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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995                   TAG: 9509250041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE TAKES OFF BELT, TELLS GRANDMOTHER TO WHIP TEEN

Instead of sending a drug offender to prison, a judge took off his belt and had the 18-year-old's grandmother give him a whipping.

``I think he'll kind of remember what to do on probation,'' Circuit Judge Frank Eppes said Friday, a day after he imposed the sentence.

Youth advocates chastised the 72-year-old judge for teaching that violence is the answer, but some who are fighting for tougher punishment for criminals supported his decision.

``I think the country is open to any innovative approach to resolving the juvenile crime problem,'' said Jim Grego, a founder of Citizens Against Violent Crime.

Before Jamel Washington pleaded guilty Thursday to possession of crack cocaine, he said he would fail a drug test because he had smoked marijuana.

``I said, `Grandmama, don't you think he needs a whipping?''' Eppes recalled. ``She said he needed one and ought to have a whipping.''

Eppes supplied the belt and went into his office with a courtroom deputy, Washington and 63-year-old Victoria Washington Ellis.

Ten to 12 loud smacks could be heard, said Bruce Durant, a prosecutor in the courtroom. Eppes and Ellis said there were no more than five or six strokes on Washington's bare buttocks.

When they returned, Washington appeared sheepish and his grandmother looked pleased, Durant said. Washington could not be located for comment Friday.

``You need discipline, in the home and in the schools,'' said Eppes, a retired judge from Greenville on special assignment in Charleston. Beatings ``did me some good when I was growing up. ... I got several when I needed them.''

Ellis, who has raised Washington since his mother died in 1987, said she didn't want to whip her grandson but felt the judge told her to do it. Now, she thinks it was a good idea.

``It learned him a lesson,'' she said. ``He said he ain't fooling with that no more.''

Corporal punishment is more likely to teach violence rather than right from wrong, said Arlene Andrews, a board member of the South Carolina Alliance for Children.

South Carolina Chief Justice Ernest Finney said he expected Eppes' action would be reviewed by the court's judicial standards board. He never heard of a judge suggesting a whipping in the courtroom before, he said.