Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 28, 1993 TAG: 9305280251
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The men, who were striking against Greyhound Bus Lines at the time, filed a malicious prosecution lawsuit against Dorothy St. Clair after she accused them of damaging her car and using abusive language - charges that later were dismissed.
But after a two-day trial in Roanoke Circuit Court, the jury found that St. Clair's actions were not malicious.
The strikers, who had asked for $55,000 each, received nothing.
Amalgamated Transit Union negotiator Tommy Mullins and four retired or semiretired bus drivers had suggested during the trial that St. Clair pressed charges against them to make it appear that strikers were violating an injunction that limited picketing at the terminal.
St. Clair, who crossed picket lines to work on Dec. 23, 1991, had claimed the men approached her car outside the terminal.
She said they were cursing, making threats and beating on her car.
But a General District Court judge dismissed the charges in 1992 after all five men denied involvement.
"You don't have a right to get a warrant for somebody just because you don't like them," John Kennett, a Roanoke lawyer who represented the five men, told the jury.
"The law of Roanoke will suffer if she can get away with that."
But Bill Cleaveland, who represented St. Clair, said a magistrate had found probable cause to have the men charged.
"She had no motive to invite that kind of trouble by taking on five union members," Cleaveland said.
A series of strike-related civil and criminal proceedings has lasted longer than did the three-year strike against Greyhound.
by CNB