Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994 TAG: 9402030078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
But he's not patroling the roads in his brown cruiser as he used to; instead, he's guarding prisoners at the jail annex near Moneta.
The five-year veteran of the force said his return to work as a prison guard will take some getting used to.
"It was OK," Babb said. "Totally different."
He misses working the roads and said his skills are being underutilized. He graduated from road school and drug school and now counts inmates at meals.
"There are guys over there I arrested," he said.
He wears the same uniform, but without his 9 mm gun. He turned in his patrol car back in November when Sheriff Carl Wells suspended him and two other deputies - Steve Rush and Doug Mayhew - for drinking while on duty. Now Babb commutes in his personal car.
His schedule is seven days of 12-hour shifts, then a week off. He doesn't know if his salary will decrease until he collects his next paycheck - he hasn't had one for 60 days.
During his suspension, Babb spoke of his frustration with the sheriff's decision, calling it unfair and calculated to deflect attention from the glare of suspicions surrounding Wells' use of his personal checking account to process his department's monthly payroll.
Babb is still bitter. "I think the whole thing was done out of spite," he said.
But his return to work went smoothly with his colleagues, he said. "If anybody said anything to me, nobody told me I was wrong," he said. "No one led me to believe they thought I deserved it."
Rush, who returned to work last week, declined to be interviewed.
Mayhew is recovering from back surgery and has not officially started his suspension. He expects to return in April.
Babb never denied drinking on duty the night of June 1, 1990, when he worked undercover at a Smith Mountain Lake event with Rush. But he asserts he was just following Rush's example.
That was the night Rush reported to the Jordantown scene of Clayton Jahue Fore's murder by Beattie Coe.
Babb testified during a September trial that Rush drank several beers before heading to the murder scene.
Coe, after being convicted of second-degree murder, filed a motion to be granted a new trial, arguing that Rush missed crucial evidence.
After more than a half-dozen deputies testified, substitute Circuit Judge J. Samuel Johnston ruled that Rush had not been drunk and denied Coe's request for a new trial.
by CNB