
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994                   TAG: 9407130012
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PERHAPS HE COULD OFFER JUDGE A BOUTONNIERE?

NORFOLK - A retired school bus driver who peddled flowers by the side of the road has been ordered to serve a year in jail and pay a $2,500 fine for selling without a license.

``I'm angry, and I'm frustrated,'' David Daugherty, 59, said Thursday after being released on $5,000 bond posted by his brother. ``And I can't believe this is justice in Norfolk.''

Daugherty said he plans to hire an attorney to appeal the case.

The same judge who sentenced him, General District Judge Reid M. Spencer, also sentenced Gerhardt Teemoeller, who was accused of the same offense, to a 90-day suspended term and a $500 fine minutes after Daugherty was sentenced.

Teemoeller, 49, a commercial fisherman who is out of work, said he was selling flowers to earn money to feed his seven children.

Daugherty, from Farmville, was arrested May 22 while setting up a flower stand near the Norfolk Naval Base. He said he arrived in Norfolk that day to visit his brother Levi, who operates a florist shop, and his brother asked him to set up the stand.

He said police showed up before he had finished setting up and asked to see his peddler's license. He said he never sold a single rose or carnation before being arrested and fingerprinted.

Daugherty said he never dreamed he would get such a stiff sentence.

Levi Daugherty, 48, said several of his helpers have been arrested in the past for selling without a license, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

``They are trying to get to me through my brother,'' he said. ``They are treating me like I'm a gangster, making these poor little people sell these flowers.''

by CNB