Timely Response Could

Timely Response Could

Have Averted Tragedy

By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

Rappahannock N«w« Staff Writer

The special grand jury empaneled to investigate the shooting death last November of Flint Hill farm manager Ranee Spellman offered recommendations that ranged from charges to be lodged against the woman accused of the slaying to the conduct of local law enforcement.

The special grand jury’s recommendations, dated December 1, 1982, are part of the previously closed record unsealed early Saturday morning by Circuit Court Judge Thomas Home after a jury returned a not guilty verdict against Diane Kidwell in the Spellman shooting.

By law, grand jury deliberations are secret. But portions of testimony given before Rappahannock’s special grand jury were reviewed by both defense and prosecution attorneys to determine if Kidwell’s original counsel had violated her sixth amendment rights and revealed privileged information in his testimony before the panel.

According to the sealed record opened last weekend, Judge Home held that the regular grand jury’s indictment was not tainted by release earlier of any confidential information to the special grand jury.

However, findings of that special grand jury were read into the record of the closed hearing on the Kid' well case held February 25 in the court house in Washington.

At the trial last week and at an earlier hearing that ended in a hung jury and mistrial, Diane Kidwell testifed that just prior to the shooting, she had talked by telephone with Rappahannock Sheriff W. A. Bun tin and requested the sheriff to come to the scene According to Kidwell, the sheriff said he didn’t want to get involved and didn’t want to “mess with” Ranee Spellman and suggested instead that she post her property against treaspass and if Spellman then trespassed, obtain a warrant which the sheriffs department would serve. In both hearings, Buntin maintained that he never said he didn’t want to mess with Spellman but acknowledged that he told Kidwell he lacked authority in a right-of-way dispute.

Citizens Need Assurances

The first recommendation of the special grand jury suggests “steps be taken to assure the residents of Rappahannock County that prompt and effective assistance will be provided by the Sheriffs Department and/or the Virginia State Police whenever the need arises.”

The special investigative panel also concluded that “without the benefit of such assurances, some citizens will resort to violence to resolve their differences and tragedies of this nature (the Spellman shooting) will be repeated.”

The panel split on recommendation for charges against Diane Kidwell: six recommended that she be indicted for voluntary manslaughter, three proposed second degree murder.

Ranee Spellman was shot by Kidwell from her pick-up truck as he operated a bulldozer on a disputed right-of-way which served two lots owned by the Kidwells and four lots belonging to Spellman’s employer, Patricia Saltonstall, owner of Points of View Farm.

Husband Loaded Gun

The special grand jury found that Roger Kidwell, Sr., had loaded the shotgun used to kill Spellman on the morning of November 9 after hearing the approach of the bulldozer.

The panel also found that Mrs. Patricia Saltonstall and her agent, Ranee Spellman, veere not originally acting in good faith consistent with the previous considerations shown them by other users of the common right-of-way.

The special grand jury also noted that it was “commonly rumored in the local community that Rand (sic) Spellman carried a handgun.”

While Kidwell was sitting in her pick-up truck at the edge of the right-of-way, Spellman in the bulldozer “made two passes at the truck,” according to the special grand jury’s findings. The panel concluded that Kidwell felt “angry, threatened and terrified.”

According to testimony at the two hearings, Kidwell’s brother, Ronnie Farmer, called the State Police and requested assistance and was told that a trooper was responding to the call prior to the shooting incident. However, the special grand jury held that when Farmer described the situation to the State Police, the gravity of the situation was not relayed to Trooper R. A. Baines, who responded to the scene.

Baines and Rappahannock Sheriff W. A. Buntin arrived within minutes of the shooting. “Upon arrival at the scene, Trooper Baines took charge and performed in a professional manner. He is a credit to the Virginia State Police,” the special grand jury found.

But the panel also concluded that “a more timely response by law enforcement personnel most probably would have averted this tragedy.”