Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Medium
Both said fear kept them from fleeing from Isreal Alexander Lovewine, who is accused of attacking them.
Both said Lovewine had threatened to hurt them if they tried to flee.
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Dudley "Buzz" Emick said that evidence was enough to forward sodomy and abduction charges against Lovewine to the October grand jury.
The 21-year-old Rockbridge County man could face four life terms if convicted.
While a sheriff's investigator testified that Lovewine had confessed to the crimes, defense attorney Tom Wray said Lovewine lacked the sophistication to understand the gravity of his statements.
"He does have some emotional problems," Wray argued in trying to get the confession thrown out. "His thought processes are somewhat juvenile."
Botetourt Sheriff's Investigator K.K. Parker said Lovewine seemed to understand his rights but seemed to become more upset as his statement progressed.
"He acted like he was sorry for what he had done," Parker said. "He started tearing up."
On March 30 at just about nightfall, a 14-year-old boy who had been shopping at Valley View Mall started walking across the parking lot to Hechinger's, which is in a building adjacent to the mall.
The teen-ager said that's when Lovewine approached him, identified himself as a Roanoke police officer, and told him that he wanted to discuss a gang fight that had happened the night before.
The teen-ager said Lovewine tried to coax him into his car, but the youngster at first resisted.
He finally gave in.
The boy said he was driven to a parking lot near the Cloverdale Winn-Dixie store, where Lovewine said he wanted to perform oral sex on him. The boy tried to escape when Lovewine stepped out of the driver's side to get into the back seat with him.
When the teen-ager reached for the door, Lovewine jumped back in the car. The boy heard the power door locks snap shut.
The boy said Lovewine climbed over the front seat and got into the back with him.
"If you refuse," he quoted Lovewine as saying. "We'll go further down the road, and you'll get hurt."
The teen-ager said Lovewine then molested him.
On June 11, the second teen-ager was with a group of friends at McDonald's on Hershberger Road.
Lovewine said the 15-year-old boy drew attention to himself by calling Lovewine a "nigger." The boy denied using the racial slur.
Lovewine told investigators that he followed the group of teen-agers to Virginia 311 in Roanoke County, where he flashed his lights and pulled the group over.
He told the boy he wanted to talk to him about a "violent act" that had been committed on Williamson Road earlier in the evening, investigators said.
The boy got into the car. Lovewine drove him to Interstate 81 and headed toward Roanoke. When he didn't turn off at the Roanoke exit, the boy started getting suspicious.
He asked Lovewine if he had a gun, badge and handcuffs. Lovewine assured him he did, the boy testified.
The boy was then taken to the same Cloverdale parking lot, he said.
That's when Lovewine said he wanted to perform oral sex on the boy, the teen-ager testified.
"We can either do this the easy way or the hard way," the boy quoted Lovewine as saying.
The boy thought Lovewine was saying he could either submit or go back to Williamson Road and talk to other police officers.
``At first, I told him, `Let's do it the hard way,''' the boy said.
That's when all expression left Lovewine's face, the boy said.
"You don't want to do it the hard way," he quoted Lovewine as saying.
Lovewine molested him for about 20 minutes before a Botetourt County deputy sheriff pulled up into the parking lot.
"Stay here and be quiet," the boy quoted Lovewine as saying.
Lovewine got out of the car and offered to leave. The deputy left without checking the car, the boy testified.
"I was hoping he would get out and check the car," the boy said.
The boy said Lovewine drove several miles farther down the road, where he molested him again.
by CNB