ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701030019
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
FOR the fourth year in a row, we asked readers to pick the top local news stories of the year. This time, 212 of you took up the challenge, taking the time to dial into Infoline to register your ratings - with five points for the first place choice, four points for second place, and so forth. Just like the college football polls.
While it's not a scientific survey by any means, there is a remarkable consistency to the results over the years.
For the third time in a four years, a news event related to drunken driving made the Top 10, this time as the first choice.
For the third time in four years, winter weather made the list.
For the third time in four years, the proposed AEP power line electrified readers.
And for the third time in four years, elections were a winner.
Those weren't the only repeats, either. This is the second time Virginia Tech's bowl-bound football team has made the Top 10. The second time for Virginia Military Institute's legal battle over coeducation. And the second time for a murder case that shocked the Roanoke Valley - the murder of a Vinton family of four made 1994's list of readers' top news stories; this year, readers ranked the arrest of the accused killer as one of the year's most important stories.
What will 1997 hold? Considering how many of these stories have yet to reach their conclusion - the first female rats will march at VMI this fall, Earl Bramblett is slated to go on trial next month in the murders, AEP is expected to announce a new power-line route soon, and the winter weather never seems to go away - the new year could look a lot like the old one.
Riverside Quickette's beer license suspended
The Riverside Quickette near Dixie Caverns lost its license to sell beer for 30 days last summer after state Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators determined the convenience store sold beer to a teen-age boy on Dec. 14, 1995. Later that night, the boy, who was driving drunk, struck and killed Bonnie Kitts - a popular teacher for homebound students at Glenvar High School - as she was walking with her husband in her Roanoke County neighborhood.
Underage informants working for the county Police Department bought beer and wine at the convenience store two weeks after the fatal accident. But General District Judge George Harris dismissed criminal charges against a store clerk because, he said, the informants looked older than 21. A high school substance abuse counselor complained to the state's Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission about Harris' ruling. The commission operates under strict rules of confidentiality, and it's not known what action it took.
The 16-year-old driver in the fatal accident, who has not been named in news reports because of his age, was committed to the state's Department of Juvenile Justice for an indeterminate term in March. He spent 30 days in a diagnostic center near Richmond, then 60 days at the Natural Bridge Juvenile Correctional Center, according to the teen's attorney, Charles Phillips of Salem.
The youth is now finishing his high school education and taking college-level courses at Virginia Western Community College, Phillips said. The honor-roll student and former standout athlete hopes to attend the University of Virginia or James Madison University.
A judge also revoked the boy's driver's license until he turns 21 and ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service.
Total points: 292
The near-blizzard of '96
Hurricanes get named in advance; snowstorms get named after the fact - and state climatologist Pat Michaels now jokingly calls the one that hit Western Virginia on Jan. 6 the "Energizer Bunny" storm, because it just kept going and going and going By the time the storm stopped the next afternoon, it had dumped more snow on Roanoke during a 24-hour-period than ever before. The old record was 18 inches set in 1983; this storm deposited 22 inches on Roanoke, 27 inches on the New River Valley and 30 inches in Rockbridge County. But don't call this a blizzard: The meteorologists insist the wind wasn't strong enough to qualify as a blizzard, although it sure felt like one to us nonscientific types.
The storm produced its usual share of human dramas. In the Bedford County community of Big Island, Dr. George Whortley strapped on skis to make his way six miles to a snowbound patient. In Roanoke County, Vinton Town Manager Clay Goodman called a snowplow operator off his regular route to break a path to a woman in labor - Sabrina Catron made it to the hospital in the nick of time. And throughout the region, volunteers with four-wheel drive vehicles ferried doctors and nurses and other emergency workers to hospitals and nursing homes. Whatever the official description, the near-blizzard of '96 was one we'll be talking about for years to come.
Total points: 277
Virginia Tech goes to the Orange Bowl
When Virginia Tech's football team went to the Sugar Bowl following the 1995 season, readers voted that the year's No. 1 story. A season later, Tech posts an even better record - going 10-1 for the first time in the regular season, winning a share of the Big East title, and a berth in an even bigger bowl. But this time, readers rank it as only the third biggest story of the year. Go figure. Maybe we're becoming jaded to big-time college football.
