THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090530
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
House of Delegates Speaker Thomas W. Moss on Tuesday asked a legislative subcommittee to investigate the Department of Corrections and its director, Ronald Angelone.
Moss, D-Norfolk, described the probe as a ``fact-finding'' exercise and added: ``If we find any irregularities, they might be turned over to the proper authorities. But I'm not saying that's going to happen.''
Jerry Kilgore, Gov. George F. Allen's secretary of public safety, said the probe is politically driven. All 140 legislative seats are up for election in November.
Del. Glenn Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach and chairman of the subcommittee, said, ``Certainly, this is not going to be a witch hunt.''
Moss said a number of problems have cropped up in the Corrections Department over the past few months, including the discovery of a loaded handgun in the typewriter of death-row inmate Willie Lloyd Turner.
Legislators have been frustrated by the pace of a state police investigation of the incident and a brief Corrections Department probe that left questions unanswered.
Croshaw said the subcommittee will also examine:
delays in prison construction;
increased building and operations costs;
complaints about health care;
problems Angelone had as director of prisons in Nevada, including health-care problems that were discovered during an audit.
Kilgore complained that Moss did not contact the Corrections Department before going public with the investigation. He said the administration will ``cooperate as much as we can, but we will not stand back and let them turn this into a political circus.'' by CNB