Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 21, 1993 TAG: 9307210154
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Five hours after he was arrested for allegedly driving after being declared a habitual offender, he was arrested again.
This on a day when Richmond, an industrial assembly line worker, had made a Department of Motor Vehicles list as one of the 125 worst drivers in Roanoke. This on a day when a House of Delegates Courts of Justice Committee convened a public hearing in Roanoke to discuss how to keep suspended drivers off the road.
To make the list, Richmond had to be a habitual offender with three or more drunken driving convictions.
"I see it all the time," said Officer Jim Meador, an 18-year Roanoke police veteran who arrested Richmond the second time.
Richmond's day began to go wrong when Officer Cindy Sutor pulled him over at 11:10 a.m. near the intersection of Orange Avenue and Williamson Road Northeast.
Sutor took him to jail and had his car towed to an impound lot near the intersection of 20th Street and Orange Avenue Northeast.
Richmond, free on bond and knowing the wrecker driver would return to the lot between 4:30 and 6 p.m., took a cab to pick up his car, police said.
Police Lt. Ramey Bower, who runs the traffic division, knew that, too.
Bower dispatched Meador to stake out the lot. Meador took up a position on a hill overlooking the business and spotted Richmond heading down Orange Avenue.
"He wasn't impaired" even though he had been drinking, Meador said.
Again, Richmond was taken before the magistrate.
This time he was ordered held without bond until morning.
by CNB