Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 15, 1993 TAG: 9310150248
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Claiburn Roscoe Dooley pleaded guilty to both charges. In September, he testified against the friend, Dale Adrine Flinn, who was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
Dooley argued that he was not an active participant but was forced by Flinn to make sexual contact. Dooley also said he tried to stop Flinn from raping and beating the woman, who suffered a broken nose.
"I asked him not to hit her," he told Circuit Judge William Sweeney. "I was scared. What else could I do?"
Sweeney said Dooley didn't do enough. The judge handed down a lighter sentence than Flinn's, in part because Dooley cooperated with authorities.
As he delivered the sentence, Sweeney told Dooley that Dooley and Flinn participated in "a conspiracy to harm and humiliate" the victim.
The woman met Flinn and Dooley at a Roanoke bar and accepted their offer of a ride to her Tazewell Avenue home. But Flinn, who was driving, headed for Smith Mountain Lake instead.
According to her testimony, one of the men started fondling her. She protested, and Flinn responded by slapping her with the back of his hand, she said.
Once the trio reached the Hardy Ford public boat ramp, Flinn ripped off her clothes as Dooley pinned her arms, she said.
She testified that one man forced her to perform oral sex while the other man raped and sodomized her; then the men switched positions. This happened at least three or four times, she told the court.
But that wasn't the end of the ordeal, she said. The men threw her from the car and raped her on the ground, and Flinn drew a knife on her, she said.
Bedford County Deputy Ronnie Wright, in the area on routine patrol, arrived at the scene around 2:25 a.m. on Nov. 29 and saw Flinn get out of the car, his chest covered in blood and his pants around his knees.
The woman followed, naked except for her socks and with blood on her face. She ran toward Wright and told him she had been raped.
Wright told Flinn to put his hands on the car, but Flinn ignored the order and told Wright to go ahead and shoot him.
Wright fired a warning shot over Flinn's head. Dooley left the car, ran into the woods and was caught about an hour later. Flinn ran, and Wright was unable to catch him.
Two weeks later, a Kentucky state police officer pulled Flinn over on suspicion of driving a stolen car. Flinn was returned to Bedford County a few days later.
by CNB