THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410150215
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 397 lines
Brace yourself for 24 days of wild sex and drugs.
Republican challenger Oliver L. North began his long-anticipated assault on Sen. Charles S. Robb's character this week, and you can bet he won't let up until Election Day.
At the dark heart of it all is the 1982-1986 term Robb served as governor, when his splash into the Virginia Beach social scene resulted in what may be the most sordid, scandalous inquisition ever in Virginia politics.
Though Robb has tried to put the matter behind him, questions about his past continue to provide fodder for political enemies:
Did a U.S. senator, while governor of Virginia, use cocaine? Those allegations have never elevated beyond rumor.
Did he look the other way while friends snorted the drug in his presence? That claim is equally obscure.
Was Robb once embroiled in a fast-and-loose private lifestyle that included socializing with drug users and young women? That charge is better supported, but still little more than cloakroom gossip.
A smattering of Robb's former acquaintances still claim they saw him snort cocaine in the mid-1980s. Others say he was at parties where cocaine was openly used, sometimes right in front of him. Robb has denied ever knowingly being in the company of people using drugs.
He visited Virginia Beach about 100 times while governor, often with no official duties there, often without his wife. His former aides have named four women they claimed had sexual encounters with Robb, and suggested there were several more.
Friends and foes alike say Robb was enamored of the fast-paced, bull-market lifestyle that thrived in parts of Virginia Beach. Middle-aged, handsome and popular, he frequented the governor's vacation house maintained at Camp Pendleton, often wading off the grounds into the Croatan social scene.
He made friends. His friends threw parties. And at some of those parties, most agree, people likely had cocaine.
Robb has little trouble discounting charges that he used or condoned drugs. Most of the people leveling them have criminal records, drug problems or were paid to talk.
Less manageable, however, are claims that he socialized openly with drug users, and privately with women half his age.
Robb has admitted attending parties thrown by known drug dealers but says he didn't realize it at the time. He has acknowledged some unspecified marital indiscretion but said his wife has asked him not to discuss it publicly.
Robb's wife says she has forgiven him, and police investigating the 1980s drug scene said publicly that Robb was never a target. He has never been charged or accused of any illegal activity involving his weekends in Virginia Beach, and there is no evidence he was ever even a suspect.
Except in the court of public and political opinion.
``Had Robb not had these difficulties, this year's race would be a repeat of 1988, when he ran away with the election,'' predicted Ken Geroe, a longtime Democratic Party official from Virginia Beach.
``Republicans would be running away from him.''
Instead, Robb's opponents have charged straight at him.
Senate primary candidate Virgil Goode, a state senator seeking to steal Robb's Democratic nomination last summer, warned voters that Republicans would ``ask Chuck Robb about his parties with prostitutes and drug criminals.'' Former independent candidate L. Douglas Wilder often chided Robb publicly for associating with drug users, saying he was ``unfit for office.''
Independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman ran advertisements claiming Robb is a poor candidate because he attended wild parties: ``the kind where the drinks are stronger than root beer and they take refreshment through their noses.''
And this week, North began airing commercials naming four men - all of them Robb associates, all of them convicted drug dealers, the ad claimed.
Robb calls linking him to drugs ``flat-out wrong.''
``There was simply no wrongdoing on my part in any way, shape or form,'' he said this week.
Charges of womanizing, he says, ``I haven't tried to defend.''
``But, unfortunately . . . everyone just fills in the rest of the story.''
But Geroe, like many others, thinks Robb is partly to blame.
``When it first came up, he wasn't completely up-front,'' Geroe said. ``So everyone (in the press) figured where there's smoke, there must be fire.''
When rumors that he frequented the Virginia Beach party scene surfaced in 1987, Robb was considering his first bid for U.S. Senate. When asked questions about his past, he deflected them. It was his ``private time,'' he said, and no one's business.
When reports appeared in 1988 that he socialized frequently with 10 men who were later convicted, indicted or granted immunity on drug-related charges, Robb kept his distance. His response: He wouldn't know illegal drugs if he saw them.
