DEA AGENT PLEADS NOT GUILTY

ROANOKE - A federal drug agent from Texas pleaded not guilty yesterday to
murdering a Roanoke man after a parking-lot scuffle outside a bar.

But Roanoke prosecutor Donald Caldwell said evidence will show special
agent Timothy G. Workman, temporarily assigned to Roanoke from the McAllen,
Texas, office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, shot a man to
death Tuesday in an argument over a woman after a night of drinking.

"A cursory review of the evidence suggests the big three were involved -
alcohol, guns and testosterone," Caldwell said. "There were a number of
people who saw these events, so it's not just going to be a case of one
person's word against another."

Keith E. Bailey, 41, was shot three times in the chest shortly after 2 a.m.
Tuesday outside O'Charley's restaurant, which has a bar that closes at 2
a.m. Bailey died in the parking lot.

Workman, 31, was in Roanoke on a temporary investigative assignment,
according to a DEA spokesman. Police allege Workman and Bailey were
drinking in the bar, separately, and began arguing once outside. The
argument escalated into a fight, and the fight ended in gunshots, according
to police.

Caldwell said Bailey was unarmed, while Workman wielded a 9-mm revolver.
Though authorities remained tight-lipped after yesterday's proceedings in
Roanoke General District Court, during which Workman pleaded not guilty,
Caldwell said the dispute revolved around a woman. The woman was an
acquaintance of Bailey's but was with Workman when the argument began.

Caldwell said the woman was in the parking lot during the fight but had
left by the time police arrived. Investigators later tracked her down, he said.

Tony Anderson, the Roanoke lawyer representing Workman, declined to discuss
the case in detail outside the courtroom, except to reiterate that Workman
maintains his innocence.

"I'm not going to make any comments about his version of events," Anderson
said. "I really can't comment about any of the facts, as much as I'd like to."

Workman is being held in the Roanoke jail without bond. Anderson described
Workman as "shaken about being behind bars, but he's holding up OK."

The DEA has suspended Workman from duty, with pay, and dispatched an
internal-affairs team to look into the shooting. Yesterday, several DEA
agents sat in the courtroom as Workman entered his plea.

Authorities described both Workman and Bailey as married.