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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995                   TAG: 9510310117
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HEARD BOND REVOCATION IS REFUSED

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald Teaster said Heard had been sending the girl magazines, in violation of a court order that he have no contact with her, and that he threatened the girl's mother.

Since he was convicted of statutory rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison in April, Heard has been free on a $50,000 bond awaiting appeal.

But Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein denied the motion to revoke Heard's bond, saying that buying the victim subscriptions to Mademoiselle and Psychology Today did not rise to the level of a bond violation.

Defense attorney Tony Anderson said Heard bought the magazine subscriptions for the girl before he was convicted. Once he heard the girl objected, Anderson said, Heard canceled the subscriptions.

Teaster contended that Heard, 44, was expected to be on "extra good behavior" while on bond, and that the subscriptions - "especially for magazines of this nature" - were a violation of his bond.

Heard, a well-known renovator who once worked as the master builder for Explore Park in Roanoke County, testified at his trial that he loved the girl and took her into his Salem Avenue home as his lover and business partner. A jury convicted him of statutory rape.