying Spieth's line is Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart.
"He's a con man," Burkart said. "Whether he has emotional problems or he just likes the game, I don't know."
Burkart said the courts have given Spieth breaks in the past - only to have him get into more trouble.
In 1983, a judge reduced two felony charges to misdemeanors after Spieth admitted breaking into Cave Spring High School and stealing audio equipment.
In 1989, Spieth pleaded no contest to a charge of defrauding a Roanoke County computer store. He bought equipment with travelers' checks that he had reported stolen a few months earlier.
At the time, Spieth was on probation on California charges of possessing counterfeit currency and possession of marijuana.
Roanoke County prosecutors argued that Spieth should be sent to prison for the travelers' check fraud. But Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens suspended a five-year sentence and put him on probation.
"For some people, the bigger break you give them, the worse it is," Burkart said.
Spieth did his best to outsmart his probation officer. He rented an apartment under an assumed name, then forged letters from a mental health counselor telling court officials that Spieth was an outstanding patient.
He skipped town in November 1990 - but not before pulling off several more schemes. He ran up several thousand dollars on credit cards issued under false names. And he bought a Bronco from Berglund Chevrolet using another false name. He gave the dealership $1,000 in cash and drove away in the $20,000 vehicle.
In February 1992, Spieth was arrested on a fugitive warrant at San Diego State University, where he had won a pre-med scholarship under the alias of Logan Scott William Keilly.
"I thought if I could change - and become someone else - I could start over again," he said.
The charges he now faces stem from the credit card and auto dealership frauds of November 1990.
Spieth wants to avoid any more jail time than the five-year sentence he received for probation violations. He wants to start putting his life in order, a process he said he began nearly two years ago when he stopped using drugs. He said he used the alias at San Diego State only because he feared spending time in a Virginia prison.
"I don't see that keeping me incarcerated is serving society," he said. "All I want is a chance to prove myself."
But parts of Spieth's story do not check out.
He claims he began to get his life in order by volunteering at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, Calif. But a hospital spokeswoman said volunteer rosters show no record of a Frank Spieth or Logan Scott William Keilly.
Officials at San Diego State University found Spieth's room filled with computer equipment that had been stolen from the university. No charges were filed. Spieth said he had no knowledge the equipment was stolen.
When Spieth disappeared in 1990, his parents threw up their hands and decided they would not do anything for their son until he changed his ways.
But they are helping with his legal fees now. His father thinks Spieth's problems stemmed from a drug craving that he kept hidden from his family and friends.
"The only thing I can attribute it to is drugs," Frank Sr. said.
"All that we have been through will be worth it if he is on the right track. We feel he is. But we will never know until he gets out and puts this behind him."