Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 26, 1994 TAG: 9403280156
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER NOTE: Below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia State Bar's disciplinary board suspended the license at Read's request after the former commonwealth's attorney submitted a letter detailing a severe personality disorder.
The letter from Dr. Isaac Van Patten, director of North Roanoke Family Counselors, said Read's sickness interferes with his capacity to practice law and will require three to five years of therapy.
Read could not be reached for comment and calls to his attorney were not returned.
Theresa Shell, who filed a complaint with the bar last year charging Read with sexual misconduct, said she had mixed feelings about the attorney's giving up his law practice for the second time.
``It's just so tragic that it ever had to happened, but I'm just thankful that it will never have to happen again,'' she said. ''There is just so much hurt involved ... not just for me, but for his family, too.''
Shell hired Read last fall to represent her over problems she was having with defective breast implants. She also hired him to represent her 15-year-old daughter, Melanie, over injuries suffered in an auto accident. She said Read abused their trust by humiliating her with vulgar sexual remarks and by making physical advances on both of them.
Shell, who now lives near Richmond, said her daughter still suffers post-traumatic stress from the incident. Melanie returned from a weeklong hospital stay on Friday, the same day her mother learned that Read had given up his license.
``I'm just glad this part's over with,'' Shell said. ``I'm not sorry I did it. We did nothing wrong."
Read once wielded great power and was often talked about as a possible candidate for state attorney general.
A graduate of Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee Law School, Read was a decorated Vietnam veteran. In 1975 he became commonwealth's attorney for Lexington and Rockbridge County. His tenure got rocky in the early 1980s amid a controversial grand jury drug investigation and allegations that he was making sexual advances toward clients in his private practice.
During a hearing by a special three-judge panel, seven women testified that Read had fondled them or rubbed his sock-clad feet over their legs. One said he exposed himself and tried to force her to perform oral sex. An eighth woman, a former court official, said he used foul language to describe sex acts he wanted to perform on her.
At a second hearing, a psychiatrist testified that Read had a post-traumatic stress disorder caused by near-fatal wounds he suffered in Vietnam. The psychiatrist said Read also suffered from "narcissistic personality disorder," a mental illness in which sufferers hold a grandiose sense of their own importance.
In late 1986, the judges took away his law license while Read received counseling. Three years later the judges returned his license after the psychiatrist testified that Read had recovered and was "well-equipped to return to the practice of law."
Circuit Judge George Honts said Read's most recent removal from the bar was not a big surprise.
``It's just always real sad when something like this happens,'' he said.
by CNB