ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
Sheriff Reed Kelly says he's not surprised that a Botetourt County grand jury declined to indict him on a charge of assaulting an inmate in the county jail.
``There was nothing to the allegations to start with,'' Kelly said. ``It's hard to feel vindicated when you didn't do anything anyway.''
Special prosecutor William G. Petty took the matter before the grand jury Monday.
Jason Joseph Jones, 19, of Eagle Rock, had claimed that Kelly assaulted him on Oct. 11. Jones was in jail after an arrest for grand larceny and arson of a motor vehicle.
Kelly has said he confronted Jones in the jail after Jones wrote a letter threatening the sheriff and his family with rape, dismemberment and other violence, but he denies assaulting Jones.
The same grand jury indicted Jones on a charge of threatening death or bodily injury to a person or a family in connection with the letter to Kelly.
In December, Circuit Judge George Honts appointed Petty, the Lynchburg commonwealth's attorney, special prosecutor in the case.
Petty said Tuesday he sent the case to the grand jury because he felt it was appropriate for residents of Botetourt County to decide whether to pursue the charges against Kelly. If the incident had occurred in Lynchburg, he would have felt comfortable making the decision himself, he said.
Kelly said he's glad the matter went before the grand jury. He maintains that the investigation was the result of a campaign by a group of ``vicious and vindictive'' political operatives who would like to see him out of office. Jones made his accusation less than a month before Kelly won re-election.
Kelly also defends his confrontation of Jones.
``As a public official, I understand that people might want to threaten me,'' he said. ``But I draw the line at my family. I think people ought to understand that.''
Jones is still in the Botetourt County jail awaiting a March 19 trial.
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