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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 15, 1994                   TAG: 9412150058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAN GUILTY OF ADULTERY FOR SEX WITH DAUGHTER

The charge may seem unusual, even antiquated, but Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said it provided a lengthy prison sentence while sparing the victim the trauma of testifying against her father.

The 34-year-old man from the Forest area of Bedford County is not being named to protect the identity of his daughter. He was sentenced to two years of actual prison time with eight years suspended, and was forbidden from any contact or communication with his daughter.

He will serve that sentence after he finishes a three-year sentence for adultery convictions in Campbell County stemming from the same affair.

Though the man originally was charged with incest, it would have been a hard case to prove, Krantz said, even though the man admitted having sex with his daughter.

To prosecute the man for incest, his daughter would have had to testify. That would have been a problem, Krantz said, because "she still had mixed emotions over whether or not she wanted to prosecute."

"She still has strong feelings for her father, but I think she is now starting to realize that it was an unhealthy relationship."

Also, a family relationship has to be proven for an incest conviction. Though the court recognizes biological ties, Krantz said the defense was prepared to argue that the man was, for all practical purposes, not the girl's father because after her birth he had not had contact with her until 1993.

Instead, the prosecutor brought charges of adultery against the man. Adultery and sex out of wedlock are felonies if performed with a member of one's immediate family or with a child under the age of 13. And the victim does not need to testify.

Each count of felony adultery carries a one-to-10-year prison sentence, which is comparable to the punishment for statutory rape. And though the charge may not sound as serious, the man will have a record as a sex offender, which could prevent him from having future contacts with juveniles, Krantz said.

The investigation began last December after one of the daughter's friends showed a school administrator a letter in which the daughter outlined the affair. School officials called the authorities. They caught the man through a telephone wiretap with the help of his daughter.

The girl was adopted by her maternal grandmother soon after birth. The man had been estranged from her until the summer of 1993, when they reunited and began the affair.

The man later admitted to police that he had sex with the girl on at least a dozen occasions at his home in Bedford County and at her grandmother's home in Campbell County.