A 1988 poll from a Washington-based research firm, conducted for Robb's staff, showed that 77 percent of Virginians didn't believe that claim.
``The least believable argument, even for Robb supporters, is that he has never seen illegal drugs in his life,'' a summary of the poll results read. ``Even if this is accurate, we gain nothing by using it.''
Robb successfully passed a drug screening in August 1988 and was elected to the U.S. Senate three months later.
Rumors were already spreading about his relationship with young women at the Beach, particularly former Miss Virginia-USA Tai Collins.
When asked about Collins in 1988, Robb said: ``One time, in New York, I did have a drink with her and that was it.'' In an interview with The Washington Post a year later, he acknowledged receiving a nude massage.
Meanwhile, local private detective Billy Franklin had been investigating Robb, financed by a Richmond doctor who later proved to be receiving money from Republicans. Robb's aides went to Virginia Beach, in hopes of controlling the story before it turned to political poison.
They questioned former associates, paid for information and once traveled to Boston to interview a woman who claimed to have had an affair with Robb - always hoping to find out what the rumors were and how far they had spread.
Months later, Franklin published a book titled ``Tough Enough: the cocaine investigation of United States Senator Chuck Robb.''
In the book, Franklin offered three people who claimed to have witnessed Robb using cocaine in 1983 and 1984. Two more were unnamed. Franklin claims four others signed statements, agreeing to come forward if Robb tried to sue. He never did.
``There's only one reason he didn't sue, and it's because everything in there was 100 percent true,'' said Franklin, who still operates a Norfolk detective agency.
Sources who could be reached said they stand by their stories, but their credibility is questionable. One was in jail on drug charges, another used to work for Franklin. An employee of Franklin's detective agency paid a third source $300 to talk. Another was an admitted coke addict.
Perhaps the most credible story comes from Virginia Beach businessman Gary Pope. In a 1991 interview on national television, Pope described in some detail seeing Robb near a woman snorting cocaine at a Croatan Christmas party in 1983. The man who threw the party, clothing wholesaler John Bennis, was among a handful of Robb acquaintances granted immunity to testify in a federal drug investigation.
But Pope's story is contradicted by scores of people who attended the same party. And even some of Robb's most cynical critics doubt Pope really saw what he thinks he saw.
``What you have is a lot of people who had the opportunity to make themselves feel important by trying to create some type of personal association with Chuck Robb,'' said Bruce L. Thompson, a friend of the then-governor during the mid-1980s. ``It's been blown out of proportion by people who wouldn't know anything anyway.''
Thompson said Robb's association with drug users has been exaggerated as well. He pointed to North's recent television commercial, which named four Robb acquaintances said to have served drug-related jail terms.
``Chuck Robb has never met any of them, other than in casual passing,'' Thompson said.
But Thompson, who frequently entertained Robb at his Croatan home, is often at the center of many of the Democrat's alleged doings. Thompson was granted immunity for testifying in a federal drug inquiry, a move he said was made to avoid ``the prevailing political storm,'' not because there was any evidence against him.
Thompson was secretly taped while talking with two friends in 1991, by federal agents investigating possible violations of wiretapping laws by Robb and his staff.
In a transcript of the conversation, contained in federal court papers, Thompson predicted Robb's campaign chairman would never implicate him because Thompson knew too much: ``He's got to think, `Shit, Bruce knows everything. If I go and tag Bruce, damn, no telling what he's gonna start talking about,' '' Thompson said in the transcript.
Efforts by Robb's staff to stall Franklin's book and find out what reporters knew about his Virginia Beach partying ultimately brought more information into the public fray.
A 1990 memo prepared by Robb's then-press secretary Steve Johnson - intended as a private memo to Robb but later leaked to the media - named 16 people it claimed had knowledge of womanizing or some exposure to drugs by Robb. At least six women - four of them listed by name - claimed to have engaged in oral sex with Robb, the memo said. None has ever agreed to talk publicly.
``Is it really going to matter what I say?'' asked one of Robb's former Croatan associates.
``I talked about it five years ago, and it didn't make one bit of difference. I've got a family and a new life now. I just want to forget about it.''
