ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PENHOOK
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
HE'S A CANDIDATE for state attorney general. He's helping Paula Jones sue the president. And a client has him on video offering to help her get into Playboy.
Gilbert Davis has gained national prominence as the attorney for Paula Jones, the woman suing Bill Clinton for sexual harassment.
But he also has a local female client who is trying to discredit him.
Ramona Hines, the outspoken woman whose affair with a Channel 57 co-worker was exposed in 1994 on Cable 6, Henry County's thrill-a-minute television station, has a videotape of an encounter she and her husband had with Davis about a year later.
Hines said she had been approached about parlaying her 15 minutes of fame into a photo layout in Playboy magazine.
Davis, drink in hand and aware the camera is running, discusses that possibility with Hines on the video. He tells her: "I know what you want to do. You want to take your clothes off."
Hines giggles and Davis later says, "You want to take all of your clothes off and expose your body."
After Hines' husband, Glen, makes a comment about Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, the discussion turns to ways Davis might be able to help Hines get in touch with the magazine.
"Just leave it in my hands," the lawyer says.
He tells Hines several times during the conversation he will tell her more if she shuts the camera off.
Hines, who showed the tape to a Roanoke Times reporter Tuesday afternoon, said it shows a different side of Davis than the one the public has seen in recent weeks.
Davis, who is also a Republican candidate for state attorney general, said Tuesday he cannot comment on Hines' accusations.
"As long as I represent her, I can't say anything that might hurt her," Davis said in a statement read by a campaign spokeswoman, Cindy Hays.
But Hays and Jim Jones, another of Davis' campaign staffers, questioned Hines' motive and credibility.
"I think this woman might not understand reality," Hays said.
Jones said Davis' only mistake was that he took Hines on as a client.
"I don't think she's a very credible individual," he said. "If I thought Gil was not a reputable person, I'd walk out of here in a minute."
Hines hired Davis as her attorney when she sued her former employer, Channel 57 in Martinsville, after the station fired her in the midst of the Cable 6 expos.
Hines said she was disappointed with the way Davis has handled her case and that his conduct in the video - which Hines said she shot in a room at the Roanoke Marriott in the winter of 1995 - contradicts the pro-women's-rights stance he has taken with the Paula Jones case.
Hines, who had no problem with Davis' comments at the time the video was shot, said Tuesday that a man of Davis' standing shouldn't have made them.
She said she was partying a lot at the time the video was made and has since cleaned up her life. But she's unable to get a job now, she said, because of the publicity surrounding her affair with Bill Wyatt, who was a news anchor at Channel 57 and later with Cable 6.
She sued Channel 57 for $250,00, claiming wrongful dismissal and discrimination. The case is pending.
Her husband can't work because of a back problem, and the family, which includes two children, is having problems making ends meet, she said.
When asked about the timing of her accusations and the fact that some might think she's an opportunist, Hines said she simply wants to settle her case with Channel 57 and get on with her life.
She said she's angry because she thinks Davis put her case on the back burner.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART STAFF. Ramona Hines stands by as the tape ofby CNBher conversation with Gilbert Davis plays on a TV at her
Pittsylvania County home. color.