Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993 TAG: 9309030204
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN and DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Police said the man also pulled a knife on Marty P. Harmon, 38.
Lloyd Allen Dudding, 40, was charged with assault and battery, but Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell has recommended that the charges be elevated to malicious wounding after seeing photographs of Harmon's injuries.
Dudding, a one-time dishwasher at a defunct Roanoke restaurant, was being held Thursday night in the Roanoke City Jail in lieu of a $1,000 bond.
Until recently he shared an apartment at the Lansdowne public housing complex with his mother, Laura Dudding, 80. A magistrate stipulated Thursday following his arrest that if Dudding is released from jail, he will have to stay away from his mother's apartment.
Laura Dudding had been placed in a nursing home in the past week after social service workers claimed she was not receiving the care she needed.
Harmon went to the Dudding apartment about 10 a.m. Thursday to pursue the investigation of suspected neglect and abuse. She was accompanied by Kim Outlaw, who was working her third day as a full-time social worker. Outlaw has been working part-time for the department for a year.
"I don't think she [Harmon] had any idea he'd be assaultive," said Corrine Gott, head of the city's Social Service Department.
But Dudding become more agitated as questioning went along, Gott said. He apparently didn't like the idea that his mother - with whom he'd lived most of his life - was now in a nursing home, she said.
"He stood up while we were sitting down talking," said Outlaw. "He said he had trouble expressing himself."
The man went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. When he returned, he started talking with Harmon again.
Suddenly, he reached into his pocket. Outlaw saw he was pulling out a pocketknife and she ran out the door yelling for neighbors to call police.
Inside the apartment she could hear Harmon screaming. Outlaw knew neither she nor Harmon had the physical strength to restrain the 6-foot, 200-pound man.
Meanwhile, Harmon had worked her way to the door. Outlaw and neighbors could see Harmon being held by her hair. The man let go after a neighbor coaxed him to do so, Outlaw said.
Harmon darted from the apartment. She was bleeding from her nose and a fistful of hair was missing from her head, Outlaw said.
Police said she had been pulled around the room by her hair and been punched in the face.
A neighbor, who was hanging up clothes, offered Harmon a shirt to wipe away the blood from her face. The neighbor took her to her own apartment until police arrived, Outlaw said.
Harmon was treated at Community Hospital and released.
Contacted at her home, she declined to comment.
Police later found Dudding roaming around the intersection of Shenandoah Avenue and 36th Street.
Gott said that social workers get verbal abuse, but it has been about 10 years since one has been physically assaulted.
"We certainly are conscious of the risks involved. We are, of course, on the cutting edge, so to speak."
Gott said social workers are trained to avoid putting themselves into dangerous situations and to get out of situations that become threatening. Social services officials will get together this morning to discuss the incident and safety.
"In this case, we hadn't anticipated any such reaction," Gott said. "This was unprovoked and something you can't predict."
by CNB