Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120251
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A Roanoke man was convicted Tuesday of attacking a social worker, hitting her in the face and pulling out her hair when she tried to investigate the suspected abuse of his mother.
After convicting Lloyd A. Dudding of malicious wounding, a jury set his sentence at 10 years in prison.
Marty P. Harmon, a social services investigator, testified that she went to Dudding's apartment at the Lansdowne public housing complex Sept. 2 after getting reports that his 80-year-old mother had been neglected and abused.
Harmon said that as she began to question Dudding, he punched her in the face four times and grabbed her by the hair - dragging her across the apartment floor before yanking a handful of hair from her head.
Dudding, 40, was holding a knife, and Harmon said she feared for her life.
"I have children. I have children," Harmon told him as she begged for mercy.
In requesting a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips asked jurors to consider the crime's impact on Harmon and other social workers whose jobs sometimes take them into dangerous situations.
"This man sentenced Ms. Harmon to a lifetime of looking over her shoulder," Phillips said.
Defense attorney Gary Lumsden had argued it was a case of simple assault, and that Dudding did not act with malice - the legal element required for a felony conviction of malicious wounding.
Phillips responded, "This case is dripping with malice."
Less than two months after the attack on Harmon, another city social worker was locked in a room and threatened by a man whose step-children had been placed in protective services.
Joseph R. White, 27, has been charged with abduction. Authorities have said social worker Susie Bishop was held against her will after she went to a Elm Avenue house in November to determine if the children should be returned to the home.
Corinne Gott, head of the city's Social Services Department, said Tuesday that the two incidents have led the department to re-examine the issue of employee safety.
After holding several meetings, the department decided to offer self-defense training by instructors at the Roanoke Police Academy, Gott said.
The department also has issued cellular telephones so workers who go out to investigate cases can quickly call for help.
Staffing shortages do not always allow social workers to travel in pairs, and Gott said employees must make "judgment calls" on when to request assistance.
Dudding, who has been in jail since shortly after the attack, will be formally sentenced later.
At the time of the attack, Dudding, a one-time dishwasher, had been living with his mother at the apartment. She has since been placed in a nursing home.
Phillips argued that Dudding became upset not only because social workers were investigating his mother's abuse, but also because he would lose his only source of income - her disability check - if she was removed from the home.
"He's lazy. He's sorry," Phillips told the jury. "His meal ticket was going to be taken out of the home, and that's what he was upset about."
by CNB