DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709250388

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

VIRGINIA [BRIEFS]

FREDERICKSBURG - FBI crime lab tests have ruled out a potential suspect in the deaths of three Spotsylvania County girls, police said.

Blood samples taken from Michael A. Jett, 39, did not match evidence collected in the deaths of Sofia Silva, 16, Kristin Lisk, 15, and her sister Kati, 12, the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office said on Tuesday. Since the samples do not match, Jett is no longer considered a possible suspect.

``That's not a big surprise to the task force,'' said Maj. Howard Smith of the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office. ``We had felt pretty early on . . . that it was impossible for him to be involved.''

Police originally discounted Jett as a suspect in the killings in part because his boss had said Jett, a roofer, left a job in Fairfax County about 3 p.m. on May 1, the day the Lisk sisters disappeared.

Police figured Jett could not have traveled 60 or more miles to the Lisk home in time to abduct them that afternoon. Their father arrived home near 4 p.m. to find them gone, police have said.

Jett came to media attention two weeks ago in a affidavit signed by Spotsylvania County Detective Robert B. Jones.

The affidavit said Jett told a cellmate that he had sex with adolescent girls at a deserted Caroline County house. He also talked to cellmate Joseph Norford about the slayings of Kristin and Kati Lisk and mentioned having been near the Lisk home, the affidavit said.

CENTRAL

Walker pledges improved

day-care center monitoring

RICHMOND - The chairman of a state commission on children has pledged that the General Assembly will take up measures next year to improve regulation of day-care centers, including increased inspection funding.

Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk and head of the Commission on Early Childhood and Child Day Care Programs, also chided the Department of Social Services on Tuesday for failing to seek more money to hire enough inspectors to visit all child-care providers at least twice a year, as state law requires.

Walker said a public hearing will be conducted by the end of the year on the measures that the legislature will take up at its 1998 session.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that social services didn't have inspectors assigned to 159 licensed day-care centers and that 722 centers hadn't been inspected twice last year. The report, released earlier this year, said child-care licensing inspectors were overburdened.

Head of hospital rebuked

for abuses gets new post

RICHMOND - The director of a state-run psychiatric hospital that received a stinging rebuke from the U.S. Justice Department for patient abuse and deaths will take another job with the state mental health department.

Jim Bumpas, director of Central State Hospital near Petersburg since June 1994, has been named director of the Southside Virginia Training Center, acting mental health commissioner Richard E. Kellogg said Wednesday.

``Now is a logical time for this transition, since many of the corrective actions in response to the U.S. Department of Justice investigation . . . have been developed, and implementation is beginning,'' Kellogg said in a statement.

Kellogg said Bumpas asked for the top job at the mental retardation center, which is across the street from Central State.

``I am pleased that Jim has requested to transfer to the training center,'' Kellogg said. ``He is known and respected by the staff and will continue the tradition of excellent leadership for the facility.''

Bumpas, 52, succeeds Richard E. Buckley, who died in February.

Martha Mead, spokeswoman for the mental health agency, said Bumpas was not forced out.

``He had worked there (the training center) before and felt that was a good fit for him,'' Mead said.

Bumpas announced his decision Wednesday to Central State staff.

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