ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702030008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
J. Patrick Graybeal was going to be a band director.
"But when I got in the Navy I realized I had more appreciation than talent," the former tuba scholarship winner said.
It was an older brother's encouraging words that led Graybeal to a career in law. He defended his first case at the side of his lawyer brother.
"I don't know what I would have done if I didn't like it, but I liked it" he said.
Now he is retiring from 40 years of legal work and looking back on a career that began with a private practice and culminated in a seat on the bench. After more than seven and a half years as a judge in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for the 27th Judicial District, Graybeal will retire April 30, shortly after his 65th birthday.
It is a career that most people in the New River Valley will remember as a dangerous one. Few people will forget the day in 1973 when a bomb planted at Graybeal's home exploded and led to the amputation of both his hands. Two "hooks" are fitted in their place.
The attack, carried out by a man Graybeal prosecuted for second-degree murder four years earlier, never deterred the barrister. He talked recently about how he felt after the blast.
"I wondered if I ever could go back to work, but I would try to go back to work, if I could, because it was my job," Graybeal said. "You don't know what you can do until you are there. Each one of us has to decide."
Graybeal's dedication to legal work only grew with the years, despite the physical and emotional price he paid.
The explosion came nine years after Graybeal was appointed Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney. He served three years of the term of the previous prosecutor, who had died while in office, and was then re-elected six times. His career as a prosecutor lasted 25 years.
Although Graybeal was in private practice for several years before becoming commonwealth's attorney, he said his most gratifying work was as a prosecutor and a judge.
"We [he and his five siblings] were raised with the notion that the highest calling was to serve others and this was a way to do that," he said.
He literally prosecuted thousands of cases during his career; 868 his last year alone, he said. His first nine years he practiced in General District Court, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, and Circuit Court. He also served as the county agencies' legal adviser, a duty no longer required of the job.
Graybeal said the average of 400 to 500 cases on the docket annually was a tremendous load.
"When I was first appointed I lost 20 pounds," Graybeal said. "I knew it was a big job, but I figured 'if I work hard enough at it maybe I'll get it going.'"
Cases for the record book
There are hundreds of cases that "stand out" in Graybeal's memory, he said, and he declined to pick out too many specifically. But there are several cases that few longtime residents will forget.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Mike Jones said Graybeal holds the record for winning the longest sentence imposed in the county: 145 years plus life.
Jones was a lieutenant in charge of investigations when the case broke in the early '80s. Two men "captured" a young Tech student and dragged her into some bushes where they repeatedly raped and sodomized her for eight to 10 hours, Jones said. The second man's lesser sentence was still 50 years plus life, he said.
"He did a marvelous job," Jones said of Graybeal's prosecution of the case.
In another high profile case, Graybeal successfully argued for the death penalty for Buddy Earl Justus, who murdered an Ironto nurse who was nine months pregnant. Justus was executed in 1990 for the 1978 slaying.
Perhaps the case Graybeal is most noted for is the one he never prosecuted: the case that put his attacker, Frank H. DeWease, behind bars for 20 years.
On Dec. 4, 1973, as Graybeal puts it, he was "blown up." He had just left a victory party for the first-term win of state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville.
DeWease was 39 years old. Six days before the blast, he had walked out of prison after serving a four-year term for murder. He had bragged to fellow inmates that he planned to kill Graybeal, and he nearly succeeded.
Graybeal got out of his car at home and found a potato chip can on the roof of his wife's car. He picked it up, tossed it from his right hand to his left so he could get his keys out of his pocket. In midtoss, the can filled with dynamite exploded with such force it blew the hubcaps off the car and blew the windows out of his house and a neighbor's.
The blast cost Graybeal both his hands. Doctors had to rebuild his eardrums. Burns and lacerations covered the front side of his body. He lost his sight for a week and still has trouble with one eye.
The state successfully argued that DeWease had wasted no time seeking revenge against the man who had prosecuted him for murder. DeWease, however, claimed he had been asked to carry out a plot by others to kill Graybeal, but said he had turned down those offers. He still maintains his innocence.
The explosion made headlines for months afterward, suppositions and rumors about who had planted the bomb and why still reverberate here despite DeWease's conviction. Some people believed the attack was connected to a drug investigation of high-profile Montgomery County and Roanoke businessmen that Graybeal was investigating through a special grand jury.
Graybeal said there is absolutely no doubt in his mind that DeWease was the one who planted the bomb and that his motive was revenge. He said specific evidence that only he and the attacker would have known convinced him that DeWease placed the bomb.
