
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990                   TAG: 9005100600
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

DRUG SUSPECT OUT ON BOND

A Virginia Tech employee arrested Monday on charges of making drugs in a university chemistry lab has been released from jail and is scheduled to be arraigned next week.

James A. Campbell, 46, of 1900 Terrace View, was released Tuesday on $10,000 bond from the Montgomery County Jail. He was arrested Monday morning in a chemistry lab in Davidson Hall by state and Tech police.

Campbell is charged with manufacturing methamphetamines and possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute. He was arrested after a monthlong investigation.

Police found a substance in the lab where Campbell was working that state police special agent Cecil Handy called "a finished product." Handy also said police are investigating whether Campbell sold drugs to Tech students.

A spokeswoman for Montgomery County General District Court in Blacksburg could not confirm when Campbell was scheduled to appear in court because she had not received court documents sent from the clerk in Christiansburg. But, she said, Campbell called her Wednesday to tell her he would be in court for arraignment next Wednesday.

Campbell, who is not a teacher, was hired in October 1987 to research polymers in the chemistry department.

Handy said the cooperation of the chemistry department helped lead to Campbell's arrest. When researchers there noticed a certain type of chemical was being ordered through Tech but was not being accounted for in their logbooks, they notified police.

by CNB