ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
A Botetourt judge on Monday ordered a psychiatric examination for a Buchanan man accused of ramming his truck into a car driven by two people pursuing him after an alleged robbery.
General District Judge Louis Campbell ordered Timothy Lam to be evaluated to see if he were sane at the time of the offense, and to see if he is competent to stand trial after his attorney argued he was in fear of his life and was acting in self-defense.
Lam was afraid because Paul Wright, the man who claimed he was robbed, had really threatened to kill Lam, said Lam's attorney, Mary Hatch. She said there was no robbery.
Campbell told Hatch that Lam had to be in contact with a treatment center within an hour of his release from jail.
Lam was released from the Botetourt County Jail on $15,000 bond shortly after his arraignment.
"I don't want there to be any appreciable time when he is out on bond and not pursuing treatment," Campbell said.
Lam is charged with felony hit-and-run, attempted malicious wounding and reckless driving.
Wright, 28 of Roanoke, told Roanoke police a man pulled up to him on the street in a pickup truck and asked for change.
When Wright pulled money from his pocket, he told police, the man grabbed $50 and started to pull away. Wright said he jumped into the bed of the truck.
He was bounced out of the truck on Hershberger Road, where another man, whose name has not been released, picked him up and agreed to pursue the truck, Wright said. The chase led to a dead end road in Botetourt County, where the truck rammed the vehicle Wright was in and sped away.
State police later arrested Lam after a tip came in that he was in a different vehicle.
Roanoke police are investigating Wright's allegations, but Monday they had not charged Lam with anything. Lam is due in court in Roanoke Feb. 19 for a different charge of hit-and-run that resulted in personal injury. He was out on bond for that charge.
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