ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996               TAG: 9601190070
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-5  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER 

ASSAULT CHARGE IS DISMISSED BOY CLAIMED OFFICER SHOVED HIM

A judge dismissed an assault charge Thursday against a Roanoke police officer accused of shoving a 7-year-old boy down a stairwell during a disturbance at a hockey game.

Citing testimony from the boy and three independent witnesses - who all said the 7-year-old did not fall down the stairs in the way described by his father - Judge B.B. Bowers said he found no evidence to support the misdemeanor charge against Richard Sauerwald.

Sauerwald was working off-duty but in uniform the night of Oct. 13, when the Roanoke Express played its season opener at the Roanoke Civic Center.

Testimony showed that, as time expired in the game, the father put his son on his shoulders and made his way down to an area next to the ice, in hopes of getting an autograph from one of the exiting players.

Sauerwald testified that he told the man that the area was restricted, and that he would have to leave. When the man refused to go, Sauerwald testified, he took his arm and began to escort him from the area.

The man then took his son down from his shoulders and continued to resist while holding the boy's hand, witnesses said. At that point, a second police officer pried the man's hand away from his son's and assisted Sauerwald in removing the man from the building.

The man - who was not charged - admitted that he became angry when told to leave the area.

"I asked him what the hell he thought he was doing," the man testified. "I probably used the F-word."

The man testified that Sauerwald, in the process of forcefully removing him, grabbed his son and pushed him to the side - causing him to strike a hand-railing and then fall several steps down the aisle.

The boy corroborated his father's story in testimony that seemed so rehearsed it prompted defense attorney Gary Lumsden to ask if he had been coached. The boy replied that his father had "helped me remember" what happened that night.

Under questioning from the judge, however, the boy said he never fell down the steps.

The case was unusual in that most excessive force complaints against Roanoke police officers are investigated internally. Sauerwald's case went to juvenile court after the boy's father went to a magistrate and swore out an assault summons. Lumsden said an internal investigation by police found no wrongdoing on Sauerwald's part, and the officer was not disciplined as a result.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court proceedings generally are closed to the public. Bowers allowed The Roanoke Times to attend, but under the condition that the boy and his father not be identified.

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