Political friends warned Robb about the crowd at Virginia Beach. Robb ran the names of associates by the state police and other politicians, and never found any reason to be worried, he said.
Many of the drug users who have been linked to Robb were never friends, Robb said. He remembers meeting one of them only once at a volleyball tournament, for instance. Others he said he remembers only from newspaper articles.
Robb acknowledges attending a July 4, 1984, party at the North End home of Ray Parsons, a known drug dealer who hanged himself in jail in 1987.
But he said his family and the state police went along. ``There were several hundred people that spilled over three or four city blocks,'' he said.
``Would I have known that there were some people at the Beach who were heavily into drugs? No, I had no idea,'' Robb said in a recent interview. ``I assume there was a minor amount of drug usage in any city, but it never came close to me.
``Obviously, it was not the drug scene that attracted me to the Beach. And if I had even a whiff of things that related to drugs, I wouldn't have stayed.''
Robb acknowledges the political damage that his private life has caused his public life.
``I hope someday, after I'm out of politics, to write a book,'' Robb said. ``I think it would be a fascinating book.'' MEMO: Staff writer David Poole contributed to this article.
Related story on page A6.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Charles Robb
KEYWORDS: SENATE RACE CANDIDATE CAMPAIGN PROFILE BIOGRAPHY
BRACE YOURSELF FOR 24 DAYS OF WILD SEX AND DRUGS.
REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER OLIVER L. NORTH BEGAN HIS LONG-ANTICIPATED
ASSAULT ON SEN. CHARLES S. ROBB'S CHARACTER THIS WEEK, AND YOU CAN
BET HE WON'T LET UP UNTIL ELECTION DAY.
AT THE DARK HEART OF IT ALL IS THE 1982-1986 TERM ROBB SERVED AS
GOVERNOR, WHEN HIS SPLASH INTO THE VIRGINIA BEACH SOCIAL SCENE
RESULTED IN WHAT MAY BE THE MOST SORDID, SCANDALOUS INQUISITION EVER
IN VIRGINIA POLITICS.
THOUGH ROBB HAS TRIED TO PUT THE MATTER BEHIND HIM, QUESTIONS
ABOUT HIS PAST CONTINUE TO PROVIDE FODDER FOR POLITICAL ENEMIES:
DID A U.S. SENATOR, WHILE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, USE COCAINE?
THOSE ALLEGATIONS HAVE NEVER ELEVATED BEYOND RUMOR.
DID HE LOOK THE OTHER WAY WHILE FRIENDS SNORTED THE DRUG IN HIS
PRESENCE? THAT CLAIM IS EQUALLY OBSCURE.
WAS ROBB ONCE EMBROILED IN A FAST-AND-LOOSE PRIVATE LIFESTYLE
THAT INCLUDED SOCIALIZING WITH DRUG USERS AND YOUNG WOMEN? THAT
CHARGE IS BETTER SUPPORTED, BUT STILL LITTLE MORE THAN CLOAKROOM
GOSSIP.
A SMATTERING OF ROBB'SFORMER ACQUAINTANCES STILL CLAIM THEY SAW
HIM SNORT COCAINE IN THE MID-1980S. OTHERS SAY HE WAS AT PARTIES
WHERE COCAINE WAS OPENLY USED, SOMETIMES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. ROBB
HAS DENIED EVER KNOWINGLY BEING IN THE COMPANY OF PEOPLE USING
DRUGS.
HE VISITED VIRGINIA BEACH ABOUT 100 TIMES WHILE GOVERNOR, OFTEN
WITH NO OFFICIAL DUTIES THERE, OFTEN WITHOUT HIS WIFE. HIS FORMER
AIDES HAVE NAMED FOUR WOMEN THEY CLAIMED HAD SEXUAL ENCOUNTERS WITH
ROBB, AND SUGGESTED THERE WERE SEVERAL MORE.
FRIENDS AND FOES ALIKE SAY ROBB WAS ENAMORED OF THE FAST-PACED,
BULL-MARKET LIFESTYLE THAT THRIVED IN PARTS OF VIRGINIA BEACH.
