ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220037
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 23, 1996. Friday's editorial, "A
judge's hurtful decision," incorrectly suggested that a
convenience-store clerk has testified about giving advice to another
clerk regarding alcohol sales to young custormers. This information came
from an interview with a news reporter, not from court testimony.
AS ROANOKE County prosecutor Mark Clayton observes, a judge "sets the community standards.''
That's what is troubling about Judge George Harris' decision to dismiss charges against a convenience-store clerk who admitted she had sold beer to underage customers (in this case, police informants).
In doing so, Judge Harris sent a message implying that retailers and their employees can ignore with impunity the state law prohibiting alcohol sales to minors.
That's a deplorable community standard, with the potential for tragic consequences.
The convenience store where the clerk worked, the Riverside Quickette near Dixie Caverns, is where a 16-year-old - convicted of killing a neighbor, Bonnie Kitts, while he was driving drunk last December - said he had purchased beer the night of the fatal accident.
Moreover, the store apparently had a reputation with the high-school crowd in Salem and Glenvar as a place where juveniles could make illegal beer buys, no questions asked. Indeed, teen-agers were among those who brought the store's allegedly lackadaisical regard for the law to the attention of county police.
Judge Harris not only dismissed the charges against the clerk, but took it upon himself to erase the clerk's plea and change it to not guilty. Additionally, he stopped a detective from completing his summary of the evidence against the clerk.
Perhaps the judge was swayed by the fact that one of the 20-year-old informants looked as if he might be older than 21. Perhaps he discounted testimony that the clerk had been advised (by another clerk) to check young customers' identification, and had failed to do so. Perhaps he didn't want to be swayed by the public emotion surrounding the death of Kitts and the conviction of the 16-year-old - an honor student and athlete, thought previously to have a promising future.
Whatever the reason, we welcome the complaint by a high-school substance-abuse counselor to the state's Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission.
As the prosecutor conceded, a judge must ``call them as he sees them.'' We don't pretend to know all the factors Judge Harris took into account in making his call. But we'd like to hear his explanation.
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