Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 21, 1993 TAG: 9304210137
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Roy Bolen, 43, a war hero and 20-year veteran of the Virginia State Police, goes to trial on five misdemeanor charges of violating the Virginia Conflict of Interest Act and a more serious felony charge of trying to obtain money under false pretenses.
All of the charges relate to the repair of sheriff's office vehicles at Autoworks Service Center, a garage owned by Bolen. The repairs were done during a period in 1992 when Bolen was chief deputy to Montgomery County Sheriff Ken Phipps.
Bolen maintains that the only thing he's guilty of is trying to save the county money. "I don't feel like I did anything that was illegal."
He did the repair work for "break even" or "nothing," Bolen said. He said he never tried to hide the fact he was doing the work.
At the time, Bolen was the person in the sheriff's office responsible for approving the payment of the bills.
Bolen was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury in September on the same day that Phipps fired him. Phipps had asked him to resign, but the deputy refused.
Even if he is cleared in court, the charges against him already have turned Bolen's life upside down.
When Bolen was fired, he lost his $38,000 county salary.
"It's unbelievable," he said during an interview last week. "It's cost me everything I've ever had. . . . I'm going to lose my home."
Bolen and his family have lived in Montgomery County for 20 years.
"Even if I'm totally acquitted, to get back into law enforcement, I'd have to leave this area," he said.
One thing that Bolen has to be thankful for is that his 13-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter have not suffered because of his predicament. There have been no taunts at school.
The whole episode has been an emotional strain for his wife, Jody, but her co-workers at Virginia Tech have been very supportive, Bolen said.
What Bolen says has hurt him the most is the way he has been shunned by his former colleagues in the law enforcement community.
"I just felt that true friendship was more than that."
With the exception of a couple of people, he said, most of the lawmen with whom he used to work have not spoken with him since he was charged.
Among those Bolen has not heard from is Phipps, with whom he had worked many years in the state police. Phipps did not fire him in person. Instead, the sheriff's secretary handed Bolen a letter.
"The sheriff and I had been good friends since 1974," Bolen said.
Phipps said he had entrusted Bolen with the job of making sure the office "wasn't getting ripped off."
"I'm not going to take anything for granted anymore, even trust," Phipps said after Bolen's indictment.
Phipps also raised questions at the time about clothing purchases Bolen had charged to the county.
Phipps and Bolen disagreed over whether the deputy had been authorized to make those purchases, and no charges have been filed in that regard against Bolen.
Bolen grew up in Raleigh County, W.Va., in a little town called Odd. His father was killed in a coal mine when Bolen was 10.
Following high school, he worked at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant for a year and a half. He joined the Army in 1969 so he could qualify for GI benefits and go to college.
Bolen spent 19 months in Vietnam as a crew chief and door gunner on a helicopter. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, two Air Medals for Valor, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Vietnamese Flying Cross.
As a result of his service in Vietnam, Bolen received a direct commission as a lieutenant. He went to flight school and became a helicopter pilot in 1980. He is a major in the Army Reserve.
After his discharge from active duty in February 1972, Bolen returned to work at the arsenal. He met his future wife, a student at Radford University, while he was looking for an apartment. That July he was offered a job by both the West Virginia and Virginia state police.
In 1991, Bolen wanted to run for sheriff in Montgomery County as a Republican but was refused a leave of absence by the state police.
Phipps, a retired state policeman, had been asked by the Montgomery GOP to run for sheriff against Democrat Louis Barber, but had turned down the offer. After Bolen couldn't get permission from his superiors to run, Phipps reconsidered.
After his upset victory over Barber, Phipps hired Bolen to be his chief deputy. By that time, Bolen had been with the state police long enough to retire.
The county's financial office, which reviews all bills, raised questions about the repair work on county vehicles Bolen was doing at his garage.
At the request of Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith, Fred King - commonwealth's attorney in Salem - was appointed as a special prosecutor to investigate whether the repair work had broken any laws.
Despite Bolen's protestations that he's innocent of any wrongdoing, King said he has a case to put on and evidence to present against the former deputy.
Bolen has agreed to have Friday's trial heard by Judge Kenneth Devore without a jury, King said.
The five misdemeanor charges relate to minor repairs, such as changing tires and doing tuneups, that were done on sheriff's office vehicles, Bolen said.
The felony charge is more complicated and involves the repair of two wrecked pickup trucks belonging to the sheriff's department. He is accused, Bolen said, of billing the county for repairs on one of the trucks before they were done.
His garage had begun work on the truck, but when Keith wrote advising him he might have a conflict of interest, he stopped work. Bolen said he was going to have the job finished at another garage partially at his own expense but the county picked it up.
Bolen said neither Phipps nor the state police ever instructed him on the provisions of the state's conflict-of-interest law. The former law officer points out that in Virginia - contrary to the general rule - ignorance of the law is a defense for public officials when it comes to conflicts of interest.
Last week, a state police investigation found that Salem Mayor Jim Taliaferro had violated the conflict-of-interest law in a city land swap two years ago that benefitted a construction company in which the mayor had a financial interest.
But Lynchburg Commonwealth's Attorney William Petty, special prosecutor in that case, did not charge the mayor because Petty found no evidence that Taliaferro knew he was breaking the law.
Petty, however, advised the long-time mayor that he had a responsibility as a public official to be familiar with the law.
In Bolen's case, the former chief deputy said estimates were secured from other garages on the truck repairs, as required by state law for purchases costing more than $50. He had been reluctant to do the work because he expected criticism from other garages, but he said he did it to save the county money.
The county paid the shop $1,500 for damage repairs and $418 for other mechanical work, Phipps said last fall.
After all this, Bolen said, if he could choose again between staying with the state police or becoming Phipps chief deputy, he would have accepted a transfer to Abingdon and would be flying helicopters for the state police.
by CNB