Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511200021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Henry County Commonwealth's Attorney Bob Bushnell, who was appointed to prosecute the two deputies, said the woman is expected to give birth within a month. At that time, authorities plan to use DNA testing to determine if one of the two deputies is the father.
Bushnell said there is a "distinct possibility" that the twins were conceived the night of May 14, when the woman told police that two sheriff's deputies offered her a ride home from a Roanoke bar, then raped and sodomized her as they drove through the city.
David Keith Bell, 24, is charged with sodomy; Larry Dean Neighbors, 32, with rape and sodomy. Both men have been suspended without pay from their jobs as guards in the Roanoke City Jail.
The disclosure that the 25-year-old woman is pregnant was a surprise to defense attorneys. It was made only after Judge Barnard Jennings was setting a trial date at the end of a motions hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Bushnell asked for a trial date in April, saying it would take that long to get the DNA test results matching the blood of the defendants and the two infants, which he said are due late this month or in December.
Although that is less than nine months from the time of the alleged offense, Bushnell said he has received medical history and other information that is "consistent with the possibility" that one of the defendants is the father of the unborn children.
Defense attorneys Tony Anderson and William Cleaveland have maintained from the beginning that the woman is lying about the incident and suggested Friday that they expect the DNA tests to exclude their clients.
"We are eagerly awaiting the results, " Anderson said after the hearing. Even if the tests show that one of the defendants is the father, the deputies still could maintain that the woman consented to having sex with them.
And if tests fail to establish paternity by either Bell or Neighbors, they could be used to challenge the woman's credibility if she had insisted earlier that one of the two men was the father.
Anderson declined to comment on that scenario. But it became clear during the hearing Friday that he and Cleaveland will devote a large part of the defense to raising questions about the woman's credibility.
"We don't think she knows the truth from a lie," Cleaveland said as he argued that he and Anderson are entitled to information about the woman's criminal background.
At a preliminary hearing in June, the woman testified that Bell and Neighbors offered her a ride home from a Williamson Road bar the night of May 14, then sexually abused her as they drove through the city.
The woman - who said she trusted the men because she knew they were deputies - testified that they forced her to have intercourse and perform oral sex as they drove around the city for at least an hour, stopping once in a residential area and again at a convenience store.
She called police after the men dropped her off in the parking lot of the bar where they had met earlier.
Although Bell is not charged with raping the woman, authorities have ordered him to provide a blood sample for the paternity tests, Anderson said.
The defense also is seeking information about the woman's sexual history - in particular other allegations of rape that she has made. Such evidence usually is barred by the rape shield law, which is intended to protect victims of sexual crimes from being put on trial themselves.
But if the woman has made previous false allegations, Anderson said, he would ask Jennings to rule that the evidence is admissible because it shows the woman might have a motive to fabricate the charges against the deputies.
While the rape shield law is intended to protect complaining witnesses, Anderson has said this case is different because the woman, Ronlyn Eaton, contacted the media about the case in May and asked that her name be used.
A discovery motion filed by Anderson asked the prosecution to hand over any information it may have about prior sexual allegations made by Eaton. In court Friday, Bushnell said Eaton had reported being raped in Miami in 1987. Details about that case were not available.
Bushnell objected to delving any further into the woman's background.
"I want to make it clear that I'm not going to sit down with this victim, or any other victim of a sex crime, and say, `Please tell me your entire sexual history so I can give it to the defense,''' he said.
But Jennings ordered Bushnell to find out if Eaton has made any other complaints of rape or sexual abuse and to forward that information to defense attorneys.
Whether that information would be relevant in the trial - scheduled to begin April 23 - is an issue that has yet to be decided.
by CNB