Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
William A. Quick, 79, was indicted on two stalking charges - the latest in a series of allegations stemming from his yearlong obsession with a woman who befriended him.
Stalking usually is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail for a first offense and 12 months for a second. It is only after a third stalking conviction, which Quick now is facing, that the offense becomes a felony carrying up to five years in prison.
Quick, who was chief U.S. marshal for Western Virginia during the 1970s, is the first person to be charged with felony stalking in Roanoke since the law was passed in 1992, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips said.
Under the law, stalking is defined as any behavior that causes another person emotional distress or fear of bodily harm or death. The law was broadened this year to include creating a fear of sexual assault - one of the two charges leveled against Quick in indictments returned Monday by a grand jury in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Because of the charge's sexual nature, the woman Quick is accused of stalking is not being identified.
Phillips said the victim, who met Quick through a mutual friend more than a year ago, was friendly to him because he seemed depressed and down on his luck.
"She showed him some compassion, and this is how she's being repaid," Phillips said.
Evidence in earlier cases has indicated that Quick's fixation on the woman has evolved from fatherly concern to romantic attraction to angry threats.
He has called the woman at all hours, written her hundreds of rambling letters, and showed up repeatedly at her doorstep with no notice, prosecutors said in earlier cases in which Quick was charged with stalking, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
The latest charges allege that within hours after Quick was released from jail on one stalking charge in July, he showed up at the woman's doorstep and was arrested again.
Since Quick has been in jail, the woman has received letters threatening her sexually. That led to the second charge against him.
In earlier letters, Quick expressed concerns about whom the woman was dating.
After being charged with stalking for the first time, more than a year ago, Quick wrote in a letter to the judge, "Please give me one more break and I'll rid myself of a person who I thought was a woman who needed another chance."
by CNB