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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 27, 1995                   TAG: 9504270051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

PAROLE BOSS DEFENDS REARREST OF MURDERER

Virginia Parole Board Chairman John Metzger defended in court his decision to rearrest a convicted murderer after finding out the man had been paroled without input from his victim's family.

``Our ... concern was that we had not followed the [law] in that we had not allowed the victims to have input regarding the impact of the crime,'' Metzger testified Tuesday during a hearing to decide whether to release James M. Wear.

Wear had been hooked up to an electronic monitoring system at his mother's house for less than 32 hours when Metzger faxed a warrant for his arrest to the Virginia Beach police March 2. Wear had been sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in the 1990 murder and robbery of motel night clerk Julie Benica, but was paroled on the first date he was eligible.

According to Metzger, Wear was locked up again because the board mistakenly released him before getting input from Benica's husband. Such feedback, Metzger said, would have called into question Wear's suitability for parole.

At Tuesday's hearing before Circuit Judge Frederick B. Lowe, Wear's attorney, James Broccoletti, argued that the Parole Board did not make a mistake because Benica's husband had not submitted a written request to be consulted about Wear's parole decision, as the law requires.

In addition, Broccoletti argued, the board lacked the authority to re-incarcerate Wear because he had not violated the conditions of his parole and because parole cannot be revoked without new evidence.

Broccoletti and Assistant Attorney General Mary Shea called nine witnesses, including Benica's husband, Wear, Deputy Parole Board Director Richard Crossen and several other Parole Board employees.

Witnesses' disparate accounts of the procedures followed by the Parole Board in the case eventually became so contradictory and confused that both lawyers conceded they might never find out what really happened.

``Let's just assume they just flat messed up,'' Lowe finally said. ``Which is the bottom line, really. They messed up.''

The judge said he would announce his decision next week. Wear remains in the Virginia Beach City Jail.

by CNB