ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
A bus driver saw the car repeatedly parked in the neighborhood with a man sitting inside.
The car - not from the neighborhood - always seemed to be in the area when children came home from school. It was a neighborhood where most parents worked outside the home. The bus driver wondered: could the driver of the car be stalking children? Could he be casing the houses for a burglary?
The supervisor for transportation for the Montgomery County public schools said an investigation by police revealed the purpose of the suspicious loitering.
"He turned out to be a bird watcher," Denise Lacey said.
However harmless a person's behavior may be, following people or loitering brings images of criminal behavior to mind.
Four years ago parents in Roanoke's Raleigh Court area lobbied for stricter laws to prevent a convicted child molester from intimidating their children. At the time, police could do nothing about the man watching children from a public sidewalk. Community outrage over that incident - and other well-publicized stalking cases - prompted lawmakers to pass an emergency stalking law effective April 15, 1992.
That law is now being applied in Montgomery County.
A 79-year-old man recently aroused the fears of parents in the Ellett Valley area of Montgomery County. He returned to the area after sheriff's deputies twice delivered letters to him saying his behavior would lead to his arrest. He had offered rides in his car to Margaret Beeks Elementary School girls and parked in areas to watch the children, according to officials.
Charles Yonker of Blacksburg scared parents. The binoculars and police scanner that the Sheriff's Office said were in his car did not help.
One Ellett Valley parent of children ages 7,10 and 13 said there is no compromise when it comes to the safety of her children. She talked to The Roanoke Times on the condition her name would not be printed.
"I cannot tell you the horrific fear that comes over you when realize that someone could harm or abduct your children," she said.
Deputies first arrested Yonker April 9 for stalking. He left jail after posting a $5,000 bond. On April 16, deputies arrested Yonker a second time, this time for two counts of stalking.
Yonker is being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail. Lt. Tommy Whitt said a criminal background check on Yonker turned up nothing.
Yonker's attorney, Henry Whitehurst, said Yonker's only conviction - ever - has been for speeding.
"I think it's just a lonesome, 79-year-old man who lacks common sense," Whitehurst said.
Whitehurst agreed that once deputies delivered their first letter of warning Yonker should have stopped loitering. He said he does not see Yonker as a threat to anyone.
Whitehurst said the commonwealth's attorney and the sheriff responded fully to parents' concerns.
"They went to town on this one, they really did all they could do," he said.
The incident has spurred school officials and parents to do all they can, too.
Paula Ely, principal of Margaret Beeks Elementary School, said she is taking steps to ensure school officials are better prepared for tracking strangers on campus.
Ever since a former scout leader shot and killed a gymnasium full of children in Dunblane, Scotland, Ely said all school officials are on alert about dangers posed by strangers to the campus. She said the school-bus driver, traffic guards and other school officials knew nothing about Yonker until a parent wrote a letter to a teacher about his behavior.
"We were not informed at all; it put as at a real disadvantage," Ely said.
Sheriff Doug Marrs told parents it was not the department's policy to inform parents because deputies already knew who Yonker was and were tracking him. If the office had not identified the man, a profile and description would have been circulated.
Ely plans to step up communication with law enforcement officials and has asked the school's DARE officer from the Blacksburg Police Department to help strengthen security policies.
Name tags for every employee and every visitor is not out of the realm of possible changes, she said.
Lacey, in charge of bus drivers for the county schools, said most bus drivers know the neighborhoods they drive. They know the families and keep a caretaker's eye on their passengers.
"Drivers are aware they are carrying very precious cargo," Lacey said.
She urged parents to call law enforcement officials if they suspect someone is following a bus, but not to forget to tell the school officials, too.
Parents and grandparents of the neighborhood that Yonker frequented met with Marrs on Friday to discuss their options.
Jack Prater, whose elementary-age grandchildren visit him and his wife, said the sheriff's answers reassured him that there is something he and his neighbors can do.
"We do plan to step up our community watch program; we've just gone to sleep with our program," Prater said.
Marrs told the group a watch captain for a neighborhood watch group would would be kept abreast of issues that the ordinary citizen may not.
One parent pointed out how different life is for children today compared with her memory of childhood.
"I bounded out the door and was out of sight for hours," she said. "You came home, ate, went to the bathroom and that was it. I can't imagine turning children loose in this day and age."
LENGTH: Long : 102 linesby CNB