Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409230029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Timothy Wayne Myers, 29, admitted guilt under a plea agreement that kept another felony charge of forcible sodomy and a misdemeanor sexual battery charge from being prosecuted.
Circuit Judge Colin Gibb accepted the agreement and its 10-year prison sentence, with all but six months suspended. The maximum penalties would have been 20 years and a $100,000 fine.
Myers will be under active supervised probation for five years, and must submit to a complete evaluation and treatment program at his own expense. He will be banned for 10 years from unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18 without consent from a responsible adult informed of his record.
Gibb and Commonwealth's Attorney James Hartley did not oppose work release for Myers if it could be worked out. Myers now works for the owner of a cabin in the Clover Hollow section of Giles County where the sexual battery took place.
A jury found Myers innocent last December on another aggravated sexual battery charge involving a 12-year-old boy in a different incident.
Myers testified at that trial that he never fondled the boy, and blamed the boy's charge on an argument they had in July 1993, when Myers forcibly removed the boy from a town swimming pool after the boy hit him. He said the boy misunderstood and became upset over some horseplay between Myers and another boy in the pool.
"We had a pretty good case, but the jurors didn't convict," Hartley said of the December trial. "We certainly didn't want to risk an acquittal in this case, even though we felt that our case was very strong."
That's one reason he agreed to a plea bargain, he said. Also, he said, it is traumatic for a child to testify in this sort of case.
Hartley told the judge that testimony in the case would have been that Myers took three boys with him Jan. 30, 1993, to a cabin to work on a private road and do general maintenance. They stayed at the cabin overnight.
According to Hartley, the 14-year-old boy would have testified that he was awakened by Myers fondling his penis, rolling him on his back and putting his mouth to the penis. The boy's shorts and underwear had been pulled down, Hartley said.
The boy told authorities he was too frightened to react for a few minutes but that he then struck Myers in the face and said, "Get off of me." He said Myers responded, "Now, we don't want any of that, do we?" but left the room.
The next morning, the boy told one of his friends what had happened. The 15-year-old friend said something similar happened with him, Hartley said.
Eventually, the boys told their parents and the parents confronted Myers with the allegations. At first Myers denied them but later admitted that they were true, Hartley said. He said Myers took down information about going for counseling but never followed up on it.
Myers was charged and arrested Feb. 10, 1993, and resigned two months later from Eastern Elementary School near Pembroke where he taught sixth and seventh grades. It had been his first year of teaching there.
He also was removed as Scoutmaster of Pearisburg Troop 34 when the charges became known, and from his job as assistant recreation director for the town of Pearisburg, where he had coached Little League basketball and soccer and taught swimming.
Myers' parents, with whom he lives in Ripplemead, were the only people in court other than those connected with the court or news media. Myers, a 1983 graduate of Giles High School, declined to make any statement when the judge asked if he wished to do so.
The entire proceeding took less than 20 minutes.
by CNB