THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410010293
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE AND ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: STAFFORD, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Oliver L. North, who bills himself as a tough law-and-order candidate, apparently isn't afraid to take justice into his own hands.
A yellowed ledger in the back room of the Stafford County courthouse notes that a criminal complaint against North was dismissed in early 1975.
No other documentation of the incident - including the nature of the charge - is available. The case file was destroyed along with all of the county's General District Court records for a nine-month period that ended in August 1975.
North, during a recent interview, said the case sprang from a night when a teenager armed with a rifle fired at his car, shattering the driver's side window. North said he chased down the youth and ``used sufficient force to render his gun useless.''
At the time, North was living in Stafford and stationed at the Quantico Marine Base.
North said he was driving near the base when the shot was fired. His son, Stuart, then about 3, was in the car. No one was hurt.
``He was doing what kids do as pranks, I suppose,'' North said of the shooter. ``He was probably shooting at my car, but not necessarily expecting it would shatter the window.''
North said he slammed on the brakes and pursued the youth. ``As I recall, I smashed the young man's gun against a tree or a rock,'' North said.
Did he beat up the youth? ``I may have had some non-traditional punishment words with him, but I seriously doubt that I took much further steps than were necessary to render the gun harmless,'' North said.
Shortly after the incident, North said he learned that ``there were those who were going to press charges'' against him. He said he hired a Marine lawyer who ``spoke to other lawyers and made the whole thing go away.''
North said his recollection of the 19-year-old incident is hazy. He said he cannot recall the name of the youth who fired at his car, the attorney he hired or the people who wanted to file a complaint against him.
``This may come as a surprise to you, but I've had several far more exciting and notable events in my life,'' North said.
North said he does not recall being formally charged in connection with the incident, and that he did not press charges against the teenager.
County law enforcement officials said they have no memory of the incident, noting that North was not famous at the time. ``I knew hundreds and hundreds of Marines,'' said Dick Ashby, who was sheriff in the mid-1970s. ``I wouldn't remember anything like that.''
Commonwealth's Attorney Daniel M. Chichester, who took office in 1971, also drew a blank, but said the youth almost certainly would have been charged with a felony for shooting into a car. No such charge was filed in Stafford County's General District or Circuit Court in 1974 or 1975, though such a charge could have been lodged in Juvenile Court, whose records are not open to the public.
Circuit Court Clerk Thomas M. Moncure Jr. said records of the incident were probably discarded two years ago to create additional space. Under state law, district court records can be destroyed after 10 years.
Today, the drawer for 1974-75 General District Court cases remains empty while records from earlier dates still remain on file. Moncure attributes that to the random way in which records are purged.
Former neighbors said North never mentioned his encounter with the teenager. ``Knowing the way Larry was, it wouldn't surprise me, though,'' said Neil Mayhew, referring to North by the name used by family and close friends. ``Some things he just didn't talk about.''
North said he cannot recall the approximate date of the incident, although records suggest the complaint was dismissed in March 1975.
He said the incident is not related to his hospitalization for psychiatric counseling in December 1974, shortly after he returned from a stint in Southeast Asia. North said the counseling was due to marital difficulties he was experiencing.
``I'm constantly amazed by the things you guys think are important,'' North recently told a reporter.
``Let me ask you this: What would your response be if you're driving home late at night and your kid's in your car and someone shoots through your window?'' he asked. ``I'm just curious; would you drive away and wave at him?''
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE
by CNB