ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 1, 1997 TAG: 9701020046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SERIES: Whatever happened to...? - a look back at 1996
ON THE FIRST DAY of the new year, we take a final look back at some of the people who were in the news in 1996 - and what's happened to them since.
EMMA SAUNDERS
Vinton's pot-bellied pig activist
THEN: Saunders lost a court battle to keep her three pets in June when a judge said Vinton's new zoning ordinance was valid. Several people offered to adopt Arnold, Wilbur and Charlotte, but Saunders has never revealed where she's harboring the porcine fugitives. She did, however, announce in October that the pigs were alive and that she was starting a petition drive to have the town ordinance changed.
NOW: Saunders said she's collected 189 signatures on her petition. "We've been in some classy homes," she said. "These are rich people." She said she's been talking with Town Council members in an effort to elicit a promise that the ordinance will be changed if she succeeds in reaching her goal of 600 signatures. No promises so far, but Saunders said council members "are still being nice about it." She said she may make another appearance during a public town council meeting to explain her project. Buh-dee, buh-dee, buh-dee, that's not all folks.
HAROLD CANNADAY II
Thousand Man March Organizer
THEN: The mild-mannered teacher's aide at William Ruffner Middle School, declaring himself a lot less polemical than Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, set up Roanoke's answer to Farrakhan's national Million Man March - the Thousand Man March. The crowd fell short of the goal, but several hundred black men prayed, marched and walked together in the February march from Washington Park to Addison Middle School.
NOW: He's planning Thousand Man March II, set for Feb.1. Cannaday is working to attract more clergy and children this time. Though the march itself is aimed at building pride and solidarity among black men, he hopes to get more women involved in the Addison program on Roanoke's black pioneers that immediately follows the march. "I don't want to be chauvinistic at all," he said. Cannaday believes last year's march drew black Roanokers a little closer together. "At least it's encouraged people to take an interest in their community, and I think that's what's been missing for such a long time."
THE LONG FAMILY
New Jersey trio who crash-landed a rented plane near Buchanan
THEN: Bruce Long, a pilot with 150 hours in the air, said he just didn't count on headwinds when figuring out how much fuel he needed to get his wife and daughter to the Virginia Tech Airport from Cherry Hill, N.J.
Long's daughter, Christine, was considering attending Tech, and wanted to visit the campus. But their plane hit the ground a couple of counties short of the mark when it ran out of fuel. Bruce and Christine Long suffered only bumps and bruises, while Barbara Long had a broken wrist.
After spending the night at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, the family got red carpet treatment at Tech, including lunch with the president, a tour guided by the director of admissions, and plenty of Tech memorabilia and a map of area airports.
But at last report, Christine Long still hadn't decided whether to attend Tech or Towson State University near Baltimore.
NOW: Christine Long just finished her first semester at Virginia Tech. She said she can't imagine being happier at another school.
"I figured if I crashed on the way there and still liked it, it must be pretty good," she said.
She and her mother have not flown since the crash. "It's a scary thought," Long said. She figures she'll fly one day, but never in a small plane again.
Barbara Long's injuries turned out to be worse than originally thought. Back in New Jersey, she had to have her wrist re-broken and set again, and doctors found some cracks in a few of her vertebrae. She just finished her physical therapy, though, and is doing fine, her daughter reports.
Bruce Long, the fearless one in the bunch who said the crash "just adds a little excitement to our lives," is back in the air after re-taking tests for his pilot's license.
VERNON LAUGHON
84-year-old man who spent three days locked in a car trunk
THEN: Laughon was a prisoner in his own car for three days, after being abducted by his housekeeper. The 34-year-old woman choked Laughon until he passed out, put him in the trunk of his Buick, and drove around Roanoke aimlessly for three days as she forged his checks and stole property from his Patterson Avenue home. Laughon was freed - and Horton was jailed - after a woman who caught a ride in the car reported hearing thumps and muffled shouts from the trunk.
NOW: Mitzi Horton is pulling a 14-year prison term she received in May. As for Laughon, "I guess I'm doing all right," he said. He has some trouble getting around, and has little use for the Buick that's still parked outside his home. Laughon never got the belongings that Horton took from his apartment. He had to buy a new VCR, he said, but it doesn't work as well as his old one. Still, he's not a bitter man. "I feel sorry for that old girl; I swear I do."
VAMPIRES
OF ROANOKE
Role-playing teens and twentysomethings
THEN: Early this year, the Eccentric Wizard, a new shop devoted to fantasy books and role playing, opened near Center in the Square. Twice a month, the store sponsored "Vampire: The Masquerade" - a live-action game that had a colorful group of more than 30 waiters, day-care workers, housewives and students prowling the City Market as wildly clad vampires, werewolves, elves and the odd undead Wild West gunslinger or Chief Justice of Supreme Court.
