THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, September 8, 1994            TAG: 9409080008
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   49 lines

WHY WAS OUR SON KILLED?

You earlier received a letter from us regarding the death of our son, Robert W. Lydon, at the hands of the Virginia Beach Police Department. In the months since his death we have been attempting to obtain the official reports, or any information at all, to help us understand what possible circumstances could have existed which would cause the police to kill him. As you know, we have had no success whatsoever in getting any clear information in this regard.

To give you a better idea of what we have been through, we began by trying to contact several attorneys. I don't recall all of their names, but the list included several prominent attorneys in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. None of them were willing to pursue the case.

We then had our congressman, Randy Cunningham, write to the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to find a way, under the Freedom of Information Act, to obtain copies of the official reports of the case. That effort also failed. Evidently the city of Virginia Beach has carefully exempted itself from the provisions of that act.

Then, in August 1993, a captain of the Virginia Beach Police Department offered, on the telephone, to send a copy of the reports to the police department in the city of Escondido (near where we live) for us to read in the presence of a lieutenant in the Escondido Police Department. We were anxious to at last get to read the document. However, for reasons unclear to us, the Virginia Beach police captain withdrew his offer at the last minute.

That change of heart just about drove us up the wall. To this day we do not understand how the police could make such an offer and then withdraw it without telling us why.

We have also written to Gov. George Allen, Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, the FBI and the ACLU, all without success. It is very clear that the city of Virginia Beach and the Police Department have erected a formidable wall protecting themselves from inquiry in any form.

The bottom line remains: Our son was shot and killed by the police, and we still do not know why! We think it was preventable. We think the reports will reveal the truth. We are convinced that the police have something to hide. All we want is the truth.

STEVE and JANIE LYDON

San Diego, Calif., Aug. 29, 1994 by CNB