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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 21, 1995                   TAG: 9510230040
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: POWHATAN                                LENGTH: Medium

PROBE POSTPONES INMATE'S RELEASE

The state Parole Board on Friday delayed the mandatory release of an inmate accused of using Department of Corrections employees to run errands and make business deals for him.

The board deferred Braxton L. Bumpers' scheduled release Monday from the Powhatan Correctional Center pending the results of a state police investigation. Bumpers has been imprisoned for eight years on larceny and fraud convictions, said Parole Board Chairman John Metzger.

``We decided to defer his mandatory release for up to six months pending a decision by the commonwealth's attorney regarding a possible indictment,'' Metzger said.

Inmates' release can be delayed up to six months if they're about to be indicted for a serious crime, have threatened someone or have an unworkable parole plan, he said.

Bumpers allegedly used current and former Southampton Correctional Center employees to buy a car, open bank accounts and acquire cellular phones in August 1994 in an apparent check-kiting scheme, according to records.

Authorities have said that after they learned of Bumpers' activities, he was used as an informer in a sting operation to identify his accomplices. Bumpers denied last month that he was an informer or had any role in the sting. ``I didn't even know this operation was going on,'' he said.

State police executed search warrants alleging Assistant Southampton Warden James C. Farrow Jr. had obtained two cellular phones for Bumpers, opened a savings account at a North Carolina bank for the inmate under the name BLB Enterprises Inc. and listed his wife as vice president and himself as ``a buyer.''

On Aug. 25, 1994, Farrow allegedly went to an automated teller machine and deposited into the account a $100,000 check drawn on a checking account set up for Bumpers a week earlier.

The next day, according to the warrants, Farrow tried to withdraw $5,000 from the North Carolina savings account, but could not because the $100,000 check was from out of state and had been deposited in an ATM. Farrow was suspended without pay.

by CNB