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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 22, 1993                   TAG: 9305220077
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

MAN GUILTY IN RAPE CASE AGREEMENT KEEPS SUSPECT FROM FACING JURY SENTENCING

One of two men charged in the rape of a woman at a public boat ramp on Smith Mountain Lake in November pleaded guilty to one count each of rape and forcible sodomy Friday to avoid having to face a jury.

Claiburn Roscoe Dooley, 36, of Roanoke, entered what's called an Alford guilty plea in Bedford County Circuit Court. The plea essentially means that Dooley acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict him, but he does not wholly admit to any guilt in the crime.

It also puts his sentencing solely in the hands of Circuit Judge William Sweeney, rather than giving a jury the chance to recommend a possibly harsher penalty.

Dooley faces a sentence of five years to life in prison on each of the charges. He will be sentenced after a report is completed on his background. He continues to be held without bond in the Bedford County Jail.

The other man accused in the rape, Dale Adrine Flinn, faces trial July 1.

No evidence against Dooley was presented Friday, but at a preliminary hearing in February, a woman testified that last November she met Dooley and Flinn at a Roanoke bar and they offered her a ride home.

Instead, they drove her to the Hardy Road public boat ramp at Smith Mountain Lake, stripped her clothes off and threatened to beat her and throw her in the water if she struggled, she testified.

One of them forced her to perform oral sex while the other raped and sodomized her, she said. Then they switched, and took turns several times, she said.

The assault ended when a Bedford County deputy drove up while on routine patrol, and Dooley and Flinn both fled on foot. Dooley was arrested about an hour later. Flinn, 22, was arrested two weeks later in Kentucky and returned to Bedford.

The woman, who suffered a broken nose and had her fingers smashed in the car door, testified at the February hearing that Flinn appeared to be more of the leader of the two men. She said that he "backhanded" her and threatened her with a knife.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said Friday that no plea bargain had been reached with Dooley in exchange for his testimony against Flinn. Krantz said he wasn't sure yet whether he will want Dooley to testify at Flinn's trial.

by CNB