Although Tech had its most successful season on the gridiron - whipping Miami in Miami, trouncing Virginia at home on national TV, going up against defending national champion Nebraska in the Orange Bowl - its football program had a tumultuous year off the field. The year began with former Tech student Christy Brzonkala filing a lawsuit against the school and two players, claiming the players had raped her. A federal judge later threw out the suit - and ruled the Violence Against Women Act unconstitutional in the process. Then in August, a late-night brawl erupted on College Avenue in Blacksburg that led to the indictment of eight current and former players. A ninth player was indicted on unrelated charges. Finally, in December, after Tech President Paul Torgersen had declared "enough is enough," two Tech players were charged with rape and attempted sodomy. In all, since late 1995, 19 current or former Tech football players have been arrested on charges ranging from misdemeanor shoplifting to felony abduction. The most serious of those cases will come to court beginning this month.
Total points: 164
VMI admits women
The women cadets who make history and matriculate in Virginia Military Institute's formerly all-male ranks this fall will get "close cropped" haircuts, same as their male counterparts.
That news came just last month, the latest development as VMI prepares for the admission of women. After six years in court, the 157-year-old state military academy lost its battle to stay all-male in a 7-1 Supreme Court decision issued June 26.
"Many alumni will be heartbroken when they hear it," the school's superintendent, Josiah Bunting III, said that day. "This is not a case of an alumni body wanting to remain exclusive by keeping people out, but rather wanting to hang on to something that made a great difference in their lives."
Thus was launched a three-month debate, most of it held privately, about whether VMI had to admit women, or whether it could go private. The governing Board of Visitors issued its deeply divided answer on Sept. 21. With a 9-8 vote, the board agreed to admit women.
Since then, four women have been accepted. In a recent interview, one said the length of her hair will be the least of her worries if she enters VMI's famed bootcamp-style rat line for freshmen.
In the high court's opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out that there's nothing "inherently unsuitable to women" about any of VMI's rigorous training. The school has said it will change as little as possible, and seems determined to hold the women students to the word of the country's second female Supreme Court justice.
Total points: 151
WAYNE DEEL/Staff
A fire in January 1996 killed (from left in Christmas 1994 photo) Patrick Leftwich, Clyde Leftwich, Mark Leftwich and Nancy Leftwich, and their grandmother, Goldie Duncan. The tragedy, voted the No. 5 news story of 1996, prompted the Roanoke City Council to give inspectors the authority to conduct regular, comprehensive inspections of rental housing on the city's poorest streets.
Deadly fire spurs rental inspection
A January fire that killed a Southeast Roanoke woman and her four grandchildren spurred Roanoke to start a new rental inspection program in 1996.
An overheated extension cord at a downstairs space heater started the fire at 1228 Stewart Ave. S.E. Investigators said the fire burned through a particle-board wall between apartments, trapping the victims upstairs and heating the air to at least 700 degrees.
Goldie Duncan, 46, died of smoke inhalation, along with grandchildren Nancy, Patrick, Clyde and Mark Leftwich, ages 3, 4, 5 and 6.
No criminal complaint was filed against the landlord, WTS of Virginia Inc., but fire investigators sorting through the rubble found no working smoke detectors and no fire-resistant wall between apartments. Both are requirements of the city's building maintenance code and both are features that investigators said might have prevented the deaths.
But because the city did no regular inspections of rental properties - only conducting them when a tenant, neighbor or other citizen complained - inspectors said they had not known of the deficiencies.
Now that's changed. In the aftermath of the fire, City Council last summer gave inspectors the authority to conduct regular, comprehensive inspections of rental housing on the city's poorest streets.
Eventually, owners of the approximately 4,700 rental units in those neighborhoods will be given a choice: free inspections if they voluntarily agree to regular inspections, or a $75 charge per inspection if they wait until a rental unit becomes vacant and an inspection is required.
Total points: 146
Moonshinin' Stanley brothers
The Stanleys of Franklin County created a stir in 1996 when members of the family were arrested three times in two weeks and charged with hauling mass quantities of moonshine up the interstate.
And their attorney, Bill Davis of Rocky Mount, created a stir of his own when he later discovered that an anonymous tipster who turned in the Stanleys on at least one occasion was none other than Jimmy Beheler, a Franklin County special agent with the local moonshine task force.
