Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 22, 1993 TAG: 9312220135
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONTVALE LENGTH: Medium
Two gallon jars adorn the counter at the Roadside Market. One solicits money for a holiday meal for a needy family. Another asks for donations for Doug Mayhew and Gary Babb - two of the three sheriff's deputies suspended without pay over the holidays.
If collection jars can serve as a measure of public opinion, Montvale residents would rather drop their dollars in the jar for the needy family.
That jar is stuffed with folded bills - some of them $20s - while the deputies' jar contains one dollar and a handful of pennies. And the store owner said the dollar bill was there when the jar was delivered.
"I think those two officers are getting some bad publicity," said store owner Brenda Thomas. "They just aren't very popular this year."
Down the road, a similar deputies' collection jar holds 30 cents. Money from the jar has been removed every night - a grand total of almost $7. Another store's jar holds about $15 after a week of display.
The jars were distributed by Gary Dean Coe, brother of convicted murderer Beattie Coe.
Beattie Coe asked for a retrial in September, claiming that Lt. Steve Rush was drunk at the scene of Clayton Jahue Fore's death and missed crucial evidence. Mayhew and Babb testified in Beattie Coe's request for a retrial and were suspended for drinking on duty.
"Christmastime hits pretty hard when you're not paid for 60 days," Gary Dean Coe said, giving his reason for spearheading the project.
But Rush was suspended, too. Why isn't he included in the fund drive? "Steve Rush has two Corvettes, you know," Dean Coe said.
Rush was the investigating officer the night Beattie Coe killed Fore in 1991. A judge ruled Rush performed his duties responsibly and denied Coe's request for a new trial.
by CNB