THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300541
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Court papers made public Thursday identify the material seized earlier this week from the home and car of Trooper Vernon R. Richards, who is charged with planting explosive devices in Virginia Beach and Hampton.
Richards, a state police bomb expert, was arrested early Tuesday, shortly after the searches were concluded.
Among the items taken by law enforcement officials were a how-to book on terrorism titled ``The Terrorist's Handbook,'' several containers of dynamite and numerous other items that could be used to build bombs and other explosive devices.
Police took a wide variety of military fuses, cord used for detonations, fireworks and primer caps from the trooper's home and his car, which was parked outside of Hampton police headquarters.
The book on terrorism and several hand tools were found at his home on Stonewall Terrace, a quiet residential street in the Northampton neighborhood of Hampton.
According to papers filed in Hampton Circuit Court, a stick of dynamite was removed from the Richards house by members of the Virginia State Police bomb squad and agents of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms just before Hampton police searched the house early Tuesday morning.
Richards, 41, remains in the Virginia Beach City Jail without bond. He is charged with planting three explosive devices in the Hampton General District Court building on Sept. 13 and two other devices earlier this summer, one at Hampton's Coliseum Mall and the other at Virginia Beach's Lynnhaven Mall.
Richards, a canine-handler for the state police, used his black Labrador Master Blaster to find all but one of the devices. by CNB