QUADRIPLEGIC FACES ADDITIONAL CHARGE

The Augusta quadriplegic who began serving a seven-year prison
sentence last week now faces up to 10 more years in prison after his
indictment Tuesday for possession of marijuana.

A Richmond County grand jury issued the indictment against Louis E.
Covar, 51, accusing him and Robert Charles Kirsch of possessing
marijuana Jan. 25.

The same accusation resulted in a finding Thursday that Mr. Covar had
violated his probation, and Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet revoked Mr.
Covar's probation and ordered him imprisoned for seven years.

Mr. Covar, paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a July 4, 1967,
diving accident, was incarcerated in the Richmond County jail from
Thursday afternoon until Monday, when he was transferred to Baldwin
State Prison in Hardwick, Ga. The state Department of Corrections
estimates it will cost taxpayers $258 a day to house Mr. Covar and
more than $660,000 if he is held for the entire seven years.

Mr. Covar maintains he smokes marijuana to ease painful muscle spasms,
preferring it to doctor-prescribed narcotics because the narcotics put
him to sleep and prevent communication.

Tuesday's indictment -- as did the probation revocation -- stems from
Jan. 25, when Richmond County sheriff's Investigator Dale Pittard led
five armed officers in a search of Mr. Covar's Fernwood Circle home.

The officers testified Thursday they found 36 grams of
marijuana.

Mr. Covar, who had prior convictions for possession and sale of
marijuana, was on probation at the time of the search. Judge
Overstreet had sentenced Mr. Covar last March to seven years'
probation for possession of marijuana, his third drug offense.