Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995 TAG: 9511080087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VIRGINIA BEACH - Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys said Tuesday he will decide this week whether to ask for a special grand jury to investigate how the city's school system ran up a $12.1 million deficit.
``I'm still reviewing the report,'' Humphreys said of an audit released last week that revealed the full extent of the deficit. In August, the school system reported $7.3 million in overspending during the last school year.
Humphreys said a criminal prosecution, even if warranted, could cost far more than any money the city could recover.
``If we're assuming that it's mismanagement, then the most we can get is a malfeasance prosecution, and that's kind of useless under Virginia law,'' he said. ``It's a $100 fine.''
But if embezzlement is involved, the prosecutor said, ``we have a different ball game.''
Under Virginia law, school boards cannot spend more money than they are allotted. But Humphreys said poor management isn't necessarily a crime.
- Associated Press
Poisonous snakes' owner fined $100
MANASSAS - A man was fined $100 for illegally possessing 19 poisonous snakes.
Kevin Stotler, 27, of Triangle pleaded guilty Monday to two misdemeanor counts of possessing wild or exotic animals - one for the snakes, and one for possessing five poisonous tarantulas.
One of Stotler's cobras bit him twice July 19. Doctors at Fairfax Hospital saved Stotler's life after obtaining antivenin from the Baltimore Zoo.
Stotler told the Potomac News he was changing an empty water bowl inside the cage of two monocled cobras when one of them probably mistook his hand for prey and bit him. Stotler grabbed the snake and was bitten a second time on the other hand.
- Associated Press
7 teens arrested over racist graffiti
NOKESVILLE - Seven teen-agers were arrested this week for allegedly painting racist graffiti on the walls of a high school where a baseball coach was disciplined for allowing players to use a racist symbol.
All those arrested are students at Brentsville District High School, police said Tuesday. Shawn Miller, 18, of Nokesville and six juveniles face misdemeanor charges including trespassing and destruction of public property.
The teen-agers told police the anti-black graffiti spray-painted on the school a week ago was intended as a Halloween prank.
Assistant baseball coach Matt Ondrof was suspended from his job last month after the Prince William County School Board found he had looked the other way at the players' racist custom. The state champion team drew a symbol, similar to one used by the Ku Klux Klan, in dirt before games.
- Associated Press
6 women guilty of disrupting meeting
LEESBURG - Six women were convicted of disrupting a meeting of a group that advocates liberalizing Roman Catholic church doctrine.
General District Court Judge Julia Cannon on Monday rejected the defendants' arguments that the March dispute at Christ the Redeemer Church in Sterling was an internal church matter.
The women, self-described conservative Catholics, were accused of shouting, praying loudly and refusing to leave a meeting of the group Call to Action, which advocates allowing married men and women to become priests and changing church teachings on sexuality.
Defense attorney William Eshelman said he will appeal the ruling to the Loudoun County Circuit Court.
- Associated Press
Cochran to speak at Norfolk State
NORFOLK - Johnnie Cochran Jr., O.J. Simpson's lead defense attorney, will speak Saturday at Norfolk State University.
Cochran's topic will be ``The Effects of the O.J. Simpson Trial on America.''
Lewis P. Hudgins, the speech's promoter, said Cochran agreed to speak after he learned that Hudgins plans to give part of the proceeds from ticket sales to six predominantly black colleges.
Tickets cost $15 for students and $22 for others.
- Associated Press
by CNB