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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 24, 1995                   TAG: 9508240083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

COURT TO HEAR APPEAL OF ETHICS CONVICTION

The Virginia Court of Appeals has agreed to review the case of Charles W. Vincent, a Virginia Beach School Board member who lost his elected post after being convicted on misdemeanor ethics charges.

Vincent's attorney, Andrew M. Sacks, said Tuesday that he also would ask to have his client reinstated to the board until the appeal is decided.

``Although it doesn't mean the case is reversed, it is significant,'' Sacks said of the court's decision to hear the appeal. ``We're one step closer to his possibly being reinstated.''

The prosecution of Vincent, a rookie School Board member elected in May 1994, was the first under a new Virginia ethics law intended to prevent public officials with procurement duties from accepting gifts from contractors.

For that reason, Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Robert J. Humphreys said he wasn't surprised by the court's decision to hear the case.

Humphreys said he was confident the original verdict would stand. ``I'm very comfortable with the commonwealth's position,'' he said.

Vincent was convicted in February of nine counts of illegally soliciting contributions from architecture and engineering firms who were seeking school contracts.

Vincent, who sat on a School Board committee that reviewed building contracts, was trying to raise money to pay back his campaign debt.

Sacks argued that such campaign solicitations were common in elections and did not violate the law.

A jury, however, convicted Vincent and fined him $1,800. Circuit Judge Thomas S. Shadrick ordered Vincent to step down from the board.

by CNB