Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
General District Judge George Jones fined each man $100 and imposed 10-day suspended jail sentences Wednesday. Each man faced a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The three - Ricky L. Moore, 41; Kevin Scott Smith, 22; and Charles G. English, 22 - said the Jan. 13 incident at MW Manufacturers Inc. was a practical joke.
``This is not a practical joke; this is a cruel joke,'' prosecutor Clifford Hapgood said.
The incident occurred during a work break at the window-manufacturing plant when Moore brought out the dog-training device. The battery-powered collar has two electrodes that emit a shock when a button is pressed on a remote controller.
Several workers were trying it out, shocking their own hands, when James O'Neal came along. O'Neal, 36, said he didn't know what the device was.
``They told me it was a lie detector test,'' he testified Wednesday.
Hapgood said English attached the collar to O'Neal's leg.
``He put it around my leg as tight as he could get it,'' O'Neal said.
O'Neal told them it was OK because he didn't lie. The men then asked him a series of questions, and Moore pushed the button on the fourth answer, O'Neal said.
``It shocked me; it felt like an electric fence going through my leg,'' he said. ``I told them to take it off.''
A supervisor heard about the incident and had O'Neal checked by a plant nurse. He was not injured.
Moore, Smith and English later apologized to O'Neal, who said there was never any animosity among them.
The three men were suspended without pay and later resigned.
More than 200 of MW's 1,200 employees signed a petition calling for the termination of two of the three men involved and of a plant supervisor who was aware of the incident.
The supervisor was not disciplined by the company and was not charged in the case.
Staff writer Todd Jackson contributed to this report.
by CNB