Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406170078
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Saladin K. Corbin, 28, had earlier pleaded no contest in Pulaski County Circuit Court to these charges.
After being sentenced on the indecent liberties charges, Corbin also received a suspended sentence on two additional charges of aggravated sexual battery.
Additional charges against Corbin of attempted rape and attempted forcible oral sex were dropped.
The defendant, a doctoral student at Virginia Tech interning at the psychiatric hospital at the time of the offenses, testified Thursday that he only began acting on his initial attraction to the girl after she told him she was attracted to him. The girl was hospitalized at the time for psychiatric treatment and was under Corbin's care.
He said that at first he didn't realize the girl was 12 years old, but admitted continuing his feelings for her after becoming aware of her age.
The evidence in the case centered on three letters Corbin wrote the girl about his fantasies of being with her.
Doug Schroder, special prosecutor in the case, described the letters as lust-filled and Corbin's writing of them as inappropriate behavior. He rejected Corbin's characterization of the letters as "passionate."
It was an abuse of Corbin's position of trust to write those letters to a young girl who was in a mental institution, said Schroder, a former Pulaski County assistant commonwealth's attorney.
Corbin has since and said that through counseling he has come to realize his actions were wrong. He said he was confused by "having feelings for a girl this age ... and knowing that was wrong."
His attraction has cost him his chosen career of being an advocate for adolescents and he has switched his concentration to teaching at the college level.
"It was a dumb move on my part," Corbin testified.
Circuit Judge Dow Owens imposed three-year suspended sentences on each of the three indecent liberties charges and ordered Corbin to serve a year in the county jail beginning July 5.
But if Corbin's employers at three Washington-area community colleges agree to hold his jobs for him, Owens will reduce the jail sentence to .
Corbin will be placed on probation for five years.
Owens accepted an agreement on Corbin's plea of no contest to two charges of aggravated sexual battery that called for Corbin to receive two 10-year suspended prison sentences.
Prosecutors had evidence that a few weeks after the girl arrived at the hospital, Corbin had kissed her, given her back rubs and fondled her above and below her clothing.
He will be placed on probation for 10 years on those two convictions.
Conditions of his probation and suspended sentences include that he receive mental health counseling, have no unsupervised contact with minors and have absolutely no contact with the girl.
Corbin was removed from both the Virginia Tech and St. Albans programs in May 1992 before these charges were filed.
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