ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER ROCKY MOUNT
THE SUNSHINE STATE, as a token of appreciation, might think about oceanfront vacations for Franklin County officers.
Florida fugitives who flee to Franklin County are finding it hard to keep their pasts a secret.
First there was child molester Jerry Griffis, whose name was entered into a national computer crime database after his son died under suspicious circumstances. Up popped Griffis' criminal status in Florida.
And more recently there's the case of Walter Moore.
On Aug. 11, Moore, who lives in the Doe Run area of Franklin County, accidentally shot himself in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle that he was removing from his truck.
After Moore was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital for treatment, Brian Webb, the deputy assigned to the case, entered Moore's name into the national database.
And, once again, a Florida fugitive warrant turned up.
Moore was charged in 1992 with grand theft of an automobile valued at $3,500, said Sgt. James Giallombardo of the Polk County Sheriff's Office in Bartow, Fla.
Franklin County investigators didn't immediately arrest Moore. If he were placed in custody while he was laid up in the hospital with a severe injury, the county would have had to assume responsibility for his medical bills and watching his room around the clock.
Instead, hospital security was notified of the situation, and county investigators decided to wait until he left Roanoke Memorial to arrest him.
But about 3 p.m. Sunday, Moore sneaked out of Roanoke Memorial on his own, said Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. "Quint" Overton.
On Monday morning, Overton said Moore wouldn't get far because he still needed medical treatment.
A couple of hours later, he turned himself in to investigators in Rocky Mount.
Moore, 40, was booked and later released on bond, Overton said.
Polk County officials plan to extradite Moore to Florida for prosecution.
In Griffis' case, he was arrested in February after his infant son's death brought attention to his criminal record.
Although criminal charges weren't filed against anyone, Griffis initially was interviewed as a suspect in the boy's death.
After his name popped up in the computer database, Griffis, 26, was extradited to Gainesville, where he was sentenced to four life terms in prison for multiple counts of capital sexual battery involving a 5-year-old boy in 1990.
If Moore is convicted in the theft case, that would mean Franklin County is 2-for-2 this year in increasing Florida's crime-solving rate.
So, does that mean the sunshine state, as a token of appreciation, should offer some free oceanfront accommodations to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office?
Overton said what comes around goes around.
Florida authorities recently arrested a Franklin County man who had been on the run for several weeks. He is being investigated for insurance fraud.
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