ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
Botetourt County sheriff's deputies raided an abandoned farmhouse last weekend and arrested a pair of apple pickers on charges of operating an illegal "nip joint."
About 20 deputies and Sheriff Reed Kelly gathered about 2 a.m. last Saturday and raided the house in the Amsterdam section of the county, Kelly said. Thirteen people were arrested on various misdemeanor charges ranging from being drunk in public to possession of a concealed weapon. Several others were given summonses.
Linzay O. Henry and Dalton A. Gooden were charged with selling alcohol without a license, a misdemeanor. Henry also received a felony charge of possessing a firearm while selling alcohol.
According to a search warrant filed in Botetourt Circuit Court, deputies confiscated five guns, a couple of carpet knives, eight baggies of green plant material believed to be marijuana, several cases of Heineken beer, 37 empty beer bottles and a box containing $508 in cash.
Kelly said his office had received several complaints about loud parties at the house for several weeks.
Late last week, according to the search warrant, an informant told deputies that he went to the house. He was charged admission to the house and searched. He paid $2 for a beer and saw food that was for sale, the warrant said.
Kelly said the men charged with running the operation were itinerant apple pickers who had taken up residence in the area. Arrest warrants for both of them showed Roanoke addresses. At least one was still employed by a Botetourt County orchard, Kelly said.
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