DeWease was convicted of malicious wounding for the attack and received the maximum sentence: 20 years in prison. His mandatory release date is spring of 1998.
Graybeal admits he is apprehensive about DeWease's release.
"I just want them to let me know [when he gets out] so I can protect my family," Graybeal said.
Marye still remembers the night. Marye described Graybeal "as one of the bravest people I've ever known."
"It hasn't carried over in bitterness and an attitude of self pity," Marye said.
Graybeal said he realizes people can't help but notice the "hooks" that are fitted where his hands once were, but he often forgets they are there. Phantom pains occasionally flare and he still feels his fingers - only now they feel as if they are stuffed in a can, unable to move. When he walks in downtown Christiansburg, the shadow his hooks cast or his reflection in a storefront window can still surprise him, he said.
The hardest thing Graybeal had to do after the attack was not learning how to pick up a single sheet of paper, which he does with aplomb, or even signing his name - a task that requires using one elbow to hold the paper steady as he writes with a pen held in his right hook.
The single most difficult thing was "standing before the jury" the first time, he said.
"I was kind of shaky at first," he said. "It wasn't anything about the case or the facts. It was just being back and good to be there, but kind of scary, too."
'An amazing man'
Phil Keith became assistant commonwealth's attorney in Graybeal's office in 1978. In June 1989, Graybeal was appointed to the bench as juvenile and domestic relations judge and Keith was appointed to fulfill the remainder of the prosector's term.
A doctor diagnosed Keith as having a brain tumor in 1983. He, too, has overcome physical obstacles that life put in his path and credits Graybeal for some of his success.
"He's an amazing man," Keith said. "I really did appreciate the example, how he dealt with the situation. He was a real source of inspiration for me."
"He never complained and his sense of humor is unbelievable," Keith said.
Graybeal's humor certainly seems to have tempered the severity of his loss, and it regularly puts the people around him at ease.
John "Bunny" Spiers, Radford's city attorney, was appointed to fill Graybeal's job as prosecutor while Graybeal recovered from the blast. He also led the fight to get Graybeal workers' compensation - a case that ended in a state Supreme Court verdict in Graybeal's favor. Spiers also had to prosecute DeWease.
"He once told me he was the only guy who could grill a steak and turn it over without burning his hands," Spiers said referring to Graybeal's hooks. "I just admire the hell out of him."
Spiers said he believes Graybeal's positive attitude and humor come from his family. Graybeal, the youngest of six children, concurred with Spiers' evaluation. He said he survived because of his strong wife and family. He quickly decided self-pity served no purpose.
Graybeal's most recent work as a judge earned him a reputation as one who allows all parties to speak their peace. Fair, consistent, a gentleman and a good listener are the responses repeatedly given by those asked about the judge.
Stephanie Cangin, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of the New River Valley, practices extensively in Graybeal's court.
"I certainly enjoy practicing in front of him," she said. "He's very fair and consistent."
Spiers said he has never heard lawyers say anything negative about Graybeal's work on the bench.
"You may disagree with his decision," Spiers said, "but you wouldn't disagree with the logic."
Graybeal said leaving behind his law career is difficult. It is the people he will miss the most, he said.
"When I was injured, everyone was so supportive. I just can't think of another place in the world to work and live and raise a family," he said.
The telephone rings and Graybeal picks it up with one hook, tosses it in a spin that turns it upright and allows him to catch it with his right hook. The motion is fluid and natural. A court clerk asks for the judge's signature on some documents.
When clerk Lora Puckett arrives at his office with the papers, Graybeal jokingly asks her, "What should I say important about finishing this work?"
Without hesitation Puckett said, "Say you've had a change of heart and you're not going to leave."
LENGTH: Long : 195 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. 1. Judge J. Patrick Graybeal is retiringby CNBafter 40 years of legal work. (Ran on NRV-1). 2. Judge J. Patrick
Graybeal will be spending more time at home with his wife of 43
years, Jill. After more than seven and a half years as a judge in
the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for the 27th Judicial
District, Graybeal will retire April 30, shortly after his 65th
birthday. 3. Graybeal's dedication to legal work has grown with the
years, despite the physical and emotional price he's paid. 4. Lora
Puckett, a deputy clerk with the Montgomery County Juvenile and
Domestic Relations Court, gets Judge Graybeal to sign a court order.
color. 5. File 1974. Frank H. DeWease is led to a sheriff's car
after being indicted for the bombing attack on Graybeal in February
1974. 6. File 1973. Police search for clues to the explosion at
Graybeal's home on Dec. 6, 1973. KEYWORDS: PROFILE