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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995                   TAG: 9503090094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEWISBURG, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Short

BEAUTY QUEEN HIT HIM WITH HAMMER, THEN LAWSUIT

``It's pretty incredible,'' said Rodney Weikle, a high school teacher.

Tracy Lippard of Newport News, Va., filed a countersuit last month against Weikle and Todd Scott, her former lover and Weikle's son-in-law.

Weikle's daughter, Melissa Weikle Scott, was Lippard's rival for Scott's affection in 1993.

Lippard, 23, was convicted Nov. 21 of two counts of attempted murder and sentenced to two years in jail.

Prosecutors said that the day after she crowned her successor as Miss Williamsburg in February 1994, Lippard drove to Lewisburg, knocked Weikle on the head with a hammer and pulled a gun on his wife.

Weikle sued Lippard Jan. 4 for physical and psychological damage. She countersued, saying the Weikles' media interviews interfered with her right to a fair trial.

The Weikles said they granted only one interview, to a Bluefield television station. The interview was used on a national television program.

Defense attorney Paul Detch contends Weikle was responsible for his own anguish because of his ``participating in public spectacles, exacerbating the publicity surrounding the case.''