ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997             TAG: 9702060067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press

AFTER 19 YEARS, JUNK CAR DWELLER MUST MOVE THEM

A woman who has lived for nearly 19 years in two junk station wagons on her property and feuded with her neighbors for even longer than that will finally have to move.

Pauline Hamlin, 66, was cited Monday for having two inoperative station wagons on her property. She has until Feb. 12 to remove the cars.

Hamlin denies living in the cars, but officials who searched the cars said they were stuffed with her personal belongings.

They say Hamlin has lived in the wagons since a suspicious fire gutted her house in March 1978. But her troubles date back to 1974, when she was convicted of assault and battery for attacking a neighbor and two police officers who came to her door, according to court documents.

In response to the charges, she filed a $200,000 suit against all three men, alleging they had no right to enter her house and batter her.

Hamlin lost the case in Charlottesville Circuit Court in January 1976. One of the officers, Robert Wayne Tonker, then sued her for defamation and won a $22,533 judgment against her.

When Hamlin didn't pay, Tonker obtained a court order to auction the house and split the proceeds with her creditors.

But a suspicious fire gutted the house hours before the auction.

Investigators concluded the fire was set in three rooms with a petroleum-based substance; Hamlin was charged with arson.

A neighbor testified she saw Hamlin running from the property minutes before smoke started pouring from the house. Another testified that Hamlin had mentioned burning the house instead of losing it.

But a judge dismissed the case because he could not be certain that Hamlin was the only person who could have started the blaze.

Hamlin has lived in her station wagons ever since, officials and neighbors say.

Frustrated neighbors who gathered Monday to watch city police Sgt. Ronnie Roberts peer into the woman's station wagons said they think more should be done.

``I'm happy that something was done, but it was not enough,'' said Denny Maupin, president of the Northerly Neighborhood Watch Association. ``The lot is unsightly. The foundation still represents a safety hazard.''

Since 1974, Hamlin has been party to at least 15 lawsuits - ranging from personal injury to defamation - filed in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

Hamlin could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and she declined to be interviewed for a story by The Daily Progress.

She also has a newer, functional Chevrolet wagon on her property.

LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Grover Smiley, a Charlottesville building inspector,
          talks with Pauline Hamlin. Hamlin, who lives out of two station 
          wagons on her property, has been ordered to remove them and clean up
          trash on her lot.