DATE: Wednesday, March 5, 1997              TAG: 9703050493

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

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VIRGINIA

Gov. George Allen has appointed former University of Virginia basketball star Wally Walker and three other people to the university's Board of Visitors.

The others appointed Monday are William G. Crutchfield Jr., an Albemarle County businessman; James C. Wheat III of Henrico County, a business executive who was the treasurer of Allen's 1993 gubernatorial campaign; and Terence P. Ross of Alexandria, a lawyer and longtime Allen political supporter.

Walker, president and general manager of the Seattle Supersonics, is vice chairman of the university's $750 million capital campaign.

U.Va. Rector Hovey S. Dabney said Walker, 42, adds youth and fund-raising prowess to the board.

``We had to have a national presence and he gives us that,'' Dabney said.

Crutchfield is president of Crutchfield Corp., one of the nation's largest mail-order retailers of electronics equipment. He also serves as vice chairman of the U.Va. Health Services Foundation's Board of Directors.

Wheat, a graduate of U.Va.'s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, succeeds Warner N. Dalhouse on the board. Dalhouse, a Democrat from Roanoke, was eligible for reappointment.

Ross is a partner in the nation's 10th largest law firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, and is a 1983 U.Va. law school graduate. He said he met Allen in 1982, when Allen was running his first race for House of Delegates.

Crutchfield, Ross and Wheat are active Republicans. Walker said he is a registered Republican in Seattle but doubted that his out-of-state party registration had anything to do with his appointment.

The new board members succeed Arnold H. Leon, Mortimer M. Caplin, Evans B. Jessee and Warner N. Dalhouse. Caplin and Dalhouse were eligible for reappointment; Leon and Jessee were not. HONAKER Prison guard accidentally shoots himself in the leg

An Appalachian Correctional Unit guard caused a stir Tuesday when he shot himself in the leg.

The officer was overseeing inmates on a road work crew in the Mills Creek section of Russell County when the incident occurred, Virginia State Police dispatcher Chuck Galyean said.

The guard gave his weapon to a Department of Transportation employee to hold while he used the bathroom, Galyean said. The revolver discharged when the guard put it back in his holster.

The guard, whose name was not released, was treated and released at Russell County Medical Center, said Galyean.

``It was really no big deal,'' Galyean said. But he said police received a lot of calls from people who heard about the incident on their scanners.

Department of Corrections spokesman David Botkins said the incident is under investigation, although preliminary indications are that it was simply an accident.

About 110 inmates are housed at the Appalachian Correctional Unit, a minimum security prison in Honaker, Botkins said. ARLINGTON Boyfriend's hand slashed in fight over TV remote

Infuriated by her boyfriend's channel surfing, an Arlington woman snatched the TV remote and cut his hand with a butcher knife when he tried to take it back, police said.

Renee Deskins, 40, cut Jeyone Aubrey Mills' left hand deeply enough to sever tendons and nerves. She has been charged with malicious wounding, a felony.

``They were arguing over who would control the remote. I have never heard of anything like this,'' police spokesman Jim Page said.

The two were watching television about 5 p.m. Sunday when they disagreed about what to watch and who was going to change the channel, police said.

Deskins grabbed the remote from Mills and ran with it into the kitchen with Mills in pursuit. She picked up a butcher knife and slashed the back of Mills' hand, according to police.

A preliminary hearing for Deskins is set for May 7. MEMO: From The Associated Press.

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