by Laurence Hammack | Sep 28, 1997 | Courts/legal issues
IT IS EARLY on a Tuesday night, and already the parking lot is filling up at Roanoke’s only striptease club. Like moths to a porch light, men are drawn to the hot pink sign on Franklin Road Southwest that marks the location of Girls, Girls, Girls of Virginia...
by Laurence Hammack | Oct 27, 1996 | Courts/legal issues
Since taking his first puff of marijuana as a 9-year-old, David L. Thompson figures that he’s smoked, snorted or shot up almost every kind of drug there is. “By the time I was 13, I was pretty much a hard-core addict,” Thompson said. “Anything...
by Laurence Hammack | Dec 16, 1995 | Courts/legal issues
THE sound of fists pounding on metal invaded Melvin Morton’s office through an open window as he talked about the kids locked up at Coyner Springs Juvenile Detention Center. “You hear the words `I don’t care’ a lot around here,” said...
by Laurence Hammack | Sep 13, 1994 | Courts/legal issues
Series: Facing the Fear Paying the Price. EDITOR’S NOTE – This series is a combined project of The Associated Press, the Newport News Daily Press, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times & World-News and The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk ...
by Laurence Hammack | Apr 10, 1994 | Courts/legal issues
When he was 14, Bobby Ingram would ride his bike to the corner store, a $5 bill stuffed in his pocket for soda and snacks. He soon noticed that other kids had a lot more money than he did. “We would go to the store and I would pull out the $5 my mom had gave...
by Laurence Hammack | Jul 17, 1993 | Courts/legal issues
The case of Charles A. Cotton was handled with assembly-line speed; just one of 279 traffic cases jamming the July 1 docket. Cotton pleaded guilty to driving after his license had been suspended – for the 10th time. He was fined $100. Five minutes later, Cotton...