Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994 TAG: 9406210076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When Danny, a 15-year-old neighbor, was having trouble with his parents and the law, Meador stepped in.
Meador pulled out his Roanoke County business license, which said he was counselor. He went to Danny's school and arranged for the teen-ager to have a homebound teacher. He let Danny move in with him and his wife and child for a while. He reassured Danny's mother that he'd get Danny under control and on the right track.
To Danny's mother, Meador seemed like an answer to a prayer. Her son had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, and she was emotionally exhausted from the strain.
But there were a couple of problems: Meador wasn't a counselor. And instead of helping Danny turn his life around, Meador gave him drugs and alcohol.
On Tuesday, a Roanoke County Circuit judge convicted Meador of posing as a counselor and distributing drugs to a minor. Judge Kenneth Trabue sentenced him to four years.
Meador, 36, pleaded no contest to both charges. Under a plea agreement, two other charges - taking indecent liberties and possession of child pornography - were withdrawn.
Trabue also ordered Meador to serve five years of probation after he is released from prison.
Meador could be eligible for parole in 10 to 12 months, prosecutors said.
Even with the convictions and the sentence, Danny and his mother are angry. They say Meador used and manipulated them - and he deserves a much harsher punishment than he received.
Danny and his mother agreed to talk about the case on the condition that Danny's real name not be used.
Danny has had problems since he was 5. He's had an attention-deficit disorder and, at times, he's been defiant, almost impossible for his parents to control.
In July 1993, he took his grandfather's car for a joy ride and wrecked it. He was charged with driving without a license and reckless driving.
Soon after that, Danny and his mother say, Meador began spending a lot of time with Danny, taking him fishing and picking him up after school. Danny's father was on the road most of the time because of work, so his mother appreciated the extra support.
Danny stayed a few weekends at Meador's house and, by October, he was living there full-time. His mother wasn't overjoyed at the idea, but she was afraid Danny would run away if she and his father made him come home.
At first, Danny liked the idea. ``He let me do things my mom wouldn't let me do.''
Danny says there were lots of parties at Meador's house, and Danny took all sorts of drugs - including cocaine, Valium and marijuana. When Meador and his friends went barhopping, Danny says, they'd take him along as the designated driver - even though Danny didn't have a driver's license and usually was stoned on pot.
But after a while, Danny says, he began to see Meador for what he really was. He says Meador tried to cut him off from his friends.
Then, Danny says, Meador made sexual advances toward him. Once, Danny says, they were wrestling, and Meador grabbed him in the crotch and said, ``How do you like me now?''
Danny punched him.
After about a month at Meador's house, Danny says, he thought he had taken a drug overdose.
He came home to his parents, frightened, thinking he was going to die.
Danny's mom says her son ``is no angel.'' But she says it's his emotional problems and run-ins with the law that make him ``the perfect candidate'' for someone who wants to take advantage of him. ``Who's going to believe him? Stephen knew what he'd been through. Stephen knew.''
Meador's attorney, Thomas Blaylock, said Meador agreed to plead no contest because the inclusion of the child pornography charge would have prejudiced the jury. The pornography involved a home movie that Meador allegedly had made involving another young man.
Blaylock said the subject of the movie was prepared to testify that he was at least 18 at the time the video was made. But ``we couldn't run the risk of taking this case to a jury.''
Now that the case is over, Danny wants to move on with his life. ``I'm trying to forget it. I'm trying to put it out of my mind.''
He's living at a wilderness program run by Baptist Children's Homes. Recently he won the Baptist homes' annual award for outstanding personal growth. He hopes to get back into public school and go on to college.
His mother, meanwhile, is dealing with her guilt over letting Meador con her into giving up control over her son.
``Are you angry at me?'' she said she asked Danny last week.
``No,'' he replied. ``Why should I be?''
``How could you not be angry?'' she said.
``I'm just not,'' he said.
Still, everything that's happened has affected him. ``I have a policy now: DTA. Don't Trust Anybody.''
by CNB