NOW: The Eccentric Wizard folded recently, because "it was just costing too much money," according to a former co-owner, Jerry Rush Jr. But the "vampires" are still roaming the City Market on alternate Saturday nights, usually gathering near O'Dell's on Salem Avenue. The game hasn't remained the same, though. "We've changed around a lot," Rush said. "There's all new characters now."
`PHOTOTRON'
POT GROWERS
A group of Roanoke-area residents indicted on charges of growing high-quality marijuana in the basements of houses around the area
THEN: Victor Layman, head of the local Iris Society and a real estate broker, perfected a strain of marijuana that he used to establish a profitable business, raising hundreds of plants in indoor "grow houses." He also established friends in the business, teaching them how to cultivate pot that one grower called "an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type plant." Layman and seven others pleaded guilty in Roanoke federal court to conspiracy to grow and sell pot. Most were given prison time, and two sentences have been appealed.
NOW: Layman works in the greenhouse at the prison camp in Beckley, W.Va., where inmates raise herbs, spices and seedlings for landscaping, according to one of his attorneys and the prison.
Curtis Davis, the Roanoke vice detective who spent three and a half years investigating and prosecuting the case, recently transferred into the larceny division of criminal investigations.
"The whole thing was an education," Davis, 28, said. "I learned a lot about investigating."
`CAPTAIN CHARLIE'
Clarence Wright was killed during a hit-and-run accident. His assailant has never been found
THEN: Friends knew Clarence Wright as Captain Charlie, the man who walked along Campbell Avenue Southwest hustling talk and money from those he passed. The 64-year-old man walked everywhere he went. The beat cops knew him, as did downtown shopkeepers and the other City Market regulars. A passing motorist found his body on the shoulder of the 3600 block of Shenandoah Avenue Northwest Sept.6. Police believe a car hit Wright and never stopped. They had no leads to investigate.
NOW: Roanoke Lt. Ramey Bower of the traffic bureau knew Wright well. The two often chatted as Wright meandered past the Roanoke Police Department on Campbell Avenue. Bower has had Wright's clothing analyzed and the crime scene thoroughly probed. Still, there are no leads. But Bower hasn't given up. Roanoke police solve nearly 30 percent of the approximately 100 hit-and-runs they investigate, he said. With a little luck, they may be able to solve this one. Anyone with information is asked to call Roanoke police at 981-2671 or 981-2672.
BERN EWERT
The ex-Roanoke city manager, ex-Explore Park chief is still fighting battles - on the sunny shores of the Gulf of Mexico
THEN: When last we heard of Bern Ewert, Roanoke's ex-city manager had shucked his Charlottesville digs for Galveston, Texas, a scandal-rocked city of about 60,000 set on a barrier island by the sea. Galveston, after the abrupt departures of a thieving municipal judge and a hands-off city administrator, suddenly found itself millions of dollars in the red. The city council hired Ewert on a temporary basis to straighten the mess out.
NOW: Ewert did the job so well, reports Galveston Councilman David Bowers, that the city fathers hired him full time, for a base salary of $99,250. But it all hasn't been rosy. Ewert's cost-saving emergency measures raised major hackles with police officers and firefighters. They got their own guy elected mayor, and he promptly tried to fire Ewert. So far, it hasn't worked. On the other hand, Bowers says, the Galveston Chamber of Commerce folks can't say enough good things about old Bern. So, if Galveston is anything like Roanoke, odds are he'll keep that job for a while.
SONNY BONO
Republican Congress member from California known for his "I Got You Babe" duet with ex-wife Cher
THEN: Bono caused a stir Sept.30 when he came to the Hotel Roanoke to raise money for the re-election of his friend and fellow Republican, Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke. Bono called President Clinton a "criminal" and claimed he had evidence Clinton was using CIA "hit squads" in Haiti. Bono later admitted he had no hard evidence about assassination teams, and apologized for calling the president a crook. "I shouldn't say things like that," Bono said.
NOW: Bono is returning to the House of Representatives for another term. His underfunded Democratic opponent tried to make an issue of his remarks in Roanoke, but Bono won 57 percent of the vote in his conservative-leaning congressional district in and around Palm Springs.
BRAD 'MUGSY'
WAGNER
Former Virginia Tech student known nationally for fooling his family into thinking he was a student when, in fact, he left school his freshman year
THEN: Brad "Mugsy" Wagner told his parents he was an engineering student at Virginia Tech, but when they showed up for his May graduation, he was nowhere to be found.
