Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 29, 1993 TAG: 9309290096
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Phil Keith, Montgomery County's commonwealth's attorney, said the decision\ by the state Department of Corrections to allow Benjamin Counts to serve his\ sentence in the Lee County Jail smacks of favoritism. Counts is the son of a\ Virginia state trooper. The Lee County sheriff, R.V. Chadwell, requested that\ Counts be allowed to serve his time there, Keith said.
"It makes a mockery of the system when someone can use what appears to be\ special privilege to gain things that are not available to other people," Keith\ said last week.
But a prison official who approved the request said the move is not unusual\ and that he did not know Counts' family background when he approved the\ transfer. Counts was sentenced last Nov. 30 for the traffic death of Darrel\ Long, 29, of Christiansburg, a husband and foster father who worked at Shelor\ Chevrolet as a mechanic.
Long died from injuries sustained when his car was struck by a speeding\ car driven by Counts on Virginia 177 near Radford.
Authorities estimated that Counts was driving about 90 mph and Long was\ going 40 mph at the time of the collision. The posted speed limit was 45 mph.
Counts, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced Nov. 30 to serve 5 years of an\ 8-year sentence. The judge ordered that after serving the prison time, Counts\ be placed on probation for three years.
A prisoner can apply to go to a local jail to serve his time. Counts did\ so and the Lee County sheriff also applied to take him, Keith said.
Keith said he and Circuit Judge Kenneth Devore wrote letters opposing the\ transfer. They never heard anything back from Department of Corrections.\ Earlier this month, Keith learned by accident that Counts was transferred in\ March out of the state prison system and into the Lee County jail. Prior to\ that, he was in the Tazewell Correctional Unit.
"I can say I'm mad as hell," said Keith, a normally soft-spoken type. "I'm\ just as mad as I can be."
The prosecutor said he is upset because the transfer was approved without\ notice to him and over the objections of a state corrections review staff.\ Further, Keith said he has learned that Counts is being allowed trusty\ privileges - in direct violation of the agreement to let him serve time in Lee\ County. A trusty is jail inmate who is allowed to work outside of the cell to\ perform chores for the jail or county.
Ed Morris, deputy director of the Department of Corrections, said Tuesday\ he approved the transfer as a routine matter and did not feel he needed to\ notify Montgomery County officials of the decision.
"It's never been our policy of notifying the sentencing jurisdiction when\ we assign an inmate," Morris said.
Morris said he received 119 similar requests last year from sheriffs around\ the state. He approved all but three and said it would be "extremely rare that\ I would turn down," a request from a sheriff.
"When a sheriff calls and he's asking for somebody . . . I'm just not usually going to say no to that," Morris said.
Sheriff Chadwell did not return a reporter's phone calls last Wednesday and this Monday.
Morris told a reporter Wednesday that the case was approved under a hardship request. These take into account when a family member is ill and when traveling long distances to visit the prisoner poses a hardship.
But Keith said Morris never gave that reason when he talked to him last week. "If that had been the reason, why didn't he mention that to me? That's something that I could understand."
Keith said when Counts was being sentenced in Montgomery County, a defense request that Counts be allowed to serve his time in Lee County was denied. At the time, mention was made of making it more convenient for his parents to visit him, "but there was never anything alleged" about anyone being sick or the commute creating a hardship.
"As far as I'm concerned, they've just abused the system from the very beginning," Keith said.
"It sticks in my throat, plus I know how the [Long] family feels."
Morris told Keith and a reporter that requests are also approved when a prisoner has a particular skill the sheriff could put to use, such as cooking or electrical knowledge.
Keith said Counts also already has a parole date of Nov. 7. Normally, he said, prisoners with a five-year sentence would have to serve at least one-third of their sentence before gaining parole.
by CNB