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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 21, 1995                   TAG: 9510230041
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ABINGDON                                LENGTH: Short

NO MORE SATANISM; HIS FAMILY FOUND OUT

``I have decided to try to change my religious ways,'' Mark D. Leonard said Thursday, three days after his lawsuit was received at U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

The conversion of Leonard, 29, of Bristol, Tenn., may be because of his family's reaction when they read news accounts of his lawsuit and religion on Thursday.

``My family was unaware of all this, and when they found out, they were upset,'' he said. ``I was not aware it was going to affect my family this way. I don't want to tear up my family any more than they already have been. I'd just as soon forget about it.''

Leonard is being held without bond on six grand larceny charges. He is charged with breaking into nine churches; the warrants allege that he stole an assortment of home electronics, appliances and lawn equipment.

The inmate filed the lawsuit by mail, claiming his jailers had refused to give him a satanic bible and other items linked to devil worship. A deputy court clerk in Roanoke said Leonard, in a handwritten note, asked for a piece of white cardboard, a black candle and tomato juice.

Beyond a preliminary hearing he faces next week on the grand larceny charges, Leonard said he has no definite plans.

``I don't know what I'm going to do,'' he said. ``I'm not going to do anything like Satanism, I know that.''

- Associated Press