MIDDLE-AGED, HANDSOME AND POPULAR, HE FREQUENTED THE GOVERNOR'S
VACATION HOUSE MAINTAINED AT CAMP PENDLETON, OFTEN WADING OFF THE
GROUNDS INTO THE CROATAN SOCIAL SCENE.
HE MADE FRIENDS. HIS FRIENDS THREW PARTIES. AND AT SOME OF THOSE
PARTIES, MOST AGREE, PEOPLE LIKELY HAD COCAINE.
ROBB HAS LITTLE TROUBLE DISCOUNTING CHARGES THAT HE USED OR
CONDONED DRUGS. MOST OF THE PEOPLE LEVELING THEM HAVE CRIMINAL
RECORDS, DRUG PROBLEMS OR WERE PAID TO TALK.
LESS MANAGEABLE, HOWEVER, ARE CLAIMS THAT HE SOCIALIZED OPENLY
WITH DRUG USERS, AND PRIVATELY WITH WOMEN HALF HIS AGE.
ROBB HAS ADMITTED ATTENDING PARTIES THROWN BY KNOWN DRUG DEALERS
BUT SAYS HE DIDN'T REALIZE IT AT THE TIME. HE HAS ACKNOWLEDGED SOME
UNSPECIFIED MARITAL INDISCRETION BUT SAID HIS WIFE HAS ASKED HIM NOT
TO DISCUSS IT PUBLICLY.
ROBB'S WIFE SAYS SHE HAS FORGIVEN HIM, AND POLICE INVESTIGATING
THE 1980S DRUG SCENE SAID PUBLICLY THAT ROBB WAS NEVER A TARGET. HE
HAS NEVER BEEN CHARGED OR ACCUSED OF ANY ILLEGAL ACTIVITY INVOLVING
HIS WEEKENDS IN VIRGINIA BEACH, AND THERE IS NO EVIDENCE HE WAS EVER
EVEN A SUSPECT.
EXCEPT IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC AND POLITICAL OPINION.
``HAD ROBB NOT HAD THESE DIFFICULTIES, THIS YEAR'S RACE WOULD BE
A REPEAT OF 1988, WHEN HE RAN AWAY WITH THE ELECTION,'' PREDICTED
KEN GEROE, A LONGTIME DEMOCRATIC PARTY OFFICIAL FROM VIRGINIA
BEACH.
``REPUBLICANS WOULD BE RUNNING AWAY FROM HIM.''
INSTEAD, ROBB'S OPPONENTS HAVE CHARGED STRAIGHT AT HIM.
SENATE PRIMARY CANDIDATE VIRGIL GOODE, A STATE SENATOR SEEKING TO
STEAL ROBB'S DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION LAST SUMMER, WARNED VOTERS THAT
REPUBLICANS WOULD ``ASK CHUCK ROBB ABOUT HIS PARTIES WITH
PROSTITUTES AND DRUG CRIMINALS.'' FORMER INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE L.
DOUGLAS WILDER OFTEN CHIDED ROBB PUBLICLY FOR ASSOCIATING WITH DRUG
USERS, SAYING HE WAS ``UNFIT FOR OFFICE.''
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE J. MARSHALL COLEMAN RAN ADVERTISEMENTS
CLAIMING ROBB IS A POOR CANDIDATE BECAUSE HE ATTENDED WILD PARTIES:
``THE KIND WHERE THE DRINKS ARE STRONGER THAN ROOT BEER AND THEY
TAKE REFRESHMENT THROUGH THEIR NOSES.''
AND THIS WEEK, NORTH BEGAN AIRING COMMERCIALS NAMING FOUR MEN -
ALL OF THEM ROBB ASSOCIATES, ALL OF THEM CONVICTED DRUG DEALERS, THE
AD CLAIMED.
ROBB CALLS LINKING HIM TO DRUGS ``FLAT-OUT WRONG.''
``THERE WAS SIMPLY NO WRONGDOING ON MY PART IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR
FORM,'' HE SAID THIS WEEK.
CHARGES OF WOMANIZING, HE SAYS, ``I HAVEN'T TRIED TO DEFEND.''
``BUT, UNFORTUNATELY . . . EVERYONE JUST FILLS IN THE REST OF THE
STORY.''
BUT GEROE, LIKE MANY OTHERS, THINKS ROBB IS PARTLY TO BLAME.
``WHEN IT FIRST CAME UP, HE WASN'T COMPLETELY UP-FRONT,'' GEROE
SAID. ``SO EVERYONE (IN THE PRESS) FIGURED WHERE THERE'S SMOKE,
THERE MUST BE FIRE.''
WHEN RUMORS THAT HE FREQUENTED THE VIRGINIA BEACH PARTY SCENE
SURFACED IN 1987, ROBB WAS CONSIDERING HIS FIRST BID FOR U.S.
SENATE. WHEN ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS PAST, HE DEFLECTED THEM. IT
WAS HIS ``PRIVATE TIME,'' HE SAID, AND NO ONE'S BUSINESS.
WHEN REPORTS APPEARED IN 1988 THAT HE SOCIALIZED FREQUENTLY WITH
10 MEN WHO WERE LATER CONVICTED, INDICTED OR GRANTED IMMUNITY ON
DRUG-RELATED CHARGES, ROBB KEPT HIS DISTANCE. HIS RESPONSE: HE
WOULDN'T KNOW ILLEGAL DRUGS IF HE SAW THEM.
A 1988 POLL FROM A WASHINGTON-BASED RESEARCH FIRM, CONDUCTED FOR
ROBB'S STAFF, SHOWED THAT 77 PERCENT OF VIRGINIANS DIDN'T BELIEVE
THAT CLAIM.
``THE LEAST BELIEVABLE ARGUMENT, EVEN FOR ROBB SUPPORTERS, IS
THAT HE HAS NEVER SEEN ILLEGAL DRUGS IN HIS LIFE,'' A SUMMARY OF THE
POLL RESULTS READ. ``EVEN IF THIS IS ACCURATE, WE GAIN NOTHING BY
USING IT.''
ROBB SUCCESSFULLY PASSED A DRUG SCREENING IN AUGUST 1988 AND WAS
ELECTED TO THE U.S. SENATE THREE MONTHS LATER.
RUMORS WERE ALREADY SPREADING ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUNG
WOMEN AT THE BEACH, PARTICULARLY FORMER MISS VIRGINIA-USA TAI
COLLINS.
WHEN ASKED ABOUT COLLINS IN 1988, ROBB SAID: ``ONE TIME, IN NEW
YORK, I DID HAVE A DRINK WITH HER AND THAT WAS IT.'' IN AN INTERVIEW
WITH THE WASHINGTON POST A YEAR LATER, HE ACKNOWLEDGED RECEIVING A
NUDE MASSAGE.
MEANWHILE, LOCAL PRIVATE DETECTIVE BILLY FRANKLIN HAD BEEN
INVESTIGATING ROBB, FINANCED BY A RICHMOND DOCTOR WHO LATER PROVED
TO BE RECEIVING MONEY FROM REPUBLICANS. ROBB'S AIDES WENT TO
VIRGINIA BEACH, IN HOPES OF CONTROLLING THE STORY BEFORE IT TURNED
TO POLITICAL POISON.
THEY QUESTIONED FORMER ASSOCIATES, PAID FOR INFORMATION AND ONCE
TRAVELED TO BOSTON TO INTERVIEW A WOMAN WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE HAD AN
AFFAIR WITH ROBB - ALWAYS HOPING TO FIND OUT WHAT THE RUMORS WERE
AND HOW FAR THEY HAD SPREAD.
MONTHS LATER, FRANKLIN PUBLISHED A BOOK TITLED ``TOUGH ENOUGH:
THE COCAINE INVESTIGATION OF UNITED STATES SENATOR CHUCK ROBB.''
IN THE BOOK, FRANKLIN OFFERED THREE PEOPLE WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE
WITNESSED ROBB USING COCAINE IN 1983 AND 1984. TWO MORE WERE
UNNAMED. FRANKLIN CLAIMS FOUR OTHERS SIGNED STATEMENTS, AGREEING TO
COME FORWARD IF ROBB TRIED TO SUE. HE NEVER DID.
``THERE'S ONLY ONE REASON HE DIDN'T SUE, AND IT'S BECAUSE
EVERYTHING IN THERE WAS 100 PERCENT TRUE,'' SAID FRANKLIN, WHO STILL
OPERATES A NORFOLK DETECTIVE AGENCY.
SOURCES WHO COULD BE REACHED SAID THEY STAND BY THEIR STORIES,
BUT THEIR CREDIBILITY IS QUESTIONABLE. ONE WAS IN JAIL ON DRUG
CHARGES, ANOTHER USED TO WORK FOR FRANKLIN. AN EMPLOYEE OF
FRANKLIN'S DETECTIVE AGENCY PAID A THIRD SOURCE $300 TO TALK.
ANOTHER WAS AN ADMITTED COKE ADDICT.
PERHAPS THE MOST CREDIBLE STORY COMES FROM VIRGINIA BEACH
BUSINESSMAN GARY POPE. IN A 1991 INTERVIEW ON NATIONAL TELEVISION,
POPE DESCRIBED IN SOME DETAIL SEEING ROBB NEAR A WOMAN SNORTING
COCAINE AT A CROATAN CHRISTMAS PARTY IN 1983. THE MAN WHO THREW THE
PARTY, CLOTHING WHOLESALER JOHN BENNIS, WAS AMONG A HANDFUL OF ROBB
ACQUAINTANCES GRANTED IMMUNITY TO TESTIFY IN A FEDERAL DRUG
INVESTIGATION.
BUT POPE'S STORY IS CONTRADICTED BY SCORES OF PEOPLE WHO ATTENDED
THE SAME PARTY. AND EVEN SOME OF ROBB'S MOST CYNICAL CRITICS DOUBT
POPE REALLY SAW WHAT HE THINKS HE SAW.
``WHAT YOU HAVE IS A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO
MAKE THEMSELVES FEEL IMPORTANT BY TRYING TO CREATE SOME TYPE OF
PERSONAL ASSOCIATION WITH CHUCK ROBB,'' SAID BRUCE L. THOMPSON, A
FRIEND OF THE THEN-GOVERNOR DURING THE MID-1980S. ``IT'S BEEN BLOWN
OUT OF PROPORTION BY PEOPLE WHO WOULDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ANYWAY.''
THOMPSON SAID ROBB'S ASSOCIATION WITH DRUG USERS HAS BEEN
EXAGGERATED AS WELL. HE POINTED TO NORTH'S RECENT TELEVISION
COMMERCIAL, WHICH NAMED FOUR ROBB ACQUAINTANCES SAID TO HAVE SERVED
DRUG-RELATED JAIL TERMS.
``CHUCK ROBB HAS NEVER MET ANY OF THEM, OTHER THAN IN CASUAL
PASSING,'' THOMPSON SAID.
BUT THOMPSON, WHO FREQUENTLY ENTERTAINED ROBB AT HIS CROATAN
HOME, IS OFTEN AT THE CENTER OF MANY OF THE DEMOCRAT'S ALLEGED
DOINGS. THOMPSON WAS GRANTED IMMUNITY FOR TESTIFYING IN A FEDERAL
DRUG INQUIRY, A MOVE HE SAID WAS MADE TO AVOID ``THE PREVAILING
POLITICAL STORM,'' NOT BECAUSE THERE WAS ANY EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM.
THOMPSON WAS SECRETLY TAPED WHILE TALKING WITH TWO FRIENDS IN
1991, BY FEDERAL AGENTS INVESTIGATING POSSIBLE VIOLATIONS OF
WIRETAPPING LAWS BY ROBB AND HIS STAFF.
IN A TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONVERSATION, CONTAINED IN FEDERAL COURT
PAPERS, THOMPSON PREDICTED ROBB'S CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN WOULD NEVER
IMPLICATE HIM BECAUSE THOMPSON KNEW TOO MUCH: ``HE'S GOT TO THINK,
`SHIT, BRUCE KNOWS EVERYTHING. IF I GO AND TAG BRUCE, DAMN, NO
TELLING WHAT HE'S GONNA START TALKING ABOUT,' '' THOMPSON SAID IN
THE TRANSCRIPT.
EFFORTS BY ROBB'S STAFF TO STALL FRANKLIN'S BOOK AND FIND OUT
WHAT REPORTERS KNEW ABOUT HIS VIRGINIA BEACH PARTYING ULTIMATELY
BROUGHT MORE INFORMATION INTO THE PUBLIC FRAY.
A 1990 MEMO PREPARED BY ROBB'S THEN-PRESS SECRETARY STEVE JOHNSON
- INTENDED AS A PRIVATE MEMO TO ROBB BUT LATER LEAKED TO THE MEDIA -
NAMED 16 PEOPLE IT CLAIMED HAD KNOWLEDGE OF WOMANIZING OR SOME
EXPOSURE TO DRUGS BY ROBB. AT LEAST SIX WOMEN - FOUR OF THEM LISTED
BY NAME - CLAIMED TO HAVE ENGAGED IN ORAL SEX WITH ROBB, THE MEMO
SAID. NONE HAS EVER AGREED TO TALK PUBLICLY.
``IS IT REALLY GOING TO MATTER WHAT I SAY?'' ASKED ONE OF ROBB'S
FORMER CROATAN ASSOCIATES.
``I TALKED ABOUT IT FIVE YEARS AGO, AND IT DIDN'T MAKE ONE BIT OF
DIFFERENCE. I'VE GOT A FAMILY AND A NEW LIFE NOW. I JUST WANT TO
FORGET ABOUT IT.''
POLITICAL FRIENDS WARNED ROBB ABOUT THE CROWD AT VIRGINIA BEACH.
ROBB RAN THE NAMES OF ASSOCIATES BY THE STATE POLICE AND OTHER
POLITICIANS, AND NEVER FOUND ANY REASON TO BE WORRIED, HE SAID.
MANY OF THE DRUG USERS WHO HAVE BEEN LINKED TO ROBB WERE NEVER
FRIENDS, ROBB SAID. HE REMEMBERS MEETING ONE OF THEM ONLY ONCE AT A
VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT, FOR INSTANCE. OTHERS HE SAID HE REMEMBERS
ONLY FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES.
ROBB ACKNOWLEDGES ATTENDING A JULY 4, 1984, PARTY AT THE NORTH
END HOME OF RAY PARSONS, A KNOWN DRUG DEALER WHO HANGED HIMSELF IN
JAIL IN 1987.
BUT HE SAID HIS FAMILY AND THE STATE POLICE WENT ALONG. ``THERE
WERE SEVERAL HUNDRED PEOPLE THAT SPILLED OVER THREE OR FOUR CITY
BLOCKS,'' HE SAID.
``WOULD I HAVE KNOWN THAT THERE WERE SOME PEOPLE AT THE BEACH WHO
WERE HEAVILY INTO DRUGS? NO, I HAD NO IDEA,'' ROBB SAID IN A RECENT
INTERVIEW. ``I ASSUME THERE WAS A MINOR AMOUNT OF DRUG USAGE IN ANY
CITY, BUT IT NEVER CAME CLOSE TO ME.
``OBVIOUSLY, IT WAS NOT THE DRUG SCENE THAT ATTRACTED ME TO THE
BEACH. AND IF I HAD EVEN A WHIFF OF THINGS THAT RELATED TO DRUGS, I
WOULDN'T HAVE STAYED.''
ROBB ACKNOWLEDGES THE POLITICAL DAMAGE THAT HIS PRIVATE LIFE HAS
CAUSED HIS PUBLIC LIFE.
``I HOPE SOMEDAY, AFTER I'M OUT OF POLITICS, TO WRITE A BOOK,''
ROBB SAID. ``I THINK IT WOULD BE A FASCINATING BOOK.''
STAFF WRITER DAVID POOLE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE. by CNB