Davis says he sure would like to know why a Franklin County agent had to resort to becoming a tipster to try to get the Stanleys in trouble in other counties.
Jason Stanley was convicted for hauling moonshine in Frederick, Shenandoah and Albemarle counties. His brother, Scott, was convicted of a moonshine charge in Shenandoah County and an unrelated charge in Frederick County.
Their father, local moonshining legend William Gray "Dee" Stanley, was acquitted after he was charged in Albemarle County, mainly because he wasn't driving the vehicle loaded with liquor.
Davis has appealed the brothers' convictions, and is trying to prove that Beheler acted improperly.
Beheler -who initially told Davis that he wasn't the tipster, but later confirmed it in court testimony - maintains that he did nothing wrong.
Total points: 92
Congressional elections
Goode
Virginians didn't make many changes at the ballot box in 1996.
The biggest election drama may have come not in November, but in the spring when U.S. Sen. John Warner faced a challenge from within his own party. Conservatives, who called him a "traitor" because he spoke out against Republican nominee Oliver North in the 1994 Senate race, rallied behind former federal budget director Jim Miller for the GOP nomination. The state Republican convention at the Salem Civic Center became a virtual pep rally for anti-Warner activists - which Warner pointedly ignored by refusing to set foot inside. About two weeks later, though, more moderate Republican primary voters rebuffed the conservative activists and handed Warner an easy win. He went on to withstand a well-funded and surprisingly stiff challenge by Democrat Mark Warner.
The big election news in Western Virginia was the choice of a new congressman in the 5th District. Democrat L.F. Payne retired, and almost immediately began running for lieutenant governor. To succeed him, the state's most unpredictable Democrat - state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount - squared off against Albemarle County lawyer George Landrith, who came close against Payne in '94. This time, though, Landrith didn't stand much of a chance, not when Goode was regarded in near-mythic proportions by many voters for his independent streak. He took a whopping 86 percent of the vote in Franklin County, 84 percent in neighboring Henry County, and rolled to a lopsided win districtwide. Now the question becomes: What kind of figure will the conservative Goode strike among fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill?
The region's other two congressmen, Republican Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke and Democrat Rick Boucher of Abingdon, also posted easy wins against little-known and poorly funded challengers.
Total points: 90
ROGER HART/Staff
The eighth choice: Earl Bramblett was arraigned in a Roanoke County Circuit Court, accused of murdering a Vinton couple and their two children. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 18.
Bramblett murder charges
Nearly two years after a Vinton couple and their two children were killed in their home, police arrested Earl C. Bramblett and charged him with murder. Bramblett, a friend of Blaine and Teresa Hodges and their two children, became a focus of the investigation within days of the killings. But police won't say what finally led them to seek a grand jury indictment and arrest Bramblett on July 30 at a print shop in Spartanburg, S.C., where he had moved shortly after the Hodges family was killed.
Bramblett has maintained his innocence and did not fight extradition to Virginia. A prosecutor acknowledged there is no eyewitness, no murder weapon, no confession and no informant, but said the case against Bramblett is based on bits and pieces of evidence collected since the August 1994 killings.
Bramblett, who faces the death penalty if convicted, is being held without bond in the Roanoke County-Salem Jail. His trial on one count of capital murder, three counts of first-degree murder, arson and using a firearm was scheduled to begin Feb. 18.
Total points: 85
(tie)
Voter reject Roanoke County school bonds
Roanoke County voters reject school bonds
Voter discontent over taxes and the geographic distribution of bond money derailed a plan in April for a new Cave Spring High School and other school improvements in Roanoke County.
Voters rejected a $37.4 million school bond issue 9,334-7,094 (57 percent to 43 percent) in a referendum that split the county along territorial lines.
The bonds were defeated by 4-1 in the Catawba, Hollins and Vinton magisterial districts, where voters complained that too much money would be spent on the new Cave Spring High. But voters in Cave Spring and Windsor Hills approved the referendum.
Now a county committee is studying building needs at all schools and will make its recommendations early this year.
Total points: 81
ERIC BRADY/Staff
A police chase that ended in the death of three tied for ninth place.
