Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 6, 1993 TAG: 9305060110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A Roanoke security guard used excessive force when he swung his nightstick to break up a barroom brawl, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Melvin "Butch" Spangler, who runs Valley K-9 Security Inc., was charged with malicious wounding in a Dec. 5 incident at Valley Country on Salem Turnpike.
Roanoke Circuit Judge Diane Strickland ruled that Spangler acted improperly, but she delayed a decision on his degree of guilt until a June 15 sentencing hearing.
Greg Ragan testified that Spangler hit him in the head with his nightstick, gashing his left ear, during a scuffle in the nightspot's parking lot.
While Strickland expressed doubts that Spangler was guilty of malicious wounding, he still faces lesser charges of unlawful wounding, a felony, or the misdemeanor charge of assault and battery.
Spangler - a convicted felon with a history of scrapes with the law as a security guard - was accused by prosecutors of overstepping his authority.
"You can't use a uniform to say you have the right to break the law," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mac Doubles.
According to the state Department of Commerce, which regulates security guards in Virginia, Spangler was denied registration in 1989.
"We checked his criminal background and found that it was not something that we could approve," said David Dick of the Commerce Department.
Dick declined to elaborate. But court records show that Spangler, 39, was convicted in 1981 of distribution of methamphetamine. His civil rights were reinstated in 1990.
Spangler also has been charged at least three times with assault.
A General District judge convicted him in 1991 of assaulting a man on the job, but the case was reversed on appeal. The other two assault charges were dropped.
Although Valley K-9 is licensed with the state, Dick said it would be a misdemeanor for anyone to work as a security guard without state registration.
When asked about his status after Wednesday's hearing, Spangler declined to comment.
Ragan, a Colorado cowboy in town last Dec. 5 to visit his family, testified that he had just downed his first beer at Valley Country when Spangler cut him off.
Ragan admitted that he angrily questioned why the security guard ordered bartenders to stop serving him.
When Spangler and at least one of his security guards attempted to escort Ragan out of the country music nightspot, "all hell broke loose," bartender Diane Cook testified.
An off-duty city police officer joined the struggle as the security guards began to drag a kicking and swinging Ragan out of a side door.
Once in the parking lot, Spangler testified, he pulled his nightstick and swung when Ragan drew his fist back to hit the police officer. The blow struck Ragan on his shoulder, Spangler testified.
Ragan, however, testified he was knocked to the ground by a blow that hit him in the head from behind.
Spangler said the incident started because Ragan was causing problems at nightclub, dancing in front of the bar and sloshing beer on other patrons.
But Cook and another bartender testified that Ragan drank only one beer all night - casting doubts on Spangler's description of him as rowdy and out of control.
Defense attorney James Zadell argued that Spangler was just doing his job at a nightspot that draws 1,300 people on a busy night.
"When you have that many people out there," Zadell said, "somebody has got to keep order."
by CNB