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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993                   TAG: 9312150127
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG                                LENGTH: Short

MAN ACQUITTED OF SEX CHARGE

Timothy W. Myers, 28, of Ripplemead had pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated sexual battery. Myers was indicted by a grand jury on three charges of aggravated sexual battery and one charge of forcible sodomy.

This was the first case to go to trial. Trial dates have not been set for the remaining charges, which involve two other boys.

Myers told the jury he did not fondle the 12-year-old boy in June 1992 when the boy stayed overnight with him. Instead, he blamed the boy's accusation on a confrontation they had one month later, when Myers physically restrained him and removed him from the town pool after the boy struck Myers.

But the boy, now 14, testified that he awoke to find Myers touching his penis. Alarmed, the boy rolled away onto his stomach, he said, and the fondling stopped.

The boy said he waited eight months to report the incident because he was afraid.

Myers testified he believed the boy misunderstood some horseplay he witnessed between Myers and another boy at the pool.