Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 18, 1993 TAG: 9312180119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Arnold Bays Dillon Jr., 24, of Rocky Mount admitted to investigators that he had looked through a peephole into the women's locker room at the college, but said he did not see anyone. However, he was not charged with peeping, because he was not seen looking through the peephole, Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood said.
Also, the case does not fit the state code's peeping statute, he said.
"It's a peeping case in the sense that somebody looked through something, but it's not a peeping case in the sense that the Virginia statute has a hole in it about six miles wide," Hapgood said.
The code allows a person to be charged with peeping or spying if the person looks through a window, door or other opening of a home or dwelling. Even a car or a van, if someone lives in it, would qualify as a dwelling. But no one lives in Ferrum's gymnasium.
An investigator sent to the college after a Peeping Tom complaint spotted Dillon while he was looking for a place in the gym to install a hidden camera, Sheriff W.Q. "Quint" Overton said earlier.
Ferrum College administrators notified the Sheriff's Office that someone had created a peephole by removing a deadbolt from a door leading from the women's locker room to a seldom-used corridor.
General District Court Judge Lee Stillwell said there was enough evidence to find Dillon guilty, but withheld sentencing on the condition that Dillon attend counseling sessions. The judge told the counselor to report regularly to the court.
by CNB