Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND (AP) LENGTH: Medium
Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore said the state internal auditor ``found that Mr. Metzger had made some inappropriate comments'' but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
``While there may have been clerical errors and processing delays, there was no evidence indicating any deliberate falsification of warrants or warrant dates,'' Kilgore said.
Gov. George Allen appointed Bruce Morris, the director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services, as acting chairman of the five-member parole board.
Metzger said he resigned because of ``irreconcilable differences'' with other board members.
``We disagreed on just about everything,'' he said in an interview. Most of the disputes concerned the power of board members and the chairman; none involved whether inmates should be granted parole, he said.
Other board members declined to be interviewed. Metzger said none had talked to him since he resigned.
Metzger said he told sexual jokes to fellow board members but never made any racist comments.
``The sexual harassment [charge] that was leveled against me never had anything to do with seeking sexual favors,'' he said.
``It was off-color humor, ... what I thought to be humorous remarks to other board members. The racist part, I don't have a clue,'' Metzger said. ``I don't tell racial jokes. I'm not a racist.''
Three of the five members of the parole board are women; two board members - a man and a woman - are black.
Metzger said he felt exonerated of any allegations that he violated inmates' parole rights.
House of Delegates Speaker Thomas W. Moss, D-Norfolk, said he was not satisfied with the internal investigation and called for a state police inquiry.
``The Allen administration seems unwilling to order a swift, impartial, independent investigation of serious allegations involving public safety and to make the results public,'' Moss said.
``The State Police have the expertise necessary to do the investigation, especially since it involves allegations of possible criminal acts,'' Moss said. The General Assembly may conduct its own probe if necessary, he said.
In one parole case, a source told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Metzger acted improperly to postpone the mandatory parole release date of Braxton L. Bumpers, an inmate who embarrassed Allen and Corrections Department Director Ronald J. Angelone. Metzger said he handled that case properly.
Bumpers, 28, allegedly used current and former Southampton Correctional Center employees to buy a car, open bank accounts and acquire cellular phones in an apparent check-kiting scheme.
Authorities have said that after they learned of Bumpers' alleged activities, he was used as an informer to identify his accomplices. Bumpers, imprisoned for more than eight years on larceny and fraud convictions, has denied he was ever an informer or involved in a sting.
In October, Metzger said the parole board had decided to exercise an option that permitted it to delay a mandatory release for up to six months pending a prosecutor's decision on whether to prosecute Bumpers.
Metzger, 48, was appointed chairman in April 1994 when Allen replaced all of the members of the parole board. Metzger is a former U.S. marshal for Western Virginia, a Vietnam veteran, a former police officer and a Republican party activist.
Under his leadership, the rate at which paroles were granted decreased from 40 percent of inmates who were eligible in 1993 to as low as 5 percent of eligible prisoners in the summer of 1994.
Inmate advocates claimed that Metzger in effect ended parole months before the General Assembly passed a law that all but eliminated parole for people who commit crimes on or after Jan. 1, 1995.
``Never at any time did the governor say what the parole grant rate should be. He relied on us to make the decisions,'' Metzger said. He said he was proud of reducing the parole rate.
by CNB