DATE: Thursday, October 9, 1997             TAG: 9710090539

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

VIRGINIA

CENTRAL

Juror charged with

giving information to

drug ring members

RICHMOND - A federal grand juror has been indicted on charges that she leaked secret grand jury information that eventually reached members of an alleged drug ring under investigation.

Leslie Y. Cox of Richmond was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice, said Helen Fahey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, on Wednesday. If convicted, Cox faces up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

It was the first time in Virginia that a federal grand juror has been so charged, Fahey said in a news release. Grand jury deliberations are kept secret to protect witnesses and give police time to round up those indicted if the indictment is sealed, she said.

According to the indictment, in October 1996 the grand jury took over a investigation of a drug ring that allegedly was shipping large amounts of cocaine from Los Angeles to Central Virginia.

In April it returned an indictment on several firearms and money-laundering charges against 17 people. The indictment was sealed so that law enforcement officials could locate those indicted.

The indictment charges that Cox knew some of the people who were under investigation, and got word to them of the investigation in March and later the sealed indictment. Cox, 29, never told authorities she knew some of the people who were under investigation.

NORTHERN

California runaway, 12,

hid in Fairfax man's closet

FAIRFAX - A 12-year-old runaway boy hid in a secret closet in the home of a Virginia man who molested the child, a prosecutor said after the man's first court appearance.

Roland Iliff was arraigned Wednesday in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on two counts of sodomy of a child and one count of sexual battery involving the child, whom police said Iliff met through a 900-exchange telephone chat line called ``Hollywood's Hell Hole.''

The FBI began searching for the boy after his father reported him missing in early September. The boy was discovered in Iliff's home Friday, hiding in the closet under a staircase. ``It was like a false closet. You would not see it unless you knew it was there,'' Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrough said.

Since returning to California over the weekend, the boy has said he was ordered to stay in the closet and remain quiet. The closet door was not locked, and Virginia authorities have not charged Iliff with abducting the boy.

Iliff was ordered held in lieu of $150,000 bond pending a Nov. 7 preliminary hearing.

Police say Iliff had talked with the boy on the 900 line, then sent him a bus ticket after the boy said he was having trouble at home.

SOUTHWEST

Teen enters guilty plea

in triple-murder case

DANVILLE - An 18-year-old caught prosecutors off guard by pleading guilty to killing three people in a townhouse complex last Thanksgiving.

During an arraignment Tuesday night, Percy Walton of Danville entered guilty pleas on three counts of murder, one count of car theft and weapons charges.

Walton could get the death penalty at his sentencing Oct. 29.

Barbara Kendrick Case of Jackson, Miss., discovered the bodies of her parents when she came to visit for the holiday and they did not pick her up at the airport or answer the door.

Jessie Enoch Kendrick, 81, and his 82-year-old wife, Elizabeth, were each killed by a shotgun blast to the head. The couple's car was found on a nearby street. Other items stolen included Jessie Kendrick's driver's license, a gun and money. The items were found later at Walton's house, Commonwealth's Attorney William H. Fuller III said at the arraignment.

Two days later, police discovered another murder scene at the townhouse complex after being called by the victim's relatives.

Archie Moore, 33, a part-time flight instructor at Averett College, was found inside a closet in his townhouse. His head had been covered with a plastic bag, and his feet were pressed against a wall.

COMING UP

Today

RICHMOND - Trial in Luciano Montalvo's federal lawsuit against a karate school that expelled his son, Michael, because he is HIV-positive, U.S. District Court.

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