ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A ROANOKE JUDGE refused to certify felony charges to a grand jury after hearing testimony from a police detective and an 11-year-old girl who received two calls.
When police searched the Roanoke motel room of a man suspected of making obscene telephone calls, they found handwritten notes listing the names and numbers of more than 400 young girls, a detective testified Thursday.
Michael A. Obremski already has been charged with 12 counts of threatening to rape or abduct girls in Roanoke and Roanoke County, and additional charges are expected.
But when the first two cases went to court Thursday, a judge ruled there was little evidence to support the allegations.
Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Joseph Clarke refused to certify the felony charges to a grand jury after hearing testimony from a police detective and an 11-year-old girl who received two telephone calls.
The girl testified that a stranger called her and said: "I'm going to take you in the woods by the creek." When she asked who was speaking, the girl said, the man replied: "You'll find out sooner or later."
While that met the description of threatening to abduct the girl, the warrant alleged that Obremski threatened to rape her because of what Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony called a "paperwork glitch." Clarke dismissed the charge.
In a second call made about a year later, the girl testified that the same man mumbled something she could not understand, then hung up. "I can't say that mumbling over the telephone ... establishes probable cause" to support a charge of attempting to take indecent liberties with a child, Clarke said. The judge dismissed that charge as well.
Adding to the confusion was conflicting testimony about when the calls were made.
After the hearing, Anthony said the setback should have no effect on the other charges against Obremski. The 42-year-old cook was arrested last month after a 21/2-year police investigation into threatening and obscene calls made to scores of girls in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Botetourt County.
The charges that were dismissed Thursday were filed hastily by police when Obremski first became a suspect, and authorities have since charged him with making other calls that were more sexually explicit, Anthony said.
"These charges served the purpose of having him held until the investigation could be completed," Anthony said of the two dismissed counts. Additional witnesses that were not available Thursday also will bolster the case's strength at later hearings, she said.
Earlier this week, a Roanoke grand jury indicted Obremski on nine similar charges. John Varney, an assistant public defender who represented Obremski, declined to comment on those cases in light of the ones that were dismissed by Clarke.
Authorities believe the caller selected his victims by perusing the Neighbors section of The Roanoke Times. The girls Obremski is accused of calling were often listed in sports results, award ceremonies and school listings. Most of the girls had unusual last names that would be easily found in the telephone book.
Tim Spence, a Roanoke detective, testified that an investigation led police to the Plaza Court motel on Williamson Road, where Obremski lived. Police staked out a pay telephone outside the motel with a hidden video camera, and obtained a court order for a tracking device that traced calls made from the phone.
Obremski was videotaped making calls from the phone on many occasions, Spence testified. When police searched the room after arresting Obremski last month, Spence said, they found the names and numbers of 459 girls on notes that also included physical descriptions of some of the girls.
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