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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992                   TAG: 9202140332
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: David M. Poole
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Short

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EX-AGENT FINED FOR HARASSING FORMER BOSS

A Franklin County judge on Thursday fined a one-time Alcoholic Beverage Control agent $500 for harassing a former boss who fired him more than a decade ago.

General District Judge William Alexander II told Kenneth Dudley that he would lock him up for six months if he made any more harassing calls.

Retired ABC supervisor V.K. Stoneman testified that Dudley has been hounding him ever since he fired Dudley for falsifying a report in 1979.

Stoneman, who retired last summer, played the tapes of three late-night phone calls in which Dudley accused Stoneman of taking bribes from moonshiners.

Stoneman said Dudley remains obsessed with his dismissal and has sought retribution by making false accusations against him.

A federal grand jury investigated Dudley's claims in 1980 and returned no charges.

Testifying Thursday in his own defense, Dudley said he began calling Stoneman after the arrest last summer of Bobby Joe Whitlock, a moonshiner who accused former liquor agents of accepting bribes.

Dudley claimed that Stoneman encouraged the calls so he could find out if he was a target of Whitlock's allegations.

But Alexander said the tapes made clear that Dudley was abusive and continued making late-night calls despite Stoneman's repeated pleas for him to stop.

Dudley filed notice that he would appeal to Circuit Court.

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