DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997               TAG: 9703080304

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                      LENGTH:   35 lines

LAWYERS WANT TO ADD PLAINTIFFS TO MOLESTATION SUIT

Lawyers representing 11 children allegedly assaulted by a church baby sitter want to expand the sexual molestation lawsuit to include three additional children.

The lawyers also want to increase the claim for damages against Bruton Parish Church and other defendants to $56 million.

Richmond Circuit Judge Donald W. Lemons will consider the motion to amend the lawsuit at a March 19 hearing in Richmond Circuit Court.

Richard Weaverling, 19, has been convicted of multiple sex crimes and sentenced to 73 years in prison.

He was accused of molesting children in their homes and at the 300-year-old Episcopal church, where he baby-sat with his mother from January 1993 until September 1994.

Plaintiffs, who include parents as well as children, have filed a joint civil suit against a number of defendants. They include the church, Weaverling, Weaverling's mother, the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, the church's insurer and the church's rector at the time of the alleged assaults, the Rev. Richard L. May.

The plaintiffs now want to add Vernon M. Geddy Jr., a former Williamsburg mayor and former trustee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, to the list.

Jeffrey A. Breit, a Norfolk lawyer, said he and his clients are seeking to add Geddy as a defendant because of new information that leads them to believe that he was involved in covering up the abuse.

Geddy declined to comment on the suit. KEYWORDS: SEX CRIMES CHILD MOLESTATION

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