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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995                   TAG: 9509050045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUPPLIER TO SERVE 4 MONTHS

A former Roanoke College adviser who said he felt as if he were 18 years old again when he worked with a campus fraternity was sentenced Friday in Salem Circuit Court to four months in jail on two drug charges.

It was the same sentence his brother-in-law was given Monday for related charges.

Judge Richard Pattisall sentenced Robert W. Bess to a total of four years on two charges, suspended after serving two months for each charge.

Bess pleaded no contest in June to charges of conspiring to sell marijuana, possessing marijuana on school grounds and possessing marijuana with intent to distribute after a former Roanoke College student named him and Marty Stacy as his suppliers.

However, Commonwealth's Attorney Fred King dropped the charge of possessing marijuana on school grounds because it was unclear where a drug transaction took place.

Eric Reich, a Roanoke College sophomore at the time, named Bess and Stacy as his suppliers weeks after Reich was arrested for possession of marijuana.

Reich was sentenced Thursday in Salem Circuit Court to 12 months in jail for possession of marijuana, suspended after the time he served awaiting trial - about a month, King said.

Bess said Friday that he became involved with Reich during the spring semester of 1994 after he took a position advising a Roanoke College fraternity. Reich belonged to the fraternity.

Bess said he became more than an administrator; he was a friend to many of the students.

"I got to the point where I felt I was 18 years old again," Bess said.

Bess, who admitted past use of marijuana, said he grew fond of Reich and learned that he used marijuana. But the student had to travel to Washington, D.C., to obtain it.

"The trips to D.C. sounded dangerous," Bess said. So he introduced Reich to Stacy, his brother-in-law, who had a supply of marijuana near Fort Chiswell.

He arranged two drug transactions with Stacy and Reich, but said he did not have any other involvement after that.

King said he initially recommended a tougher sentence for Stacy than Bess. But he urged Pattisall in court Friday morning to give Bess the same sentence as Stacy.

"I felt that out of fairness or equal justice they [should] be sentenced the same," King said.

by CNB