22 CHARGED WITH PRISON DRUG TRAFFIC

A longtime informant and former DEA operative has been indicted along
with 21 other inmates, their relatives, and guards at the Bland
Correctional Center, charged with operating a drug conspiracy within
the prison.

Michael E. Fulchersoon to be a witness against the man accused of
setting a Roanoke fire that killed six peopleis accused of operating a
continuing criminal enterprise and faces up to life in prison and a $4
million fine.

The 47-count indictment, unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court,
alleges that Fulcher, from his Bland prison cell, arranged for $50,000
in marijuana to be smuggled in by inmates’ friends and families and
four prison guards, who then distributed the drugs to a network of
prison dealers.

As payment for the marijuana, the indictment states, prisoners mailed
money orders and cashier’s checks to Fulcher’s 65-year-old mother,
Ethel Vest Fulcher of Roanoke, who had taken out a post office box
using fake names.

The indictment states that, from 1995 to 1998, Ethel Fulcher received
$10,637. She was charged with money laundering and obstruction of
justice and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Fulcher’s wife, Rosanna Sue Nichols Fulcher, 36, of Roanoke, also was
charged with the conspiracy.

In 1993, Fulcher, 40, began serving a 48-year sentence at Bland for
theft. He was transferred to the Roanoke County Jail in late 1997,
however, to testify in the capital murder case of Earl Bramblett, who
stood accused of murdering Fulcher’s half-sister, Teresa Hodges, and
her family inside their Vinton home. Bramblett’s defense tried
unsuccessfully to link Fulcher’s past drug activity to the killings.

Fulcher later was transferred to the Botetourt County Jail, where he
was housed with Michael “Jay” Clements, a 20-year-old Roanoke County
man awaiting trial on theft-related charges. In November, Clements was
charged with setting the May 1998 fire to a Church Avenue rooming
house that killed six people, resulting in Roanoke’s deadliest arson
ever.

John Lichtenstein and Ray Ferris, two Roanoke lawyers appointed to
represent Clements, say they expect Fulcher will be called as a
prosecution witness against Clements.

If Fulcher is called as a witness, he is expected to testify about
statements supposedly made by Clements while they were both in jail.
However, Lichtenstein and Ferris stressed that it does not appear to
them, based on what they have learned about the case so far, that
Fulcher is the key state witness.

“I think it would be a mistake for anyone to think that he is the
linchpin of the commonwealth’s case,” Ferris said.

Still, news of the indictment is “information that we will obviously
be very interested in,” Lichtenstein said. “We’ll be interested in
anything that affects a commonwealth witness’ credibility, including
the fact that he was indicted in federal court.”

Without confirming that Fulcher is a witness in his case against
Clements, Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell downplayed any
impact the indictments might have on his case.

“Assuming, without committing to the proposition that Mr. Fulcher will
be a commonwealth witness, it is my belief that any current indictment
will not make an appreciable dent in his rather storied criminal
career,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said that police and prosecutors were well aware of Fulcher’s
checkered past long before the Church Avenue fire. “Everybody knows
that he’s got a past, and I’m sure they will try to make some hay out
of that,” he said. “But I don’t see that as becoming a critical part
of the case.”

Fulcher’s “storied criminal career” includes undercover work for the
Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, as well as every Roanoke Valley police agency
and Franklin County. But in the late 1980s, authorities quit using him
because he had gained a reputation for being unreliable. In 1993, he
was convicted of a host of thefts and burglaries in Bedford, Roanoke
and Roanoke County, which landed him behind bars.

Clements’ isn’t the only recent case in which Fulcher has supposedly
used his knack for snitching.

While in the Botetourt County Jail, Fulcher met Thomas Gray, 39, who
was convicted last year of conspiring to murder his girlfriend’s
husband. As he awaited sentencing, Gray was indicted in a separate
plot on charges he tried to hire someone to finish the job. Botetourt
County Sheriff Reed Kelly said Wednesday that Fulcher will be a
witness against Gray in his upcoming trial.

The Bland Correctional Center guards named in the indictment are no
longer with the Department of Corrections. They are William Clarence
King, 30, of Wytheville; Donald Ritzey Lee Jr., 28, of Bluefield;
Christopher Robin Lucas, 28, of Narrows; and William Lee Mullins, 36,
of Bishop.

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections,
said in a statement Wednesday night that the investigation was
initiated by Bland prison employees.