DATE: Friday, September 26, 1997            TAG: 9709260814

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

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VIRGINIA - BRIEFS

SOUTHWEST

2nd federal request for VMI case details is rejected by state

Virginia officials on Thursday rejected a second request from the U.S. Justice Department for information about the suspension of a female cadet from the Virginia Military Institute, and the dispute may be heading to federal court.

The Justice Department maintains that it needs a complete account of the Sept. 9 suspension of Angelica Garza so it can determine whether she was discriminated against because of her sex. Garza, 18, of Fort Belvoir, was suspended for two semesters for allegedly punching an upperclassman who had berated her during the ritualized harassment of VMI freshmen known as the Rat Line.

After state officials rebuffed Justice's first inquiry about the incident, Justice Department lawyer D. Judith Keith sent them a second letter last week, saying that she wanted to ``conclude our review of this matter without resort to further process.''

In response, Deputy State Attorney General William Hurd wrote to Justice Thursday that the federal agency ``again fails to offer any basis for your implicit suggestion that this cadet was in some way subjected to unequal treatment because of her gender. If you are aware of any facts in support of such a theory, please let us know.''

Hurd went on to say that ``it can only be concluded that your agency's demands are intended to respond to external pressures'' from groups hostile to VMI.

Garza was one of 30 women who entered VMI last month, the first female cadets to attend the state-supported military school. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered VMI last year to admit women or give up its state subsidy.

The Justice Department could now ask U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser, who is overseeing the assimiliation of women at VMI, to compel the school to meet the federal agency's request for more information about the Garza case.

Ex-Klansmen pleads guilty, gets 12 years in bombing

SALEM - Twenty-two years after the crime, a now-ailing grandfather and former Klansman was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday for his role in a racially motivated car bombing that killed a toddler.

Frank Helvestine, 76, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, arson and unlawful wounding after a son-in-law finally turned him in. He provided materials for a bomb that a fellow Ku Klux Klan member - who has since died - used to blow up a car owned by a white woman who was dating a black man.

Shrapnel from the bomb killed 23-month-old Carrie Ann Mask and injured Barry Mask, who was walking his daughter past the car when it exploded.

Helvestine's attorney, Tom Blaylock, argued that it would serve no purpose to lock up a disease-riddled man who walks with a cane, is hooked up to an oxygen tank at night because of emphysema and is close to death. He suggested house detention and community service.

But Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said Helvestine - who still has the crewcut hairstyle he had in 1975 and still refers to blacks with an epithet - ``cannot be rehabilitated.''

The pipe bomb was placed under Ruth Pearman's Monte Carlo in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she and the Masks were neighbors. The explosion blew shrapnel 66 feet, melted car windows and shook nearby rooms.

CENTRAL

6 in Richmond are charged in drug ring

RICHMOND - Six people from the Richmond area and 10 from the Los Angeles area have been charged with operating a multimillion-dollar, bicoastal cocaine distribution ring.

U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey said Thursday that a grand jury indicted the 16 on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to launder drug-trafficking proceeds. Two of the men, Richard L. Garner, 33, and Wilbert E. Peyton, 28, also were charged with operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

Peyton and Garner face a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted. The others could get at least 10 years.

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