ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
An assault and battery charge against Virginia Tech football player Antonio Banks was dismissed Thursday.
A Montgomery County General District Court judge dismissed the charge after the man who alleged the assault couldn't positively identify Banks as his attacker, said Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth's attorney.
Banks, a starting cornerback for the Hokies, was charged Dec. 12 in connection with a Dec. 3 fight at an apartment.
In December, Ernest King II told Blacksburg police he was beaten by five men when he left a party. The man was treated for bruises to the head and hands at a local hospital. At the time, he told police he thought all five were football players, but then was able to identify only Banks in a photo lineup.
Banks, who will turn 23 on Tuesday, is from Newport News. Because he was rehabilitating a knee injury, Banks did not enroll at Tech until January 1993. As this is his seventh semester, he is a junior in eligibility.
LENGTH: Short : 29 linesby CNB