ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603040027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
House Speaker Thomas Moss accused the Allen administration Friday of holding back a report on how a killer escaped from prison last week.
Geoffrey A. Ward, 38, scaled fences topped with razor wire and fled from the Powhatan Correctional Center. He was recaptured about 28 hours later.
The state Corrections Department was scheduled to release a report on the escape Wednesday, then said the report should be ready Friday. Corrections officials said Friday that state police still were following up on information about the escape.
``I have reliable information that they [the Allen administration] have it,'' Moss said of the report.
Secretary of Public Safety Jerry W. Kilgore, an appointee of Republican Gov. George Allen, said the report isn't ready, and Moss is making a public safety issue political.
``I will not compromise the integrity of the state police investigation by speculating on possible outcomes or setting deadlines to accommodate this type of political sniping.''
Kilgore said if any state employee contributed to Ward's escape, the Allen administration will seek the appropriate punishment.
Moss, a Norfolk Democrat, suggested that prison policies set by Corrections Department head Ronald Angelone may have helped Ward escape.
``If he's the man in charge, then, as they used to say, the buck stops with him,'' Moss said.
This isn't the first time Moss has criticized the Corrections Department and Angelone. After a gun was discovered in a death row inmate's typewriter last May and other security breeches were publicized, Moss directed a state subcommittee to look into the department.
Ward was serving eight life terms with no chance of parole when he broke out. He has admitted raping and strangling a 36-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl.
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