ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
THE WIFE of a 5th District congressional candidate was in court Wednesday on assault charges.
Call it ``The Case of the Candidate's Wife and the Fried Chameleons.''
Or, just call it assault.
On the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre that 5th District Republican congressional candidate George Landrith's wife, Laura, would, of all things, get charged for brawling with the owner of a pet store.
But to hear her tell it, it wasn't humorous.
The Landriths were in Albemarle County General District Court on Wednesday for the first appearance in her assault case. After the hearing, in which trial was set for Sept. 18, they talked to reporters.
Laura Landrith, 34, is charged with assault and battery against Pet Jungle owner John DiNardi, 44. DiNardi, in turn, has been charged with assault and battery against her, as well as cursing at and abusing her.
``A shopkeeper pushed, hit, shouted, yelled and cursed at my wife and we're here to see that the right thing is done,'' George Landrith said outside the court Wednesday. ``Laura's committed to doing something about it.''
On July 24, Laura Landrith went to Pet Jungle to return a $13.95 heating rock that the Landriths say killed their children's pair of pet chameleons.
The chameleons, whom the Republican family was thinking of naming Bill and Hillary, were ``clearly cooked, as in so much charcoal,'' said George Landrith, who is opposing Democrat Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount this November for the congressional seat now held by retiring Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County. He did not go to the pet store with his wife that day.
Laura Landrith said she told DiNardi that the rock was defective, but he wouldn't take her word for it and took it to the back of the store and plugged it in. ``I almost said to him, `Are you going to get another lizard to put on it and kill?'''
DiNardi then brought the rock back and gave it back to her, she said. "He apparently wasn't too thrilled about me returning anything. ... I told him I wasn't leaving until I got my money back, and he exploded.'' She tried to give the rock back to him, but he wouldn't take it, she said, so she asked for his name and said she would call the Better Business Bureau.
Then, according to George Landrith, DiNardi ``flipped her the bird,'' cursed and yelled at Laura Landrith, and pushed her out the door, into the parking lot. She tried to walk to her car, where three of her four children, including her 7-month-old son, were waiting, she said, but DiNardi got between her and the car, still yelling and cursing in her face.
``My little ones were in the car. I felt like I needed to get out. ... I needed to get to my kids and go home. He was frightening me.'' So, Laura Landrith said, she slapped DiNardi across the face to get him away from her.
But, before she could get away, DiNardi punched her several times on both sides of her head, she said. She swore out arrest warrants against him that day. DiNardi filed his charges against her a couple of days later.
DiNardi declined to comment after the court hearing, but in a sworn, written statement to police, he said Laura Landrith ``threw a 5-inch rock on my counter, breaking merchandise. She then picked up the rock and left the store and harassed customers trying to enter.''
Outside the store, he said, when Laura Landrith slapped him, ``She still had the rock in her other hand and I hit her three times to prevent her from striking me again.''
Dana E. Morris was looking for a puppy with her 6-year-old daughter when the dispute broke out.
In an interview with The Daily Progress this month, Morris said that Laura Landrith was ``returning something and the owner of the store got rough. He was hollering and cussing and screaming. ``You don't expect that in a pet store.'' Some other people might, though. Since the fight has been publicized, at least four people have come forward to tell them about similar encounters with DiNardi, the Landriths said.
DiNardi's actions in the dispute fit ``a pattern of behavior,'' George Landrith said. ``We don't want to read in the paper a year from now that he does this to somebody else. ... I think hitting a woman is a really ugly thing to do.''
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