University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Tom Doran: An Explanation And Appeal

I have just received a copy of the
Cavalier Daily of Oct. 27 which
contains a letter concerning me
written by Downing L. Smith III.
Unfortunately I didn't see your
"yellow" editorial which broke
Smith's silence, but freedom of
information within the jail is
limited.

Smith incidentally is the son of
the Albemarle County
Commonwealth Attorney who
prosecuted me on the
window-breaking charge. He also is
the one who charged me with
perjury.

Perhaps we should question
whether his silence was broken by
his convictions or his daddy.

Smith states correctly that I
have been convicted for violation of
the Selective Service Act for
refusing induction. I do not deny
refusing to take part in the
genocidal war against the people of
Vietnam. My sentence, however, is
three years, but is indeterminate
(i.e. until I've rehabilitated myself)
up to a limit of six years.

He says that I was convicted of
cursing a police officer and
destroying University property, but
does not look at the facts in either
case. In the first I was accused of
saying to a plainclothes Uni-Cop
"God dammit give me my wallet
back!" after he had taken my
wallet from me illegally, without
my knowledge or consent. I was
convicted in absentia because the
court clerk failed to notify Judge
Spitzer that we and the
Commonwealth had agreed to a
postponement.

In the second trail I was
convicted of smashing a window in
the Cabell Hall ROTC classroom.
The evidence against me was the
testimony of a ROTC student who
said that he heard a sound and
glimpsed a long-haired bearded
person walking away from a place
where he later found a broken
window. He identified me as that
person about ten days after the
incident when someone from the
administration pointed me out to
him in a crowd of people, some of
whom had beards, saying "We think
that is the man you saw."

Not withstanding the fact that I
didn't break the window, I was
convicted. I did not appeal either
conviction because I did not have
the money. An appeal of either
conviction would have cost me
several hundred dollars, a month's
wages for most people. Is Smith
saying that poverty makes a man
especially criminal?

As is well known, I was indicted
for perjury and spent five weeks in
jail. D. Smith, Jr., Albemarle
County Commonwealth Attorney,
is saying that I lied when I denied
his accusations.

Concerning visiting hours, he is
right, the rules define visiting
"hours" as 2:45 to 3:00 p.m. on
Saturday. In unusual circumstances
a prisoner might see his family at
another time. My parents, however,
came when they learned of my
arrest, a Sunday, but were turned
away, the police telling them that
"The FBI has forbidden any
visitors." At least once (I had no
way of knowing when I was denied
a visitor) a clergyman was turned
away.

Smith is misinformed in his
statements about my bond. He,
himself, may be surprised that my
parents couldn't raise my bond but
I'm sure that his dad, Jack Camblos
and the University are not. The
bond, remember, was $5,000 cash
or $10,000 worth of real property.
My father's annual wage is
approximately $5,000; my parents
home is worth less than $10,000.
As a first-yearman at U.Va. I
received $1,6000 in financial aid.

I'm quite impressed to learn that
Downing Smith III has $5,000 cash
lying about, if that's true then he
really could have bailed me out
himself. He has earned my eternal
enmity for his failure to do so. His
assertion that five people with
$1,000 cars could have bailed me
out is wrong. Property bond (which
in my case was $10,000 anyway)
means real estate, i.e. land.

He says that if I am convicted of
perjury I become a liar. Does that
mean that an acquittal will make
his dad, the ROTC student, the
University and the state all liars?
For his information, though, the
University has already decided to
not tolerate me. I was admitted to
Summer School last summer but
my enrollment was cancelled when
Vice President Alan Williams found
out about it. This fall I was banned
from the grounds by Williams who
cited the above mentioned
convictions. Perhaps he is claiming
that if I set foot on the grounds I
might go berserk and begin a mad
spree of window smashing. Or
perhaps, he simply fears that I
might commit subversive acts such
as film showings, distribution of
revolutionary literature, arguing
(read backtalk), working for the
Virginia Weekly, hangin' roun' with
hippie-wierdo freak sex pervert
dope-fiends, etc. etc.

Smith asks whether my mother
and sister were fired. Yes, they
were, the same week I was arrested
on the perjury charge. My mother,
working for a Navy computer
center in Norfolk, and my sister,
who worked for a state educational
agency, after being transferred from
the state police headquarters last
summer, were both dismissed. My
father, who also works for the
Navy, was told at that time that he
would soon be victim of a
personnel cut. Of course all of this
could be coincidental but I
challenge you to compute the odds.

Truth is the final issue of his
diatribe. He doesn't know, I guess,
that I offered to take a polygraph
(lie detector) test last June when I
was arrested on the first charges. It
has yet to be arranged. He
challenges anyone "is everything I
have stated in this article true? Ask
Mr. Doran's lawyer, the honorable
(judge) George M. Coles, Jack
Camblos or John Dudley to find
out the truth ... about Mr.
Doran..." Downing's truth
statements are not entirely true,
but my lawyer and Jack Camblos
(the Commonwealth's Attorney)
should probably be disqualified as
biased oracles. I don't know who
John Dudley is, but surely Smith is
not implying that Judge Coles has
already decided my case.

I would like to thank the
thousands of people who aided my
defense fund. The campaign was a
real example of the power of the
people. My trial is 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday, Dec 15. It is public. It is
especially important that many
people who physically resemble me
(i.e. red or blond hair and beard or
any bearded people at all) appear.
We intend to demonstrate the
flimsiness of the ROTC
identification. The trial will
probably last most of the day. The
trial is in Judge Coles' court, and if
you have my physical
characteristics please come before
11 a.m.

Venceremous! All power to the people,