ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
An entrepreneur who hawked seats to the sold-out Virginia vs. Virginia Tech basketball game last month had his profits cut Wednesday when a Roanoke judge fined him $100 for ticket scalping.
James D. Frazier of Denton, N.C., was convicted under a rarely used city ordinance that makes it illegal to sell tickets at more than face value for an event at a city-owned facility.
Officer J.F. Owens testified that he saw Frazier selling tickets outside the Roanoke Civic Center the night of Dec. 28, shortly before tip-off of a game that matched two teams that were nationally ranked at the time.
Frazier, 52, was convicted in his absence after he failed to show up for a hearing in Roanoke General District Court. He faced a maximum fine of $500, but Judge William Broadhurst ordered him to pay $100.
The arrest was not part of a police crackdown on ticket scalping. Owens, who was at the civic center to direct traffic, learned of the situation from someone who complained that a scalper was charging twice the tickets' cost.
Owens approached Frazier as he was selling his last ticket. Frazier said he was asking only $20 for the $18 ticket, but police found he was carrying more than $600 in cash. Frazier could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"I can honestly say that I do not remember one [scalping] case being prosecuted here," said Bob Chapman, manager of the Roanoke Civic Center.
Chapman said people with extra tickets often ask the box office if they may sell them to the public. That is permitted, Chapman said, as long as the tickets are not sold for more than their original cost.
And with relatively few events being sold out, the civic center is hardly known as a scalper's paradise.
"I really don't see it happening that much in Roanoke," Chapman said.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB