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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990                   TAG: 9005220324
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN ACCUSED OF ATTACK IN RADFORD FREE ON BAIL

Michael David Fithian, 22, of the Nugget Ridge Apartments on Nugget Ridge Road in Christiansburg, was arrested about an hour after the Saturday incident.

The woman was able to fend off and escape after a man grabbed her, beat her and tried to rob her, police said.

Fithian was charged with abduction, assault and battery and attempted robbery. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 25 in Radford General District Court.

The woman, whose name was withheld by police, told police she was walking along a path near the New River about 11:30 Saturday morning when a man grabbed her and dragged her into some woods, said Radford Det. Gary Harmon.

"She succeeded in fighting him off. She was kicking him, biting him and screaming and hollering, and he eventually fled," Harmon said.

Harmon said the woman was shaken, but, aside from a few scratches and a cut lip, was not badly injured. She chose not to go to the hospital, he said.

The woman gave police a description of her attacker. Witnesses who heard the woman's screams also described to police the man they saw fleeing the area.

Fithian was picked up by police near the scene of the attack. He was taken to the police department for questioning and was arrested there, Harmon said.