DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170480

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS

                                            LENGTH:   88 lines

VIRGINIA

SOUTHWEST

State rejects request

for details of VMI's

discipline of woman

LEXINGTON - Virginia officials on Tuesday rejected a U.S. Justice Department request for a complete account of last week's suspension of a female cadet from the Virginia Military Institute, calling the case an internal disciplinary matter that does not concern the federal government.

A Justice official said the department needed more details about the suspension of Angelica Garza so that it could assess whether VMI had treated her fairly, in accordance with the school's obligation not to discriminate against the first female cadets in VMI history.

But the state attorney general's office, which represents VMI because it is a state-funded school, said the Garza episode is not covered by a federal court order that requires VMI to keep federal officials informed about the assimilation of women on campus. Instead, the attorney general's office referred the Justice Department to newspaper articles and a VMI news release for information on the incident.

Garza, 18, of Fort Belvoir, Va., was suspended for two semesters for allegedly punching an upperclassman on Aug. 29 after she was berated on the school's Rat Line, the system of ritualized abuse to which all VMI freshmen are subjected.

CENTRAL

Elementary teacher faces

new pornography charges

RICHMOND - A second-grade teacher from Chesterfield County charged with child pornography now faces new federal pornography and sexual assault charges.

Brian Edward Morrissey, 27, was arrested Friday at his parents' home in Brewster, N.Y., on a federal warrant. He was freed on a $5,000 bond following his August arrest by Chesterfield County Police.

Chesterfield police seized pictures and videotapes of naked children when they made the initial arrest. They also seized an Apple computer belonging to Evergreen Elementary School, where Morrissey worked.

An investigation of the seized computer by federal agents revealed pornographic files of children. U.S. Postal inspectors got a warrant charging Morrissey with inducing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for child pornography production, interstate travel to engage in a sex crime, crossing state lines to engage in a sex act with persons under 12 years of age and other crimes.

After the arrest, Morrissey was released on a $100,000 bond and restricted to his parents' home. A hearing date for the federal charges was set for Oct. 14 in U.S. District Court in New York.

PIEDMONT

Woman who pierced fawn's

ears gets court attorney

HARRISONBURG - A woman accused of animal cruelty for putting earrings on a foundling fawn changed her mind about acting as her own lawyer when she showed up for her trial Tuesday.

Judge William Heatwold appointed an attorney to defend Bettie Phillips and her daughter, Gerry Rae Beckner, on misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty and possessing a wild animal. The trial was postponed to Nov. 18.

Phillips, 54, of Hiddenite, N.C., told The Associated Press in July that she picked up the deer along a highway in western Virginia on July 3 as she drove to visit her daughter in Harrisonburg.

Later that day, she said, she pierced its ears by hand by pushing the posts of the two small cross-shaped earrings through the thin flesh about one-half inch from their tips.

``I thought it would be pretty,'' she said at the time. ``You can get a little kid's ears pierced. What's the difference between a person's (ears) and a baby deer's?''

Police officers found the 2-month-old deer in the back of her Ford Explorer on July 5. The deer was slightly dehydrated, and its ears were inflamed and infected, said Ned Gentz, chief veterinarian at the Wildlife Center of Virginia. The animal was treated at the center with antibiotics and on Aug. 20 was released into the wild with six other orphan fawns, Gentz said.

COMING UP

Today

RICHMOND - Horse statue dedication at the Virginia Historical Society on Boulevard.

Resignation of state Mental Health Commissioner Timothy Kelly becomes effective.

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