ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993                   TAG: 9312120060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

APARTMENT COMPLEX SUED BY MOLESTER'S VICTIMS

Seven lawsuits have been filed against an apartment complex where a convicted child molester worked, claiming that the complex should have checked the man's background before hiring him.

Six of the lawsuits were filed last week in Norfolk Circuit Court for $5.5 million each. Another lawsuit was filed by an 8-year-old girl and her mother in 1990 and is scheduled for trial in June. The claims against the complex total $38.5 million.

Charles R. Vette molested six boys and one girl, ages 8 to 13, in his apartment at the complex in 1989. He was convicted of 12 counts of child molestation and sentenced to five life terms in prison.

The lawsuits claim that Vette was "negligently hired, selected and retained and supervised." At the time, Vette was on parole. He had served four years in prison for molesting a 5-year-old girl in Virginia Beach. 


 by CNB