Police chase ends with fatal crash
Scott Allman dragged on a cigarette and hung his left arm out the window as he led police on a high-speed chase April 21 that ended in the deaths of a Vinton couple and their 8-week-old daughter.
Roanoke County and city officers chased Allman more than 17 miles at speeds reaching 90 mph. Allman ran the light at a Hollins intersection and slammed into a car carrying Lori Denise Mason, Thomas Faucher Jr., and their baby, Joleen Faucher.
Allman, 21, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter. Besides the outrage at Allman, the deaths also sparked criticism of police. Some witnesses questioned whether police should risk innocent bystanders' lives to chase minor offenders.
County police first noticed Allman because he appeared to have illegal tinted windows. Allman took off because he was driving on a suspended license and was wanted for failing to appear in court. An internal investigation found the officer who began the pursuit had followed procedure. But it also found that a dispatcher gave the officer incorrect information, leading him to suspect Allman's car was stolen.
Total points: 81
AEP power line
A hardy perennial, American Electric Power's proposal to string a 765,000-volt power line 115 miles from Oceana, W.Va., to Cloverdale also made our readers' list of top stories in 1994 and 1995. It was back again 1996, and at the rate things are going, could well be there again for a few more years. The project received a setback in 1996 when the U.S. Forest Service released the draft of its long-delayed environmental impact statement - and recommended against allowing the power line to cross national forest lands. That ruling, if allowed to stand, would effectively kill the project, because it's virtually impossible to get from one end of the route to another without running into national forests.
AEP - which says the line is essential to prevent blackouts on an overloaded power system - responded by saying it'll come up with a new route sometime early this year, and try to persuade the Forest Service to reconsider. The company first proposed the line in 1990; now the utility estimates it will be 1998 before state and federal governments give their final OK to the project and 2002 before the line is completed. Opponents, who contend the line will ruin the environment and isn't necessary for power needs, anyway, hope to prevail before then.
Total points: 78
Staff writers Mary Bishop, Allison Blake, Laurence Hammack, Mike Hudson, Todd Jackson, Mark Layman and Joel Turner contributed to this report.
. . . And in
years past
Here's what readers ranked as the top stories.
1994
1. Roanoke County cat ordinance.
2. Ice storms.
3. Proposed power line.
4. Controversy over possibility of Virginia Museum of Natural History leaving Martinsville.
5. Family of four murdered in Vinton.
6. Interstate 73 debate.
7. 50th anniversary of D-Day.
8. Salem baseball - a new name and new stadium approved.
9. VMI's fight to stay all-male.
10. Tour DuPont rolls through.
1995
1. Virginia Tech goes to the Sugar Bowl.
2. Hotel Roanoke reopens.
3. Five killed on New Year's Day in Roanoke.
4. General Assembly elections.
5. Proposed power line.
6. Virginia Tech student murdered.
7. Miss Virginia dethroned.
8. Roanoke County judge throws out DUI law.
9. The Big Boy atop the Star City Diner.
10. Gainsboro's First Baptist Church burns.
LENGTH: Long : 345 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. The Virginia Tech Hokies, coached by Frank Beamerby CNB(front), applaud their selection to the 1996 Orange Bowl in Miami.
Although the team's trip to the Sugar Bowl in 1995 was voted that
year's top story, readers chose the Orange Bowl game this year's
third-best. 2. The Riverside Quickette's loss of its license to sell
beer for 30 days was voted the top news story for 1996. 3. Western
Virginians dug out (right) from a near-blizzard in January; it was
voted the No. 2 story of the year. color. 4. Wayne Deel. A fire in
January 1996 killed (from left in Christmas 1994 photo) Patrick
Leftwich, Clyde Leftwich, Mark Leftwich, and their grandmother,
Goldie Duncan. The tragedy, voted the No. 5 news story of 1996,
prompted the Ronanoke City Council to give inspectors the authority
to conduct regular, comprehensive inspections of rental housing on
the city's poorest streets. 5. Eric Brady. A police chase that ended
in the death of three tied for ninth place. 6. The eighth choice:
Earl Bramblett was arraigned in a Roanoke County Circuit Court,
accused of murdering a Vinton couple and their two children. His
trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 18. KEYWORDS: YEAR 1996