THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511181607
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS AND LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
State police on Friday launched a criminal investigation into allegations that the chairman of Gov. George F. Allen's parole board mishandled his office.
Inmates and their families, meanwhile, prepared to legally challenge the board's rulings. If the allegations against former board chairman John B. Metzger III can be proved, say constitutional law experts, the state could face a costly landslide of litigation by inmates who have been denied parole or have had their parole revoked.
Maj. Ben Beasley, deputy director of the state Bureau of Criminal Investigations, confirmed that his unit has begun ``an investigation surrounding the complaints and allegations'' that caused Metzger to resign earlier this week. Those allegations include charges that Metzger illegally backdated parole warrants and denied parole without consulting fellow board members.
The results of the state police inquiry - unlike the results of an internal administrative report delivered to Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore this week - will be made public, Kilgore said late Friday.
Kilgore defended the administration's decision to keep the internal report secret. Parole board members and employees spoke candidly to the investigator, he said, and were quoted in the report with the understanding that their remarks would be kept confidential.
At issue are instances in which Metzger may have backdated parole revocation warrants, Kilgore said. But such instances were ``so rare, no one can remember the specific number of cases it may have occurred in.''
Although government sources allege that Metzger also violated parole board policy by denying parole without consulting fellow board members, Kilgore insisted they are mistaken.
``He never acted alone in denying parole,'' Kilgore said.
The board's new chairman, Bruce Morris, has directed employees to search files to determine ``what, if any, inmates would be affected'' by Metzger's actions, Kilgore said.
But such assurances are not enough for the families of inmates who have been denied parole or have seen their parole revoked during Metzger's 19-month tenure.
Jackie McDonald of Portsmouth called the board's Richmond office Thursday after reading about Metzger in the newspaper. Her son, Darryl McDonald, was denied parole for the fifth time in January, and she was worried that Metzger had acted improperly in the case.
``The lady who answered the phone said, `Well, you can't believe everything you read in the paper, Mrs. McDonald. They write a bunch of lies,' '' McDonald recalled Friday. ``I said, `Look, can I just talk to someone who can review my son's files? And she said, `We're all booked up.' I said, `If I get a lawyer, can my lawyer see someone?' And she said no.''
After mothers of other inmates began calling McDonald with similar concerns, she and five others pooled resources to hire Portsmouth attorney Wayne Sprinkler to look into their sons' cases. They scheduled an appointment with Sprinkler on Monday.
``Most of us, we don't have any money. But when it comes to our kids, we have to try,'' McDonald said.
Allen appointed Metzger chairman of the parole board when Allen replaced all its members in April 1994. From July 1994 to Oct. 30 of this year, decisions to deny parole were made in the cases of 21,336 prisoners. During the same period, decisions to revoke parole were made in 3,122 cases. In some cases, a parole board official said, more than one decision may have applied to a single individual.
Richard J. Bonnie, a professor of constitutional and criminal law at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said the volume of cases could spell trouble for the commonwealth.
``One cannot anticipate the evidence, but if it could be proved that these things happened at some time, a court might be willing to say that all cases decided during that period were tainted,'' he said.
``The state would then have the burden of proof to show that they were not.''
The situation will get even worse if the Allen administration fails to conduct ``a detailed investigation and to advise all inmates of any possible errors in their calculations,'' said Gerald T. Zerkin, a lawyer and constitutional expert in Richmond.
``If one of their officials caused someone to not be released on time or to be reincarcerated by knowingly falsifying documents, the affected inmates will not only be able to sue for their release, they will also be able to sue for monetary damages,'' Zerkin said.
``To the extent that the state perpetuates the problem by not disclosing information, the damages will increase because people will spend more time in prison,'' he said. ``The number of individuals who are liable for failing to take action will also increase.''
Attorney General James Gilmore and his office represent the parole board. Gilmore would not comment Friday on the possibility of being faced with thousands of inmate lawsuits.
``We're not going to have any comment until the state police report is done,'' said Gilmore spokesman Mark Miner. ``We want to get all the facts from the state police.''
Del. Clifton A. ``Chip'' Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said he is also anxious to get facts from the state police.
``We've got thousands of potential claims out there and some of the people should be in prison and some should be out. We need to sort out who, and we better do it quick,'' said Woodrum, a lawyer and member of the General Assembly's bipartisan Crime Commission.
Metzger resigned Thursday after the disclosure of the Allen administration's internal investigation. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he had ``irreconcilable differences'' with others on the five-member board and admitted telling them inappropriate sexual jokes.
The administration's internal investigation ``exonerated'' him of any other wrongdoing, he said. by CNB