The student's disappearance and the revelation by his friends and family that he was not a student but had actually left school during his freshman year shocked parents and others who wondered how he pulled off the three-and-a-half year lie. A week passed before Wagner turned himself in to West Virginia police.
The young man's ruse made national news and parents of college-age students may have felt a collective urge to grab their child's class schedule and just sit in on one session of English 101.
NOW: The public is still wondering what happened, and Wagner and his family, who live in Bristol, are still not talking.
"We'd be better off to let everything drop," John Wagner, Brad's father, said in August. "He's home and he's fine."
Contacted repeatedly following the incident in May and again in August, the Wagner family said they simply wanted to put the ordeal behind them. Brad Wagner said, "no thanks" when asked for interviews, and no one returned a phone message left this month.
Wagner, 21, never said why he left school, and his friends - including roommates - said Wagner kept a regular schedule that appeared to include study and class time.
"He talked about going to class all the time," Sam Larson, a former roommate said in May.
Parents around the country watched Wagner's lie unravel and wondered how it ever could have gotten as far as it did. How could Wagner's family have continued to send money for tuition and living expenses and never see a grade report? How could his father attend football and basketball games at Tech with his son and be so close, yet so out of touch with the truth?
Mike Dunn, director of the Office of New Student Programs at Radford University, said the answer is simple - it can happen anywhere to any family.
"Parents believe their child is in school in good faith, because a relationship was established," he said.
CHARLIE ROZIER
U.S. Forest Service land surveyor who got a new heart
THEN: Last New Year's, Charlie Rozier of Roanoke County was in his fifth month at Duke University Medical Center waiting for a new heart. His was so bad that he had been unable to return home after a trip to the doctor there.
NOW: Rozier got a transplant Feb. 5 and has done "very well" since, says wife, Ann Rozier, a Realtor. He has had two bouts with a virus and was in the hospital for six days, but has had no signs of rejecting the new organ. Rozier was back working full time before Christmas.
HARRY MESSIMER
Colorful bus driver who shuttled Amtrak riders between Roanoke and Clifton Forge
THEN: Just about anybody who ever rode Amtrak's shuttle between the Marriot hotel in Roanoke and the Amtrak station in Clifton Forge remembers Harry Messimer. The ride up U.S. 220 was more than a ride. It was a guided tour with Harry telling little stories about every landmark he knew anything about.
In April, however, Amtrak discontinued the shuttle, leaving the already retired Messimer without a job, and without an audience.
NOW: Messimer is back behind the wheel, driving charters and tours for Abbott Buslines.
He's been to Cincinnati; Lancaster, Pa.; Pigeon Forge, Tenn. - "places I haven't been in a long time," he said.
And whenever he passes something he knows a little story about, the old urge takes him. He picks up the microphone, and tells that story to his passengers.
"I'll probably be driving as long as I can get up in a bus," he said.
INDIA PICKENS
Tennessee truck driver convicted of kicking a state trooper in the groin but wanted to do her time back home
THEN: It was August 1995 when India Pickens allegedly got drunk or high - police never determined which - and drove down Interstate 81 in Botetourt County flinging eggs at other truckers.
The truckers forced her off the road and called police, but Pickens refused a sobriety test and kicked a state trooper in the crotch so hard it hospitalized him. She was released on bond, but gave the court a false address and never showed up for trial. She was found in a Tennessee jail a short time later, where she had been locked up for violating probation there.
After she was convicted in Botetourt, Pickens fired off letters to the governors of Tennessee and Virginia, Botetourt County Circuit Judge George Honts and everyone else she could think of, pleading to be able to serve her time in Tennessee near her children, one of whom has a hole in her heart. The sheriff of Fayette County, Tenn. - and a friend of Pickens' father - even wrote to Honts, saying he would gladly take custody of her.
She eventually was released on an appeal bond, but left town without paying all her fines.
NOW: According to Joe McClure, the father of Pickens' ex-husband, Pickens is free and living back in her hometown.
McClure said he has custody of Pickens children, and the one she said has a hole in her heart is healed and no longer in danger.
The Virginia Court of Appeals, meanwhile, has refused to hear Pickens' case, Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom said. So she may be a guest of the Botetourt jail again soon. She did eventually pay her fines.
"She's running around loose, but her days are numbered," Branscom said. "She can delay it, but I don't think she can get out of it."
ROCKY MOUNT
RENTERS
Tenants at a collapsed Rocky Mount apartment building
THEN: About 16 tenants in an apartment building at 707 Greenmeadow Lane were forced out one August night when heavy rains cracked the foundation and caused the big building's substructure to collapse. The building was condemned. A few days later, tenants were allowed to go inside and get most of their belongings.
