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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993                   TAG: 9305010095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Douglas Pardue
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

EX-ARSENAL WORKER GETS 5 MONTHS

A former Radford Army Ammunition Plant employee was sentenced Friday to five months in prison for arranging kickbacks on small work contracts.

U.S. District Judge Sam Wilson also ordered James Leroy Headley to serve five months of community confinement after he is released from prison.

"All through my life I've tried to do right," Headley told Wilson before he was sentenced. "I just got caught up in financial needs to survive. . . . I'm sorry for what I've done."

Headley pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks. Authorities said Headley arranged to fix bids and award contracts in 1991 to a company formed by Thomas Henry Pifer Sr., another former arsenal employee. At the time, Headley helped administer a purchase program for minor contracts.

The total profit made in the scheme was just under $10,000. Headley was ordered to pay restitution.

Pifer was convicted last month for his role in the scheme. He is awaiting sentencing.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB