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| NEWS > 23 May 2007 |
Other related articles:
Protesters killed by police
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Police opened fire on villagers protesting the construction of a wind-power plant in Guangdong, leaving at least two people dead, a news report said Wednesday.
Local police and other officials contacted by telephone in Dongzhou, a village in the southern coastal city of Shanwei, refused to comment.
"That's something between the villagers and local government. We are just doing our project and we're not clear about what's going on there," said a spokeswoman for Guangdong Red Bay Generation, a company building a coal-fired power plant nearby... Read more
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Smyth County News - Marion,VA,
23 May 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Two former Chilhowie Police De
A Smyth County Grand Jury has returned indictments against two former members of the Chilhowie Police Department , Dwayne Sheffield and Brian Doss. The charges stem from what the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation called Wednesday “an encounter in October with the victim at a haunted house in Chilhowie.”
The indictments, filed in Smyth County Circuit Court, said the victim was “a female child, seventeen years of age.”
Sheffield, the department’s former police chief, is charged with rape, object sexual penetration, felony child endangerment, sexual battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, court papers said.
Doss, who had served as a sergeant with the six-member department, is charged with forcible sodomy, felony child endangerment, sexual battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the court papers said.
Indictments, which are not a finding of guilt or innocence, but a determination that sufficient evidence exists for the case to move forward, said for both men the offenses happened “on or about October 23, 2006, through November 1, 2006, in the county of Smyth…”
The indictments charge that Sheffield did “unlawfully and feloniously engage in sexual intercourse with a female child, seventeen years of age, by force, threat or intimidation…; unlawfully and willfully penetrate with an object the labia majora of a female child, seventeen years of age, against her will and by force, threat or intimidation…; unlawfully and feloniously, while having the custody of a child, willfully or negligently to cause or permit the life of such child to be endangered or the health of such child endangered or the health of such child to be injured, or willfully or negligently to cause or permit such child to be placed in a situation that her life, health or morals may be endangered, a Class 6 felony…; commit sexual battery against a female child, seventeen years of age, by force, threat, intimidation or ruse…; unlawfully and willfully contribute to, encourage or cause and act, omission or condition which rendered a female child, under the age of eighteen, delinquent, a Class 1 misdemeanor…”
The indictments contend that Doss did “unlawfully and feloniously engage in anal intercourse with a female child, seventeen years of age, against her will and by force, threat or intimidation…; unlawfully, feloniously, while having the custody of a child, willfully or negligently to cause or permit the life of such child to be endangered or the health of such child to be injured, or willfully or negligently to cause or permit such child to be placed in a situation that her life, health or morals my be endangered, a Class 6 felony…; commit sexual battery against a female child, seventeen years of age, by force, threat, intimidation or ruse…; unlawfully and willfully contribute to, encourage or cause and act, omission or condition which rendered a female child, under the age of eighteen, delinquent, a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
Lee Harrell, appointed as special prosecutor in the case in March, said, “These are serious allegations. The grand jury found probable cause for the indictments and the case now proceeds to trial. Because the victim is a minor, I will not comment further on the case to protect the victim and the integrity of the investigation.”
Sgt. Michael Conroy of the Virginia State Police said, “We are unable to comment further on the investigation except to release the charges the grand jury returned today.”
Conroy did say warrants were served on Sheffield and Doss who appeared before magistrates at Southwest Virginia Regional Jail late Wednesday.
In early May, the Chilhowie Town Council voted 5-0 in a special called meeting to terminate Sheffield and Doss. They were terminated “for cause,” Boswell said.
“For cause” means for a specific reason rather than as the result of an arbitrary decision, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans.
According to Chilhowie Town Manager Bill Boswell, Sheffield resigned the following morning and the town accepted it. Doss, said Boswell, was terminated shortly thereafter.
A Virginia State Police spokesman previously refused to comment when asked if his agency was investigating the department.
Commonwealth Attorney Evans said he was aware of concerns directed at the Chilhowie Police Department, but because of his affiliation with law enforcement officers working in Smyth County, he is not connected with any investigations of officers.
A March 27 order filed in Smyth County Circuit Court excuses Evans “of his duty to prosecute this case and that Gerald Mabe, II, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the County of Wythe and/or any of his assistants…shall act in the place of” Smyth’s attorney. The order appointing the special prosecutor was signed by Circuit Court Judge Isaac Freeman.
Evans referred questions to Wythe County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Lee Harrell, but at that time Harrell said he could not comment on what he called an “ongoing investigation.”
Rumors have circulated for weeks about the haunted house the Chilhowie Police Department operated last fall as a fundraiser.
Earlier Sheffield said, “We raised over $2,500 that was donated to Family Resource Center, a regional resource for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and the Cancer Outreach Foundation.”
At the time Sheffield denied allegations of illicit sexual activity at the haunted house. “Two officers’ wives were there all the time,” he said. “It took nearly 40 volunteers to operate it nightly. Myself and Sgt. Doss were tour guides and we never sat down and were constantly going through it. After 11:30 or 12, we closed down, went home and went to work the next morning.”
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