NOW: Owner and Roanoke landlord William Bratton says repairs to the building should begin in January. His former tenants found other housing around Rocky Mount. At least one of them has no desire to move back into the apartment house. Betty Adkins, who watched as eight inches of mud poured into a neighbor's apartment and twisted his walls, says she's happy in her new home nearby. "I ain't renting from him," she said of Bratton. "I don't care if they do rebuild. I'm safe and happy where I'm at."
JIM PHILLIPS
Embattled constable in the tiny town of Iron Gate
THEN: Phillips resigned his post in Iron Gate last June amid controversy surrounding his conviction on a reckless driving charge he received while chasing someone he believed was driving on a suspended license.
Then-mayor of Iron Gate Otis Payne was plain in his criticism of Phillips' tactics in enforcing the town's 35-mph speed limit. A year before the reckless driving charge, Phillips pulled over an ambulance transporting a heart patient to a Roanoke hospital because it did not have its flashing lights on.
"He gets his thrills out of chasing cars, he's told me that," Payne said at the time.
Phillips, meanwhile, appealed his conviction first to Botetourt County Circuit Court and then the Virginia Court of Appeals. He was determined that his actions during the chase were justified and reasonable for a police officer.
NOW: Phillips is back in the real estate business, managing the Colonial Arms building in downtown Roanoke, among other things. A recent phone call found him hanging out 189 lighted wreaths on the building.
Police work, Phillips has said, has always been a sideline for him. And it's one he apparently can't give up.
A few months after giving up the Iron Gate job, a car flew by Phillips on Interstate 581. Phillips estimated the car's speed, called for police on his cellular phone, and once the car was stopped, swore out a warrant for reckless driving against the car's driver.
A few weeks later, the case came to court, and Phillips' citizen's arrest resulted in a conviction.
Meanwhile, the state court of appeals has agreed to hear Phillips' case, so he may be vindicated yet.
AQUILIA M. BARNETT
Charged with carjacking and killing a man in North Carolina, then gunning down his girlfriend in a Northwest Roanoke street
THEN: Roanoke police began looking for Barnett in April after he was charged with firebombing his former girlfriend's apartment. Robin Williams survived that attack and helped police track Barnett to Charlotte, N.C. Detectives never successfully contacted Charlotte police and did not locate Barnett. But in June, the FBI found him. Barnett was at his mother's Charlotte home. By that time, he had been charged with killing Williams in Roanoke. Barnett also was charged with carjacking a 22-year-old South Carolina man in downtown Charlotte, killing him, and driving the victim's car to Roanoke.
NOW: Barnett is being held in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg jail without bond. Roanoke police have charged him with murder in the shooting death of Williams. And Charlotte-Mecklenburg police charged him with murder and robbery. Barnett's North Carolina charges carry a potential death sentence. His Virginia charges do not. Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said his office has been talking with federal authorities about prosecuting the case and combining the charges from both states. Under federal law, Barnett would face the death penalty.
Staff writers Mary Bishop, Dan Casey, Matt Chittum, Mike Hudson, Richard Foster, Lisa K. Garcia, Laurence Hammack, Sandra Brown Kelly, Christina Nuckols, Diane Struzzi and Jan Vertefeuille contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Long : 366 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File/February 1996. 1. Joshua Howard, 8, stands with hisby CNBfather as they listen to opening speeches of the Thousand Man March
- Roanoke's answer to Louis Farrakhan's national Million Man March.
2. After being ordered to get rid of her three pot-bellied pigs,
Emma Saunders is circulating a petition to change the Vinton
ordinance. 3. File/April 1996. Christine Long is attending Virginia
Tech, the school she was flying down to see with her parents, Bruce
and Barbara, when their plane crashed. 4. They were coming from
Cherry Hill, N.J., but landed (safely) a few counties short of
Virginia Tech Airport when they ran out of fuel. 5. File/September
1996. Sonny Bono caused a stir Sept. 30 when he came to the Hotel
Roanoke to raise money for the re-election of his friend and fellow
Republican, Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke. 6. File/April 1996. Teens
and twentysomethings play "Vampire: The Masquerade" - a live-action
game that has them prowling the City Market as wildly clad vampires
and werewolves. 7. File/April 1996. Anybody who has ever ridden
Amtrak's shuttle between the Marriot hotel in Roanoke and the Amtrak
station in Clifton Forge remembers Harry Messimer, the colorful bus
driver. (headshots) Laughon, Cannaday, Layman, Ewert, Phillips. KEYWORDS: YEAR 1996