THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120413
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR AND KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The woman who claimed Arthur L. Dwyer pressured her to have sex in exchange for his influence as vice mayor lashed out at the City Council Tuesday night for casting her as manipulative and vindictive.
Responding to charges that she had launched a smear campaign against Dwyer, Sandra R. Lewis said her credibility should not be the issue in the controversy surrounding whether Dwyer abused his power while helping her obtain health benefits from the city.
Standing less than 15 feet from Dwyer, Lewis angrily rejected some council members' claims that she was responsible for the turmoil brought on the city by a series of tape-recorded conversations she had with Dwyer.
``Arthur Dwyer, I'm sorry it has come to this,'' Lewis said, ``but you brought it on yourself.''
Her appearance at City Hall came one day after a special meeting called by Mayor William E. Ward to look into possible misconduct by Dwyer.
At that meeting, the council called for the Virginia State Police to investigate the matter.
In that meeting, Lewis was portrayed as a hothead who had shot her husband twice. Lewis has admitted the shootings. She said they took place in 1986 and 1990. Both were ruled accidental. Lewis was not charged in either incident.
Lewis, 30, a commercial scuba diver, has been married to her husband, Ed, for seven years. They have one child.
At Tuesday's meeting, Lewis said she couldn't believe council members were supporting the vice mayor, because ``he makes you out to be bumbling idiots.''
In her five-minute speech, Lewis recounted some of the contents of the conversations with Dwyer she recorded during February and March.
In those conversations, Dwyer mocked his colleagues, bragged of a friendship with Raeford Eure, a developer's agent in Chesapeake, and touted his influence over council and top city officials.
In response to claims that the tapes had been altered, Lewis said the recordings included two long, winding and uninterrupted conversations with Dwyer. Pieces of other conversations were added to the end of one of the cassette tapes, Lewis said.
Lewis also said on Tuesday that Dwyer had hounded her during the six-week period that he was negotiating for health insurance for Lewis and her husband, Sgt. Ed Lewis, who was fired from the Police Department after more than 24 years of service.
Lewis said her husband, former head of the Chesapeake police diving team, was a highly decorated police officer who was fired because of a domestic incident in the couple's home in December 1993.
She accused Dwyer of coming uninvited to her father's funeral in February, and threatening her, saying that if she sat with her husband, Dwyer would no longer help her.
Dwyer has denied ever pressuring Lewis to have sex, and said in an earlier interview that Lewis had invited him to the funeral. Both Dwyer and Lewis say they never had sex.
Dwyer sat stonily while Lewis delivered her speech. When it was over, he walked away from the dais and peered through the door to the council chambers as if to talk to Lewis. He turned away when he saw the television cameras.
After the council meeting, he denounced Lewis as a ``crazy woman.''
Lewis was one of three citizens to address the council on Dwyer's actions.
Nettie Bailey, a civic leader from the Camelot section of the city, called for the vice mayor to step down for his role in the rezoning of 25 acres of property in her neighborhood.
She questioned whether Dwyer's push to approve the project was unduly influenced by his alleged friendship with Eure, the engineer who represented the rezoning before the council in December.
``Most of our community knew that we were being given the shaft again,'' Bailey said. ``Now City Council still has a chance to make us believe we can trust our officials.
``I strongly urge Mr. Dwyer, based on the recordings alone and the embarrassment to the city of Chesapeake, to submit his resignation as vice mayor.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by PAUL AIKEN/
Tuesday, members of the Chesapeake City council portrayed Sandra R.
Lewis as a hothead who had shot her husband twice. Lewis admitted to
the shootings, which both were ruled accidental.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL by CNB