ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070066
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA AND ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITERS
A guilty verdict would have meant a $15 fine; but that was apparently too much for Joe Stewart.
The 16-year member of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors known for his sharp tongue and forthright manner took an attorney with him to court Monday to fight a charge of not displaying a county decal on his truck.
The farmer and livestock auctioneer, just 22 days shy of his 82nd birthday, pleaded not guilty in Montgomery General District Court.
District Judge J.T. Frith chastised the supervisor for his behavior Monday before dismissing the charge, telling him, "I would expect a little more responsibility out of you since you are a county supervisor."
Stewart told the judge he was irritated by the ticket because he had a sticker, he just was waiting for his grandson to put it on his windshield for him.
"I have a hard time seeing, and I can't get them on straight," Stewart told the judge.
But Stewart had told the Board of Supervisors at its last meeting in December that his failure to put the sticker on "was just one of those things I didn't do."
Stewart called the incident, "plum damn silly" and said "over-action on the deputy sheriff's part was to blame."
"I think we ought to send the sheriff a letter," Stewart told the other supervisors. "Tell him to kind of draw his horns in a little bit."
Board Chairman Henry Jablonski replied, "We wish you well in court."
Nobody offered to write the letter Stewart mentioned.
Stewart even attempted to contact Sheriff Doug Marrs personally on Dec. 3, the day after the incident, but without the results he wanted - Marrs refused to do anything about the ticket, Stewart told the board.
Contacted by phone Monday, Marrs declined to comment about the ticket.
The incident began on election night, Nov. 5, when Deputy M.M. Wilburn warned Stewart that his license tags were expired and he needed to buy a county decal.
About a month later, Wilburn responded to a call at Stewart's farm where two of the man's ponies had been shot. Wilburn, again, warned the supervisor that he needed a decal.
Later that evening, after a Dec. 2 county meeting, Wilburn pulled Stewart over because he still did not have a sticker displayed. Eventually, Stewart found his decal on his dash beneath some papers and showed the deputy.
Wilburn said when he tried to ticket Stewart, the supervisor argued and refused to sign it.
He said he "would rather go to jail" than sign the ticket, Wilburn testified.
The deputy told Stewart he did not want to arrest him and asked him to please sign the summons, but Stewart continued to balk. Stewart never signed the ticket; the deputy let the matter drop until the court date.
The next day, Stewart had two stickers on his windshield: the original and a duplicate he'd bought when he briefly misplaced the original.
Wilburn told the court that it's against the law to display more than one sticker.
"He may ticket you again," Frith said to Stewart. "He's doing his job, and you're being difficult."
Stewart apologized and said he did not know displaying two stickers was illegal. He said his only intent was to make sure the deputy saw his sticker.
Frith gave the supervisor and his attorney 30 minutes to walk to the courthouse parking lot, remove one of the decals and return to court with the debris. Once they returned, Frith dismissed the charge.
"I try to be fair to everybody," Wilburn told a reporter after the case was dismissed.
As evidence to his word, Wilburn said he even ticketed his own mother while working in another county.
"It was for failure to yield the right of way after an accident," Wilburn said.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Joe Stewart. color.by CNB