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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 14, 1993                   TAG: 9305140055
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Short

DUBLIN OFFICER OFF JOB

A town police officer has been suspended and a $1,600 judgment has been entered against him and his wife for money owed to a cooperative food bank.

J.W. "Tommy" Dobbins, who has worked with the Dublin Police Department for about three years, was suspended last Friday.

Carroll Delp, an agent with the Wytheville division of state police, said his department has started an investigation at the request of Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley.

Kathy Raines, director of SHARE Virginia, a nonprofit community service and food distribution program, said Dobbins and his wife, Linda, were hosts for the Dublin area. For $13, sales tax and two hours of community service, participants receive a food package valued at about $30.

Raines said the Dobbinses would collect money from participants then forward it to SHARE. But in December 1992 and January of this year, Raines said, people got their food packages "but we didn't get the money."

Raines said a judgment was entered against the Dobbinses in Pulaski County General District Court on Wednesday. She said SHARE had tried to resolve the matter by writing letters asking for the money, but got no results.

"It's very unusual that this happens," Raines said. "We've never had a court case before. The program is 9 years old."

About 50 people were signed up through the Dobbinses, Raines said, and they have been transferred to another host.

A court clerk said records did not indicate that the Dobbinses were represented by a lawyer. Tommy Dobbins is a brother of Ralph Dobbins, sheriff of Pulaski County.

by CNB