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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 21, 1994                   TAG: 9407210096
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PRESCHOOL DIRECTOR MAKES DEAL

Peter L. Williams, 66, pleaded to a felony charge stemming from an incident four months ago involving him and a child under the age of 5.

Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens accepted a plea agreement in which Williams, who was director of the Hollins Park Preschool, will serve no more than 12 months. The charge carries a maximum five-year sentence.

Summarizing testimony from a preliminary hearing in May, Randy Leach, an assistant commonwealth's attorney for Roanoke County, said that on March 24, the child reported to her parents that Williams took her into a sick room, lay down on a cot, unzipped his pants and placed the child's hand on his penis.

The child's parents reported the incident to county police.

Williams contended that the child initiated the action. He testified earlier that the child had complained of having trouble sleeping. He took her to the sick room, where she told him she wanted to play a game called "Exy," he said.

When he asked how the game was played, the child unzipped his pants and placed her hand on his penis, he said. He filled out an incident report afterward and sealed it in an envelope.

The child had difficulty testifying at the preliminary hearing in May. That was the primary reason for the plea agreement, Leach said.

"This whole experience has been very traumatic for her," he said.

Williams' attorney, Marc Small, said Williams too, was "concerned about making the situation any harder than it should be."

Exactly what happened is still unclear, Small said.

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced in September, after a presentence investigation and a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.

Williams, who opened the preschool three years ago, surrendered his operating license to the Piedmont Region office of the Virginia Department of Social Services in Roanoke on March 31. The preschool is closed.