THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412030147
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, staff writer
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A Circuit Court judge dismissed a defamation of character lawsuit against the executive director of the city's Community Services Board on Thursday, abruptly ending a two-day jury trial.
Judge Ann Bonwill Shockley ruled that a letter written by director Dennis I. Wool to a state official did not defame the character of Jewell McGee, whose son once lived in Baker House, a group home for the mentally retarded.
Shockley's decision to dismiss was driven by three factors: that the statute of limitations had passed; that Wool, acting as board director, had a qualified privilege to comment on McGee; and that the words he wrote were not defamatory.
The ruling ended a four-year effort by McGee to prove Wool had defamed her in a May 1, 1990, letter to King Davis, then commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.
The case arose when McGee's son, Joseph ``Buster'' Lawrence III, now 50, told his mother that while living at Baker House he had been slapped and that his money was taken by home employees.
When McGee investigated the complaints, she claimed to have found other problems at the home, including evidence that records were not properly kept, that the home was not sanitary, and that food was improperly prepared.
McGee took her concerns to the licensing division of the state department of mental health, which oversees the homes . She also complained to the Volunteers of America, which contracts with the Community Services Board to operate Baker House.
She ultimately made five allegations. Following two inspections in 1990 by the state licensing board found four complaints were unsubstantiated. In the fifth, some regulatory violations were found and a plan to correct them was developed, according to court testimony.
The areas of non-compliance largely related to how personnel files were kept.
The allegation that Lawrence had been slapped or abused by home workers could not be proved.
McGee also had complained about toilets not working at the home. Wool said for a while clients at Baker House had to use portable toilets while repairs were made to a sewer pump.
Another complaint, that menus for the clients were not posted as required, was corrected.
Following McGee's initial inquiry, there were four other occasions in which she called upon the state licensing office to investigate the home and each time her complaints were unsubstantiated.
Wool said he became concerned about the staff time being consumed investigating McGee's complaints and that he wrote the letter to Davis in which he characterized her as a ``disgruntled'' and a ``misdirected consumer.''
McGee's attorney, Samuel R. Brown II, brought several other parents whose children were in group homes to testify that they too shared McGee's concerns but that they were not singled out for criticism as McGee has been.
But before the jury could decide the case, Shockley made her ruling.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT GROUP HOME by CNB