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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 20, 1994                   TAG: 9412210057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAN WHO TRIED TO RUN OVER RANGER GETS 13 MONTHS

A Maryland man who tried to run over a Blue Ridge Parkway ranger in July was sentenced Monday to 13 months in prison.

David B. Geiman said he was sorry for his crime.

"I apologize to the people of Roanoke ... for not doing the right thing and pulling over," he told U.S. District Judge James Turk.

Parkway Ranger R.L. Milliron said he narrowly escaped injury at the end of a 20-mile chase with Geiman on July 16.

Milliron was driving north on the parkway in Roanoke County when he saw a car repeatedly swerve off the right side of the road. When he turned on his blue lights, the car slowed, then took off down Rutrough Road.

Driving at up to 75 mph, the ranger followed Geiman's car along a series of back roads and through several red lights in southeast Roanoke County before he was finally able to block it on Old Virginia Spring Road.

But as Milliron stepped away from his car, the driver hit the accelerator and headed straight for him.

"I could feel his car brush by me as I moved towards my car," Milliron said a few days after the chase.

Roanoke and Roanoke County police joined the chase, which ended on Ventor Road when the fleeing driver stopped and ran into the woods nearby. Park Ranger Ed Clark testified Monday that several officers chased Geiman on foot, but were unable to catch him.

Geiman, whose family lives near Baltimore, was a fugitive for three weeks before he was caught in Canada.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said Geiman was captured after he was injured in a fall in a Canadian courthouse.

William Lindsey, Geiman's attorney, said his client had already contacted the FBI and was planning to turn himself in before he fell and was arrested by police.

Geiman has an extensive record that includes reckless driving, driving under the influence, shoplifting and obtaining medicine by false pretenses. He has been in custody since his Aug. 4 arrest, and Turk ordered that he receive credit for the jail time he has already served.

by CNB