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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994                   TAG: 9403300161
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEGATIONS NOT TRUE, PHIPPS SAYS

Charles J. Fuller Jr., a jailer under former Sheriff Louis Barber, alleges in a $100,000 lawsuit filed in federal court in Roanoke that Phipps violated his civil rights by refusing to hire Fuller because he is 48 years old and black.

But Phipps said Tuesday that Fuller's allegations are wrong. There was no job for which he could hire Fuller, because the State Compensation Board had cut funding and positions at the Montgomery County Jail in 1992, the sheriff said.

"I did not have an opportunity to hire anyone," Phipps said, "let alone Mr. Fuller."

Fuller, now a deputy with the Roanoke County Sheriff's Office, worked for the security force of Hoechst-Celanese in Giles County for nearly 23 years before joining the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office under Barber in 1988.

In 1991, Fuller joined the Radford Army Ammunition Plant security office, a job that offered better pay and benefits. He returned to the Sheriff's Office two months later, when defense cuts forced him to be laid off. He was rehired at Celanese in August 1991 but was furloughed three months later, the same month Phipps defeated Barber.

When Phipps took office in January 1992, Fuller applied for a job but did not interview until a year later. Meanwhile, he had taken a job with Roanoke County.

In the lawsuit, Fuller alleges that he was not hired because of his age and race.

"That is a false statement. It didn't happen that way," Phipps said Tuesday.

Phipps said Fuller made the same race and age discrimination complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last July.

"The findings by the EEOC indicated there was no violation committed by the Sheriff's Office in this matter," Phipps said.

Phipps said the EEOC concluded there was no connection between Fuller's race or age and his failure to be rehired. The EEOC's "determination and dismissal concludes the processing of this charge," Phipps said.

When the compensation board cut the jail staff by eight in 1992, Phipps said, jailers who were going to lose their jobs were left hanging. The sheriff appealed to the board to restore the positions and received $54,000 in restored funding. The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors also supplied some temporary funding for jail jobs.

By the end of 1992, through attrition and other factors, three positions were still being funded by the county, Phipps said. At about the same time, there were three openings. Phipps said Fuller was then called in for an interview.

But Phipps said Fuller, when told the position was only temporarily funded through June 1993, declined it, asking that Phipps keep him in mind for future full-time vacancies.

According to Sheriff's Office records, Fuller called and asked for his application to be withdrawn Jan. 6, 1993.