Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 7, 1992 TAG: 9202070211
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
CHAIN-SAW REPORT `POLICE LIE'
A Henry County man whose religious rituals include animal sacrifice denies reports that he used a chain saw to dismember sheep."All the things you printed were lies told to you by police," Harold Douglas Handy said Thursday following his release from a state mental hospital, where he was held involuntarily for three weeks.
Handy acknowledged that he occasionally killed sheep and goats and burned their remains as part of religious rituals based on Bible passages.
"I believe in Jesus Christ," he said in a telephone interview. "There's nothing illegal about my serving God."
Handy, 52, said he used a hunting knife to kill and skin the animals. He said any blood found on a chain saw he owned was his own.
"I was cutting a branch and it fell on my nose," he said. "If they found any blood, it came off me."
State forensic experts determined that a small, red stain found on the saw was blood, but tests could not tell if it was animal or human, court records show.
On Jan. 13, state police raided Handy's farm in the Oak Level section of Henry County to investigate complaints of animal cruelty.
No criminal charges were filed because authorities found no evidence that Handy sacrificed live animals or otherwise treated them inhumanely.
Handy committed himself for mental evaluation and later was committed involuntarily to Central State Hospital in Petersburg for up to six months.
After his release Tuesday, Handy called state Trooper D.W. Ferguson to see about retrieving his chain saw, which had been seized as evidence.
"He said it was cold and he needed to cut some wood to heat his house," Ferguson said, adding that the saw would be returned today.