ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603110091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
POLICE OFFICERS keep stopping the Stanleys. And it's not for speeding.
For the third time in two weeks, members of a Rocky Mount family have been charged with hauling mass quantities of moonshine up the interstate.
William Gray "Dee" Stanley, already a moonshining legend in Franklin County, was arrested along with one of his sons, Jason, on Interstate 64 in Albemarle County shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Jason Stanley, 22, has scored a hat trick: He's been charged every time.
On the first two trips that ended in arrests, Jason Stanley was accompanied by his brother Scott, 25. They were stopped Feb. 21 in Winchester and Feb. 27 in Shenandoah County.
The first time, a sheriff's deputy said he noticed a van weaving along I-81. The second time, the state police received a tip.
Police seized 446 and 453 gallons of moonshine, respectively.
Wednesday's bust began when a tipster - it's not known if the person is the same one who called Feb. 27 - called a state police dispatcher and told of a van loaded with moonshine that was on its way north on Interstate 81, said Sgt. J.W. Sullivan, a state trooper in Albemarle County.
When another trooper couldn't locate the van on I-81, the tipster informed the dispatcher that the van had turned onto I-64.
About two minutes after that information was relayed to Sullivan, he said, he spotted the vehicle and pulled it over near Charlottesville.
When Sullivan walked up to the van, he said he "could smell what was inside." It was packed with 421 gallons of liquor, he said.
Sullivan was not aware at the time that Jason Stanley, 22, was being charged for the third time in 14 days.
The Stanleys, who live in Rocky Mount, have been stopped in three different vehicles - two vans and a pickup truck.
A total of 1,320 gallons of moonshine - valued at more than $30,000 - has been seized.
And, the Stanleys have been bailed out of jail just a few hours after each arrest, which has cost the family another $7,000.
Said Sullivan: "They might not care about being arrested, but this has got to be digging into their pockets a little bit."
Dee Stanley, 50, has faced several moonshining charges in Franklin County and Rockingham County over the past 10 years. He's been cleared several times, but he's been convicted a couple of times, too.
Jim Jefferson, a Franklin County attorney who has represented Stanley, said, "A lot of people in Franklin County are products of a culture that doesn't subscribe to the theory that it's against the law to moonshine."
Jefferson went on to say that he's heard several judges pass moonshining off as a tax crime. "It's not like lyin', cheatin' or stealin' - I can tell you that," he said.
While the Stanleys await court hearings on the charges, their story continues to spread.
On Friday afternoon, a state police dispatcher in Shenandoah County had already received word about their most recent arrest.
"Boy, it's somethin', isn't it?" he said.
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