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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995                   TAG: 9506070076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHERIFF WELLS RETIRING

Even as he stood on the steps of the county courthouse Monday at a campaign event for sheriff's Lt. Vernon Goode, a candidate for sheriff, Wells refused to say whether he was retiring or if he endorsed Goode's run for office.

But on Tuesday - with less than a week to go before the deadline to get on the fall ballot - Wells said he's laying down his badge when his term ends Dec. 31. And, he said, he's supporting Goode.

"I have reached the age and the number of years of service that allows me to take my retirement," the 59-year-old sheriff said in a written statement. "I am looking forward to enjoying life while I still have my health."

Of Goode, who runs the county's jail annex in Moneta, Wells said, "I feel that he has the necessary characteristics of a sheriff. He has served the citizens of Bedford for 25 years working in all areas of the Sheriff's Department."

Wells also cited Goode's experience as a supervisor and knowledge of budget preparation.

With 21 years in office, Wells ranks 13th in seniority among the state's 125 sheriffs.

Rumors that Wells would retire peaked last month, when he was reported to have been recognized as a retiring sheriff at a meeting of the Virginia Sheriffs Association.

Some say the popular but embattled Wells possibly could have won another race for sheriff. But if he had run, it could have been the toughest race of his life.

For most of his career, Wells never faced a serious electoral challenge. This year, however, five candidates have said they will run for sheriff. That could be because Wells told friends and colleagues that he would retire, or it could be because the candidates smelled blood.

Over the last few years, Wells has been rocked by reports of deputies drinking on duty and a battle with the Board of Supervisors over $15,000 in interest he accrued from depositing employee payroll funds into his personal checking account.

Though the practice was legal at the time Wells did it, it has since been outlawed. Wells eventually repaid the county $2,000.

Wells became a sheriff's deputy in 1959, when then-Sheriff Rucker Mitchell spotted the bearlike 23-year-old maintenance worker and farmer eating at a cafe and offered him a job. Wells quit the Sheriff's Office four years later to campaign for Chief Deputy Jack Cundiff, who ran against Mitchell.

When Cundiff was elected, Wells became his chief deputy - a position he held until he was appointed sheriff in 1974, when Cundiff left to take another law enforcement job.

Wells gained statewide fame and international media exposure from the Haysom murder case. One of his investigators traveled to London in 1986 to arrest UVa honor students Elizabeth Haysom and her then-lover, Jens Soering, for the 1985 murder of Haysom's parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom, in their Bedford County home.

Soering and Haysom later were convicted in connection with the murders.

In recent years, Wells fought a painful battle with bladder cancer.

In addition to Goode, four candidates have said they will seek the sheriff's job: Mike Brown, a security consultant; Sgt. Dave Cooper, a road deputy supervisor; Doug Maynard, an investigator with the Bedford and Roanoke public defender's offices; and Chuck Reid, a road deputy and former investigator.