Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 14, 1993 TAG: 9311140089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE and KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But Wells has become one of the most recognizable lawmen in Western Virginia, thanks to a series of courtroom murder dramas captured on videotape and played out on the nightly news.
After the Jens Soering murder trial in 1990, Wells could not go to the mall in Roanoke without strangers stopping him to chat about the college student who murdered his girlfriend's parents.
In recent months, however, Wells has discovered that stardom can cut both ways.
That same intense media coverage has turned its attention to allegations of on-duty boozing by his most-favored deputy and reports that Wells accumulated thousands of dollars in interest from a department checking account.
Wells, who had been expected to retire in two years, is fighting to save his legacy as the most popular and effective sheriff ever to hold the office in Bedford County.
"The guy is a legend and a well-deserved legend," Staunton River High School Principal Robert Ashworth said.
Wells declined to be interviewed for this story.
Wells, 57, looks like he came straight from central casting to fill the role of rural, Southern sheriff.
He is a mountain of a man with a shiny bald head and a deep baritone voice that precedes him wherever he goes. He is is prone to hugging women in his oversized arms.
"He can be a real teddy bear," said Amy Smith, a former reporter for WSET-TV who covered Bedford County. "And he can be a big grizzly bear when . . . he needs to be."
Wells never set out to work in law enforcement.
In 1959, he was having lunch with his wife at the Bedford Cafe when Sheriff Rucker Mitchell walked up and asked if Wells could step outside for a minute.
Mitchell offered Wells, then a 23-year-old maintenance worker, a job as a deputy. Wells thought about it for a few weeks and accepted the offer.
Wells was working as a road deputy when factions within the department developed. He quit in 1963 to campaign for chief deputy Jack Cundiff, who ran against Mitchell.
The gamble paid off. Cundiff won the election, and named Wells his chief deputy.
In 1974, Wells was appointed sheriff after Cundiff left to take a state law enforcement job.
"Frankly, I found him to be, at least when he started at the department, as good a sheriff as you could find," former Commonwealth's Attorney Harry Garrett said.
Wells has won five elections, most recently in 1991.
Many people expected Wells to retire two years ago because of a battle with bladder cancer.
But Wells kept his spirits up and his health rebounded. He appears as robust as ever, a presence that is felt as soon as he enters a room.
Anne Eubank, a sergeant in the Bedford County Jail, said Wells places family first, both for himself and for his employees.
Wells and his wife, Elizabeth, raised two children on his family farm in the south side of the county. His son is a Roanoke County police officer, and his daughter is a nurse in the Cayman Islands.
Wells owns a men's clothing store, D. Reynolds, in downtown Bedford.
The same factionalism that catapulted Wells to power appears to be running rampant as his officers anticipate his retirement.
"It's a bad situation over there," one officer from a state law enforcement agency said.
Chief Deputy Ronnie Laughlin, who at one time was seen the heir apparent, is reported to have fallen out of favor with Wells several years ago.
Next in line was Lt. Steve Rush, a younger man who has played a key role in several major undercover drug investigations.
"Steve was Carl's baby. Anything Steve Rush did was gold," said one person familiar with the inner workings of the Sheriff's Department.
Some deputies believe that Wells waited three weeks to launch an internal investigation into on-duty drinking within the department because the allegations focused on Rush.
"Probably if it had been someone else, something would have already been done," one deputy has said.
In September, Rush admitted that he had been drinking as part of an undercover assignment before he was called to collect evidence at a murder scene in June 1990.
But Wells and several other witnesses testified at a Sept. 20 court hearing that Rush did not appear intoxicated that night.
The hearing was called to consider convicted killer Beattie E. Coe's request for a new trial based on the contention that Rush may have overlooked crucial evidence. A judge denied the request.
Still, Coe's attorney sought to establish that Rush's on-duty drinking fit a pattern. He called several deputies who testified they had seen Rush consume alcohol while working, including one episode in the basement of the Sheriff's Department.
Wells hoped the internal investigation, announced Oct. 13, would end the bad publicity for his department.
But the media scrutiny continued amid allegations surrounding interest earned from a bank account that Wells used for his department payroll.
Last week, the state auditor of public accounts said that Wells must return the interest, which is estimated at more than $20,000.
The Board of Supervisors asked for an investigation to determine if Wells broke any laws by commingling public and private money or by converting the interest to his personal use.
Wells has been advised by his attorney, John Alford of Lynchburg, to make no public comment.
Many who work around the Bedford County Courthouse say they are confident that the investigation will exonerate Wells.
They believe Wells had no criminal intent in keeping payroll in an interest-bearing account. They believe he is simply being his old-fashioned self, paying his men through an antiquated system that he probably inherited when he took office nearly 20 years ago.
Wells has failed to open his department's bank records under a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Roanoke Times & World-News last month.
The newspaper has filed a motion in Lynchburg Circuit Court to force Wells to comply with the law. A hearing is scheduled Monday.
The courthouse regulars believe Wells is simply being stubborn, as he sometimes can be, when pressed by the media for information.
"If you work with him, it's fine," said Smith, the former TV reporter. "But if you tried to work against him, you'll never get anything."
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PROFILE
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