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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995                   TAG: 9502240089
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEACHER HELPS CATCH EX-STUDENT

A schoolteacher who recognized her former student gave authorities the tip they needed to nab a man suspected of posing as a police officer and stopping vehicles in Roanoke, Franklin and Bedford counties over the past two weeks.

Roger A. Barr, out on bond awaiting a preliminary hearing on a rape charge in Roanoke, was arrested Thursday afternoon, said Investigator J.H. Crooke of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.

Barr, 20, was apprehended by Franklin County and Roanoke investigators at a house where he was staying in the 1600 block of Eastern Avenue Northeast in Roanoke, Crooke said.

He is charged with four counts of impersonating a police officer in Franklin County. He was being held without bond Thursday night in the Franklin County Jail.

A man posing as a police officer stopped a woman Thursday in Franklin County.

Crooke said the man quickly fled when he saw the face of the woman, who later contacted the Sheriff's Office and identified him as a former student. Several people who had filed complaints picked the man out of a lineup, Crooke said.

There was a multijurisdictional effort to apprehend the police impostor.

Investigators were told by people who were stopped by the man that he would flash some type of a badge and ask for their driver's licenses. He would use a flashing blue light placed on the dash of his car to pull people over.

The man had not threatened any of those who had filed complaints, Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. "Quint" Overton said.

by CNB