ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A Roanoke County minister who said he was trying to save a prostitute's soul was convicted Thursday of soliciting her services.
Thomas Earl Nidiffer, who lost his job as minister of music at Cave Spring Baptist Church after being charged with the misdemeanor prostitution offense, was fined $100 in Roanoke General District Court.
Nidiffer maintained his arrest was a misunderstanding, that the only reason he approached a woman the night of May 18 was to minister to her - something he did regularly as part of a personal crusade to help the troubled people who wander the streets of Roanoke's West End neighborhood.
"I wanted to talk to her about her spiritual condition," he testified.
But the woman turned out to be an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute. Nidiffer was arrested after he agreed to pay her $50 - he said "just to talk''; she said for sex - then followed her to a dark alley on Rorer Avenue.
"It's clear that this was not a spiritual awakening but, in fact, just one of many solicitations out on the streets, for which Mr. Nidiffer needs to be convicted," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel said.
"He intended to negotiate an act of sex and not to save someone's soul, and there's a wide gulf between the two."
Nidiffer said his efforts to counsel prostitutes and homeless people were not sanctioned by his church, and that no one there knew of his efforts. Nidiffer was asked to leave the church after the charges came to light.
Nidiffer, a 32-year-old ordained minister, said he previously ministered to street people in Kentucky and had wanted to do the same in Roanoke since he moved here two years ago. He testified that he wanted to reach "not just people in Southwest County, but unchurched people who needed a ministry in their lives."
Those people were in the West End, Nidiffer decided after seeing the neighborhood while having his car repaired at a Salem Avenue garage across from a soup kitchen. "I wanted to do something substantial to help that area and help those people," he testified.
He began to drive around the neighborhood "to build up my courage," Nidiffer said. By May, he was handing out Bibles with his business card tucked inside. As part of his defense, Nidiffer called a convicted prostitute to testify that he had approached her earlier this year and asked if she was saved.
But the undercover police officer said Nidiffer never mentioned religion in their conversation.
She testified that she was driving through the area about 12:30 a.m., after earlier standing on a street corner and posing as a prostitute, when Nidiffer began to follow her in his car. After driving through several intersections, she said, she stopped when he signaled her to pull over.
Nidiffer asked if she was "dating," the officer said, and then told her that he wanted to be "satisfied." Although he never said specifically that he wanted to have sex, Nidiffer used two other street terms that indicated that he did, she said.
Nidiffer denied that, and said he never asked the woman if she was "dating." He said he did agree to pay her $50, but only in an effort to get her to talk. When police closed in and arrested him minutes later, Nidiffer said, he tried to explain that he "was just trying to help people."
Defense attorney William Cleaveland had asked that the charge be dismissed, based on what he called improper conduct by police. Shortly after Nidiffer was arrested, he said, someone in the police department called Cave Spring Baptist Church to inform them of the charge. The caller made the charge sound more serious than it was by inaccurately saying that the conversation between Nidiffer and the officer was taped.
The church's decision to fire Nidiffer based on that information had the effect of punishing him before he was ever tried, Cleaveland said. But substitute Judge William Maxwell denied Cleaveland's motion to dismiss the charge.
Nidiffer plans to appeal his conviction, Cleaveland said.
Thursday's case was one of the few contested prostitution charges in Roanoke General District Court. In the past 15 months, nearly 100 men have been convicted of soliciting for prostitution, Nagel said. About 90 percent of them pleaded guilty and were fined $500.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB