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

DATE: Tuesday, November 22, 1994             TAG: 9411220616
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD                         LENGTH: Short :   39 lines

MAN WHO SUED SMITHFIELD OVER PROSECUTION HAS DIED

Willie Bailey, who brought a lawsuit accusing the town of unlawful prosecution, has died. The lawsuit is still pending.

Bailey, 32, died of complications from sickle cell anemia, a family spokesman said Monday, an illness he had had for much of his life.

Bailey was accused in 1991 of twice robbing a local Sentry Mart food store. He was tried in March 1992 and found not guilty.

In October, he filed a $1.35 million lawsuit in Isle of Wight Circuit Court. His attorneys said in the suit that original crime reports were destroyed and that new reports indicated Bailey could have been the armed robber.

Originally, the suit claims, witnesses said the store was robbed by a man as tall as 6 feet 3. Bailey was 5 feet 7.

The suit charges former Police Chief Claiborne Havens, current Chief Mark A. Marshall and Officer K.E. Beach of altering the reports or directing or allowing them to be altered, or both.

Arrest reports involving the robberies directly connect Bailey's lawsuit to suits filed earlier this year against the town and its officials by two former Smithfield police officers alleging wrongful discharge and civil rights violations. Those suits are still pending.

Bailey's attorney, Billie Hobbs of the Norfolk law firm Breit, Drescher and Breit, was in federal court Monday and unavailable for comment regarding the future of Bailey's suit.

Obituary, Page B11.

KEYWORDS: ROBBERY LAWSUIT by CNB