THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 12, 1996 TAG: 9603120260
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
An all-terrain vehicle, allegedly stolen by the son of a police captain from the home of Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr., is missing again.
The vehicle is the second major piece of evidence that has disappeared in the case against William Lawrence Spruill Jr., 23, the son of police Capt. William L. Spruill. City officials have confirmed that the original offense report in the Nance theft is also gone.
The second theft of Nance's ATV came to light Monday during a Circuit Court hearing on several motions made in Spruill Jr.'s case.
Spruill's attorney, Robert E. Kowalsky Jr., had asked to examine the ATV to see where an unidentified fingerprint had been found.
Special prosecutor Kenneth A. Phillips, however, told the court that the vehicle was gone again.
Kowalsky has asked that the charges against Spruill Jr. be dismissed because he cannot have the ATV examined by defense experts.
That motion will likely be heard on April 5 when the case comes before Circuit Judge Warren Stephens, of Newport News, who is handling the trial after Chesapeake judges recused themselves.
Nance confirmed Monday that the all-terrain vehicle had been stolen again from behind his home in mid-December.
To make room in his garage, Nance said he had taken the vehicle out for one night, placing it between a brick wall, a set of stairs and his truck.
The ATV had to be lifted over the steps to remove it, Nance said.
``You had to make an effort to get it out,'' he said. ``Somebody went into a great deal of trouble to come up there and get it again.''
Nance said he was asked by police not to discuss the second theft ``because of the possible connection to the first theft.''
The ATV was originally stolen in December 1994 from a shed behind Nance's home. It was recovered the following July at a Virginia Beach home and returned to Nance. Spruill Jr. and two co-defendants were later arrested and charged with the theft and breaking and entering Nance's shed.
Nance had complained of delays in investigating the case to police Chief Ian M. Shipley Jr., who began an internal affairs investigation into the matter, according to a report to the city council.
That investigation, which ended in January, resulted in the reprimand of five officers, including Capt. Spruill, the chief's administrative aide.
The council is scheduled to meet in executive session today to discuss police performance in the Spruill case and in another case that involved the sons of two prominent Chesapeake citizens.
Alan Keith Butt, 27, son of veteran Councilman John W. Butt, and William Jeremy Brickhouse, 20, son of Sheriff's Capt. William Brickhouse, are charged with receiving stolen property allegedly taken from Givens Honda in 1994.
Chesapeake Chief Judge Russell I. Townsend Jr. on Friday decided not to impanel a special grand jury to look at police performance.
Phillips, the prosecutor, was asked Monday to examine the Police Department's 1,500-page internal investigation into the way the cases were handled to see if there is anything that would be beneficial to Spruill Jr.'s defense. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
William L. Spruill Jr.: charged in the first case.
KEYWORDS: ATV CHESAPEAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT BURGLARY THEFT by CNB