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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 12, 1995                   TAG: 9509120063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

BRAWLERS TOLD TO RESTRICT THEIR HIGH SPIRITS TO SPORTS

Six young people charged in connection with a brawl in Wytheville in May were placed on probation for 12 months Monday and must perform at least 20 hours of community service to avoid $100 fines.

General District Court Judge Daniel Bird sentenced all six to 45 days in jail but suspended the sentences on condition of good behavior for a year.

Bird was in the hospital when the cases came before a substitute judge, James Joines of Independence, earlier this summer. Joines agreed to a prosecution request that the court take all the cases under advisement for a year and dismiss the charges if the defendants had been in no trouble during that time.

At a July 28 hearing, Bird said the confrontation was too serious for such treatment, and he set Monday to hear evidence on the matter.

It took about 100 law enforcement officials to break up the fight outside the Wytheville Community Center, where there had been a graduation party, and then to arrest people who refused to disperse from around the Wythe County jail, where some of their friends were being charged.

Convicted of unlawful assembly were Stephanie Louise Bryson, 20, and Ellis Hampden Jr., 26, of Galax; brothers Wayne Anthony Dickerson, 26, and Richard Fitzgerald Dickerson, 24, of Winston-Salem, N.C., and a cousin, Lloyd Nolan Dickerson, age unavailable, of Summerville, N.C., and Phillip Odell Taylor, 31, Wytheville. The Dickersons are formerly of Galax,

Bird let stand Joines' decision to take some other cases under advisement for a year and dismiss them if those involved kept their records clean.

"Now, I want to tell you people from Wytheville and you people from Galax, this kind of conduct will not be condoned by the court," he said. "That's got to cease ... You're going to have to live as law-abiding citizens."

Bird said he knew there was occasional friction between groups from Galax and groups from Wytheville, but it should be restricted to sports rivalry. In today's climate, he said, he was concerned that weapons might be used in future confrontations. "We just can't have it," he said, and warned of long jail sentences for any future offenses.

The front of the courtroom was filled with lawyers: two prosecuting attorneys and nine defense attorneys. Their clients sat in the audience. Bird also heard conflicting evidence by one group that Wytheville youths had demolished a car, and by the other group that the driver from Galax deliberately hit some of their parked cars and tried to run the people down. Bird took those matters under advisement.

Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.

by CNB