ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 TAG: 9704160080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
Ken Stolle, who wants to be attorney general, lists among his accomplishments a criminology degree and a U.S. Supreme Court case. Neither is exactly correct.
The campaign brochures of Republican attorney general front-runner Ken Stolle seek to portray a high-powered lawyer who came up the hard way.
Drawing analogies to Abraham Lincoln, the literature tells how Stolle read law books after working the graveyard shift as a Virginia Beach police officer, passed the state bar exam and became ``a respected and successful attorney representing clients before every court in the land, including the U.S. Supreme Court.''
Those assertions are true, but the claim to have represented clients before the Supreme Court requires some elaboration. So do other points in his campaign messages. Stolle's characterization of his college degree in criminology and authorship of popular anti-crime legislation come with footnotes when he is asked to explain.
If the brochures summon an image of a lawyer speaking before the nine Supreme Court justices, think again. Records show that Stolle has never argued the merits of a case in person or writing before the high court.
He had one matter go to the Supreme Court. Case files show a request from the court for his reply to a routine motion from an opposing attorney seeking to move a libel suit from state to federal jurisdiction.
There is no record of a response in the case docket. Stolle said he did reply, but attorney-client privilege prevents him from discussing the details. The court rejected the opposing lawyer's motion.
Stolle, in an interview Tuesday, said his brochures are not misleading. ``There is no doubt that I am the counsel of record in that case, that it went before the Supreme Court, and that the court ruled in favor of my client,'' he said.
The two-term senator said there is a ``body of evidence'' that backs all assertions in his campaign.
Stolle, 42, a much-decorated former police sergeant, is running for attorney general as the ``top cop.'' He was incredulous that any of his anti-crime credentials would be questioned.
``I don't have to exaggerate or twist my credentials at all," he said . "You can't point to one person in this race who can match my credentials on public safety.''
Stolle said he checked the language of his campaign message with other lawyers. He said it would be inaccurate only if he claimed to have appeared before the high court.
Stolle does not mention a specific case in his literature but cites the 1989 libel suit when asked. The Supreme Court clerk's office says Stolle has had no other business before the court. Records also show that Stolle has never applied for admission to the Supreme Court bar - a necessity for lawyers who bring cases before the tribunal.
The high-profile Republican leader also says he is author of several popular anti-crime laws - including the abolition of parole. Allen administration sources say Stolle played an integral role in pushing the legislation through the Senate, but they add that the bills were technically written by lawyers in the attorney general's office.
There is private disagreement among the governor's advisers about whether Stolle is entitled to call himself author of the anti-crime laws. There is consensus that many people, including Stolle, were involved in drafting and reviewing the bills.
Stolle points to his chairmanship of a subcommittee that oversaw some of the drafting. His status as the person who introduced the bills in the Senate, he said, entitles him to claim authorship.
George Allen is widely credited with introducing the no-parole concept to Virginia voters, before any legislation was drafted, when he ran for governor in 1993.
Stolle has listed a criminology degree from Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga., on his campaign and General Assembly resums since 1991. It has been central to his image as a gritty crime fighter, and he refers to it constantly in speeches.
``Ken Stolle did not attend a fancy Ivy League school,'' says a brochure. ``Instead, he built on his criminology degree by reading the law and passing the bar and starting his own law firm.''
However, Berry College has never offered a degree in criminology. Stolle took several criminal justice courses, but his bachelor of science degree is in interdisciplinary studies.
A course catalog from Stolle's freshman year in 1972 described the interdisciplinary program as designed for a student ``wishing to plan his own course of study'' in a field in which Berry did not offer a degree.
His emphasis was in criminal justice, and the registrar, Charles Gilbreath, says Stolle can accurately claim that as his major.
But Gordon Carper, a longtime sociology professor at Berry who created the interdisciplinary studies program, said it would be a ``distortion'' to say Stolle's degree is in criminology.
``If he added one word - `interdisciplinary' - I would say it is very accurate,'' he said.
Interdisciplinary programs offer less training than some traditional curricula, Carper said. For example, criminal justice majors at the University of Maryland must take 10 courses in their major and six in a related minor such as sociology or psychology to earn an undergraduate degree.
Berry required eight to 10 courses in criminal justice, psychology or sociology, and political science or history to confer an interdisciplinary degree. ``The content is a great deal weaker than at an urban university where they may require 50 credits for a degree,'' Carper said.
Stolle said if he has caused any confusion about his degree, it was not intentional.
``Whenever I've applied for a job, I've listed it as a bachelor's in criminology because that's what my [college] adviser told me,'' he said.
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE FILE. Ken Stolle (right) saysby CNBthere is a ``body of evidence'' that backs all assertions in his
campaign. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS ATTORNEY GENERAL