Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After Ronlyn Eaton spent more than two hours on the witness stand explaining what happened, General District Judge Julian Raney found probable cause to believe her story.
Raney sent the case to a grand jury, which will meet in July to consider rape and sodomy charges against Larry Dean Neighbors II and a sodomy charge against David Keith Bell.
Both men, who worked as guards in the Roanoke City Jail, have been suspended without pay until the case is resolved.
Eaton testified that she recognized the men at Scooch's on Williamson Road the night of May 14 because of time she spent in jail on theft charges earlier in the year.
When they offered her a ride home, she testified, "I said OK. They were deputies, and if I was going to go home with anybody, I would trust deputies who were there to serve and protect."
But instead of taking her straight home, Eaton said, Bell and Neighbors forced her to have intercourse and perform oral sex on them in a Chevrolet Blazer as they drove around the city for at least an hour, stopping once in a residential area and again at a convenience store to buy condoms.
As soon he began cross-examining Eaton, defense attorney William Cleaveland made it clear that Bell and Neighbors will contest the charges.
"Our contention is that she's lying," Cleaveland said as he asked Eaton for details about her criminal record in an effort to undermine her credibility.
Both Bell, 24, and Neighbors, 25, are maintaining their "absolute innocence," defense attorney Tony Anderson said. "They are looking forward to a swift and fair trial so their good names will be cleared."
Anderson and Cleaveland grilled Eaton on a number of questions: why she did not offer more resistance during the alleged rape; why she contacted a lawyer about a possible lawsuit before she obtained criminal charges; and why she sought interviews with the media.
Eaton - who has requested that her name be reported - responded that she did try to resist the men's advances, but was unsuccessful. "I was being held by two large men; there wasn't much I could do," she said.
As they left the bar sometime after midnight, she said, Neighbors was driving, and she and Bell were in the back seat. Eaton testified that Bell pushed her between the two bucket seats and that Neighbors then forced her to perform oral sex on him while he drove.
After the Blazer was parked in a residential area, Eaton testified, she was forced to perform oral sex on Bell while Neighbors raped her. When the ordeal was finally over, she said, Bell drove her home, and she immediately called police.
An officer responded and took her to Community Hospital, but Eaton soon became dissatisfied with the slow pace of the investigation. "I was told that someone [in the Police Department] would contact me in a short period of time, and that didn't happen," Eaton said.
So in the interim, Eaton made reports to the state police and the FBI, as well as talking to a Roanoke attorney, she said. She ended up obtaining warrants from a magistrate four days later.
Henry County Commonwealth's Attorney Bob Bushnell, who is acting as special prosecutor, said he could not respond to Eaton's complaints about delays in the investigation because he just recently was appointed to handle the case.
by CNB