ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
3 demolition site workers hurt in fall
RICHMOND - A makeshift plywood platform being used in the dismantling and demolition of an abandoned warehouse gave way Thursday, injuring three workers who plunged about 40 feet, authorities said.
Fire Department Battalion Chief Warren Cersley said the men were stacking cinder block and steel on the platform - sheets of plywood placed across steel beams - when it collapsed.
Two of the men were able to extricate themselves, but one was still lying in the rubble when rescue crews arrived about 2 p.m.
Lorenzo Lopez and Cirilo Sandaval, believed to be in their 20s, were listed in stable condition Thursday night at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. The third worker, who was not identified, did not require medical treatment.
- Associated Press
Animal shelter attacker convicted
CULPEPER - A man who went on a rampage at an animal shelter after workers there killed his dog was convicted of assaulting an animal control officer.
Ronald Lee was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500 for assaulting the woman who gave his beagle, Rusty, a fatal injection. A Culpeper County judge suspended the entire sentence so long as Lee maintains good behavior for a year.
Lee said he will appeal Tuesday's misdemeanor conviction.
``I never denied what I did was wrong,'' Lee said Wednesday. ``All I want is to be treated fairly.''
Lee was charged with assault and destroying property after he broke furniture, threw a copying machine out the window and kicked the door off its hinges at the county animal shelter July 4.
- Associated Press
Religious service really sex encounter
ALEXANDRIA - Supposed members of a religious sect smuggled cocaine into the Lorton prison and two women had videotaped sex with inmates, the FBI and a federal prosecutor said Thursday.
A private room at the prison set aside for religious services was used for at least one sexual encounter, the FBI's top local official said.
The 38 suspects signed in as visitors at Lorton as members of a Muslim sect called the Moorish Science Temple, said William Megary, acting assistant director of the FBI's Washington field office.
``It was a conspiracy cloaked by claims of religious freedom and protection,'' Megary said.
- Associated Press
Slain woman to be buried at last
NORFOLK - The burial may proceed for a woman slain in May, despite her husband's efforts to keep the body in the medical examiner's office, a judge has ruled.
Megan Jones' body has been in cold storage since it was found in her home four months ago. Her estranged husband, Tobin Jones, a well-known local psychiatrist, was charged with her murder.
As next of kin, Jones had refused to release his wife's body, saying he wanted another autopsy to be conducted. He recently was found incompetent to stand trial.
The medical examiner's office this week declared Jones' body as ``unclaimed'' and planned to release it to the sheriff's office for a state-paid pauper's burial.
- Associated Press
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