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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995                   TAG: 9503210106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

COURT SAYS MAN COULDN'T REPRESENT SELF

A man who gave his daughter and her young friends sleeping pills and then molested them was not entitled to act as his own lawyer, a sharply divided federal appeals court said Monday.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-5 that the state's interest in protecting the girls, age 11-13, from cross-examination by their abuser outweighed his right to self-representation.

The Newport News man was convicted of five counts of aggravated sexual battery. He was acquitted of one count each of sodomy and rape.

The man's name was not published to protect the identity of the victims.

The man appealed his convictions, claiming the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to represent himself and cross-examine his accusers. The Virginia Court of Appeals and a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit rejected the claim.

by CNB