Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503270004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
More than 170 registered voters in the Black Lick District had signed petitions seeking the removal of Charles Dix, charging that he misused his authority in supporting the prison after a fact-finding trip to other Corrections Corporation of America operations.
After nearly three hours of testimony and arguments, Circuit Judge Willis Woods dismissed the petition against Dix.
"There is absolutely no proof that he in any way misused his office," Woods said.
Dix and Supervisor Olin Armentrout had been directed by board Chairman Mark Munsey, at a Jan. 24 meeting attended by 900 people, to examine a community in which CCA had a prison and report back Feb. 1 on the prison's effects.
They and County Administrator Billy Branson, who accompanied them, testified that they drove a county car to CCA headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., and accepted a CCA offer to buy airline tickets to Cleveland, Texas, so they could talk to community leaders there.
Armentrout said they chose Cleveland because its demographics were similar to Wytheville's, and accepted the air transportation because they could not have gotten there and back in the available time any other way.
Armentrout said he, not CCA, picked the people with whom they talked. They included the school superintendent, hospital administrator, chamber of commerce representatives, Rotary officials and others he thought could address concerns raised in Wytheville about how a prison might affect schools, hospitals, law enforcement and other areas.
All responses were positive and, after hearing them at the Feb. 1 meeting, the supervisors voted 4-3 to invite CCA to build its planned prison in Wythe County. That vote has been cited by Gov. George Allen and state Public Safety Director Jerry Kilgore as a key factor as the state decides whether to offer a contract to CCA to house prisoners.
Prison opponents began seeking the removal of Dix and Armentrout shortly after the supervisors' vote. Dix's petition was the first one to get the required number of signatures, 10 percent of the 1,480 who cast votes in the 1993 election that put him in office.
Douglas S. Vaught, a Galax attorney appointed to prosecute the case when Wythe County Commonwealth's Attorney Tommy Baird recused himself, said the air fare - about $1,650 for all three officials - constituted a gift under a new state definition effective this year.
"That may have saved the county money. ... There are lots of things that could be done to save the county money but are prohibited," he said, even if officials do them with the best intentions.
Henry Keuling-Stout, who represented Dix under a county liability insurance policy, argued that the tickets did not meet the state definition of a gift that would be unrelated to Dix's job or his specific mission. He said there was no evidence that the tickets affected the supervisors' impartiality in judging the CCA operation, and that Armentrout made it clear to CCA officials in advance that the supervisors would feel under no obligation to CCA for the transportation.
The petitioners also had claimed that Dix ignored instructions from Munsey, the board chairman, to visit a CCA site in Clifton, Tenn., where some problems had been reported. But Munsey provided a transcript of his instructions this month, without comment, which referred to visiting a CCA prison site but not specifically to Clifton.
Munsey "could have saved a lot of embarrassment and humiliation to my family and Mr. Armentrout's family" by making that clear earlier, Dix said afterward as he was being congratulated and hugged by family members and friends. "We just hated that it had to come to this, and all at taxpayers' expense."
by CNB