Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA LAFAY AND MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The probe, conducted by state auditor Joseph Freiburger, looked at allegations that Metzger illegally backdated parole revocation warrants, denied parole without consulting other board members and made sexually and racially offensive remarks to fellow board members. It was completed Wednesday.
Metzger sent a letter of resignation to Gov. George Allen on Thursday.
Allen appointed Bruce Morris, Director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services, to replace Metzger temporarily.
Although Metzger may have backdated parole revocation warrants, Kilgore said Thursday, the report did not document any specific cases and concluded that no criminal misconduct occurred.
``The paperwork sometimes lags behind the actual order to revoke, so you date it back,'' Kilgore said.
Forging records and ``fraudulent false entry'' on records by a state official are both crimes under Virginia law.
``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 in a news release.
However, the release said, ``Mr. Metzger had made some inappropriate comments.''
Kilgore ordered the investigation last month after complaints from Metzger's fellow parole board members and others. He said Thursday that he would show the report to State Police Superintendent M. Wayne Huggins. But he has refused to make it public.
But others - including the speaker of the House of Delegates, Thomas Moss; Virginia ACLU Director Kent Willis; and lawyers representing inmates on parole issues - strongly disagreed.
Moss, D-Norfolk, called for an ``independent'' state police investigation into Metzger's activities and said the General Assembly ``will be forced to step in'' if the Allen administration fails to order one.
Metzger told The Associated Press that he resigned because of ``irreconcilable differences'' with other board members. He said he felt exonerated of any allegations that he violated inmates' parole rights, but admitted that he told ``sexual jokes'' to other board members.
According to three people familiar with the board's workings, one of the remarks that got Metzger in trouble was a quip that female board members would have to ``have sex with Jim Gilmore'' if they wanted to keep their jobs after the Allen administration ends in 1998. Attorney General Gilmore is the almost-certain GOP nominee for governor in 1997.c
Told Thursday of Metzger's remark, Gilmore commented through a spokesman:
``If he made such a remark, it was an outrageous falsehood and he was right to resign.''
At least one lawyer, Virginia Beach-based defense attorney James Broccoletti, plans to petition the courts to order Gov. Allen to release the state auditor's report on Metzger on behalf of an imprisoned client.
Broccoletti's client, James Michael Wear, was re-arrested on Metzger's orders 32 hours after being paroled in March. At a hearing in Virginia Beach Circuit Court in April, Metzger blamed Wear's release on clerical and computer errors and said he ordered his arrest upon discovering that the family of Wear's victim had not been consulted about Wear's parole.
A judge said the parole board ``flat messed up,'' but ruled that Wear should remain in prison. The case is now before the Virginia Supreme Court.
Staff writers David M. Poole and Robert Little contributed to this report.
by CNB