ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Two Roanoke sheriff's deputies acquitted earlier this month of raping and sodomizing a woman while they were off duty have returned to their jobs as guards in the Roanoke City Jail.
David K. Bell and Larry D. Neighbors, who had been suspended without pay while the charges were pending for more than a year, were allowed to rejoin the Roanoke Sheriff's Office this week.
Although the charges against Bell and Neighbors were dismissed by a judge, Sheriff Alvin Hudson said he had some concerns about the men's "conduct, on and off duty" that he wanted to discuss before making a decision on their employment.
"We had a long talk, and hopefully we cleared some things up," Hudson said Tuesday.
Testimony has shown that the deputies, who are both married, were at a Roanoke bar in May 1995 and offered a ride home to a woman they met. The woman claimed that the deputies - who knew her from an earlier stay in the jail - raped and sodomized her as they drove through the city.
Although Bell and Neighbors did not have an opportunity to present a defense before the judge dismissed the charges, their lawyer's questioning of the woman suggested that they would have contended that she consented to sex.
In dismissing the charges, Judge Barnard Jennings cited the many conflicting statements the woman had made. Her credibility was further damaged by DNA tests that eliminated both Bell and Neighbors as the father of twins she had in December. She had earlier insisted to authorities that one of the men had to be the father.
Testimony during the trial also showed that Neighbors lied to officials in the Sheriff's Office during an investigation of the woman's complaints. After first telling a lieutenant that he had never seen the woman, Neighbors changed his story when he learned that Bell had admitted they gave her a ride home.
Hudson noted that both men have already been punished - "not only with the loss of a year's salary, but by the embarrassment with their family and friends and the entire law enforcement community."
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB